The ARL Joint Task Force on Services to Patrons with Print Disabilities released this report to bring much-needed attention to the challenges of print-disabled individuals who are seeking access to both print and digital library products and services. The report contains recommendations for research libraries to make information accessible to their full range of diverse users equitably. ARL believes that research libraries are poised to provide critical direction—along with academic leadership, IT, and disability services—on the service and technology planning, procurement, and licensing necessary to create a fully accessible information environment.
This webcast from Dec. 11, 2012, provides an overview of the balanced scorecard for research libraries. The webcast covers the strategic aspects of the scorecard, the tool's development, objectives and goals for its implementation, promoting its purpose, analyzing results, and creating improvement strategies. Presenters include Martha Kyrillidou (ARL), Mark Cutler (Ascendant Strategy Management Group), Rachel Besara (Florida State University), Michelle Demeter (Florida State University), Mary McConnell (University of Calgary), Nina Servizzi (New York University), Gina Midlik (Case Western Reserve University), and Vivian Lewis (McMaster University).
The report proposes that the growing number, and heterogeneity, of graduate students and programs presents opportunities for research libraries to provide segmented services targeted for students at different stages of their academic and demographic life-cycle.
Through their interviews, Covert-Vail and Collard found an enthusiasm for a broad range of new services, from advanced data manipulation and visualization to softer skills-based instruction in time management and writer’s block. They also report that new configurations of library space, housing aggregated services into research or scholarly commons, for example, can both create and leverage collaborations within the larger institution.
Finally, the authors present different strategies for staffing graduate student services, from dedicated positions and committees to more loosely structured teams comprising subject liaisons, technologists, data librarians, and others, who work together to deliver a suite of complex solutions to meet the needs of graduate students in research institutions.
SPEC Kit 333 explores the scale and scope of art and artifact materials held by ARL member libraries, which tools and techniques they currently use to manage these collections, including those used by library staff only and those used to make information about these collections available to the public, and if there is evidence of a convergence of library, archive, and museum practices in the management of these collections. It includes collection development policies, guidelines for arranging materials, and examples of how art and artifact collections are described.
This publication is available for purchase in both online and print versions. Download the spec-kit-purchase-options-2013.pdf for complete pricing and purchase options information.
Link to the online SPEC Kit 333on the ARL Digital Publications website.
Research libraries have a responsibility to make library collections and services universally accessible to their patrons. And as research libraries provide more content electronically to students, faculty members, researchers, and others, the role of libraries and other partners in their institutions and beyond is changing in the provision of information resources and services to patrons with disabilities.
SPEC Kit 332 explores how research institutions are currently organizing staff to support scholarly communication services, and whether their organizational structures have changed since 2007, when member libraries were surveyed about their scholarly communication education initiative. It covers who leads scholarly communication efforts inside and outside the library, the scholarly communication related services that are offered to researchers, and which staff support those services. It also looks at how the library measures the success of its scholarly communication services, including demonstrable outcomes of these services. It includes position descriptions for library leaders of scholarly communication efforts, charges for SC committees, organization charts, descriptions of SC services, assessment tools, open access policies, and SC resolutions.
This publication is available for purchase in both online and print versions. Download the spec-kit-purchase-options-2013.pdf for complete pricing and purchase options information.
Link to the online SPEC Kit 332on the ARL Digital Publications website.
This edition of the ARL Statistics describes the collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities for the 125 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in fiscal year 2010–2011.
This publication is available for purchase in both online and print versions. Download the arl-statistics-purchase-options-2013.pdf for complete pricing and purchase options information.
The advent of Massive Open Online Courses raises serious legal questions that in turn pose important and fundamental policy challenges for research libraries. As universities rush to find ways to add courses to emerging MOOC platforms, research libraries are being asked to take on new responsibilities (or new versions of old responsibilities) to support this new mode of teaching and learning.
This webcast, held on September 18, 2012, provides potential and current participants with vital information on the MINES for Libraries® service, an online, transaction-based survey that collects data on the reasons people use electronic resources and on the demographics of users. This one-hour webcast introduces the MINES for Libraries® assessment protocol, shares the benefits and results of participation, and presents useful case studies.
The ARL Joint Task Force on Services to Patrons with Print Disabilities released this report to bring much-needed attention to the challenges of print-disabled individuals who are seeking access to both print and digital library products and services. The report contains recommendations for research libraries to make information accessible to their full range of diverse users equitably. ARL believes that research libraries are poised to provide critical direction—along with academic leadership, IT, and disability services—on the service and technology planning, procurement, and licensing necessary to create a fully accessible information environment.
