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Assessment

Special Collections in ARL Libraries

Until this 1998 survey, no systematic data had been collected on special collections in ARL libraries for nearly 20 years. The results of this survey provide a snapshot of these collections at the end of the twentieth century and identify areas for further investigation.

pdf special-collections-arl-libraries.pdf

 
 

Safeguarding Collections at the Dawn of the 21st Century

This report responds to a recommendation of the 2006 ARL Task Force on the Future of Preservation in ARL Libraries. The task force encouraged ARL to conduct a high-level investigation of the range and balance of preservation activities represented among the ARL membership. The report is a thoughtful and thorough qualitative examination of how research libraries' preservation activities are evolving and expanding in the 21st century. It not only consideres activities traditionally captured by ARL’s Preservation Statistics, but also a host of emerging activities largely, but not exclusively, centered on developing digital collections and involving collaborative efforts.

pdf safeguarding-collections.pdf

 
 

Membership Meeting 1986 (Spring): On the ARL Library Index

Paper prepared by Kendon Stubbs for the 108th ARL Membership Meeting. A critique and plan for improvement of the ARL Statistics.

pdf mm86sp-stubbs.pdf

 
             

Fall Forum 2007: Understanding the Library Connection to UW Graduate Students in the Biosciences

Proceedings of the 2007 ARL/CNI Fall Forum, "Enhancing Graduate Education: A Fresh Look at Library Engagement."

pps ff07-hiller-understanding.pps

 
           

ARL Profiles: Research Libraries 2010

This report includes a thorough content analysis of narrative descriptions of research libraries at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The profile analysis has engaged qualitative methods to describe research libraries that complement the annual quantitative ARL Statistics®. The contextual information provided in this report documents the importance of the public good research libraries provide in an increasingly globalized environment by making their services more readily available; they are becoming an integral part not only of the physical but also the virtual academic experience in addition to setting standards and exploring best practices with national and international visibility, among other things.

A PDF of the report is available here pdf arl-profiles-report-2010.pdf

Seven other PDFs of appendices, examples, and additional material are also on this website.

Print copies of the report are available for $20.00 plus shipping & handling.

 
 

The Gerould Statistics 1907/08-1961/62

This is a compilation of annual statistics for university libraries that were collected by James Gerould, first at Minnesota and later at Princeton.

pdf gerould-statistics-1907/08-1961/62.pdf

 
 

Living the Future: Organizational Performance Assessment

Organizational performance assessment is a practice-based framework that builds on the synergy between planning and assessment, and results in the discernment of impact and value. It promotes a set of practices that enable the library to effectively integrate planning, strategy, performance, assessment, and organizational development in order to advance the parent institution’s mission. This paper discusses some foundations of organizational performance assessment, useful practices, and examples from libraries that are―living the future.

pdf bowlby-organizational-performance-assessment-5-31-11.pdf

 
     

MINES for Libraries Final Report

This final report of a ground-breaking study summarizes findings on 34,000 randomly captured uses of electronic resources over a 12-month period from the 21 members of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). The results show the increasing value derived from the use of digital content, the emerging use of digital resources in the humanities, and the soaring use of e-resources from off-campus locations.

pdf mines-for-libraries-final-report.pdf

 
   

Lies, Damned Lies, ... and ARL Statistics?

In 1986, Kendon Stubbs reported on the ARL Statistics Committee's examination of ARL data. This paper is intended to summarize the committee's work under the topics of (1) problems with the data that ARL collects; (2) problems with what ARL does not collect; (3) problems with data collection generally; and (4) proposed courses of action by the committee.

pdf kendon-stubbs-lies-1986.pdf

 
   
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