Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

by Judith Matz, ARL Communications Officer

ARL President Sarah Thomas (Cornell) convened representatives of 110 ARL libraries for the 144th Membership Meeting in Tucson, May 12-14, to consider systemic change in research institutions. The meeting, hosted by the University of Arizona, focused on engaging new concepts of teaching, learning, and research that are now possible through the creative application of information technologies.

Undergraduate Education and Learning Outcomes

Vice Provost Christina Maslach and Associate University Librarian Patty Iannuzzi described the University of California, Berkeley's strategy to create an integrated vision of student learning that considers teaching a core institutional value. Alan Guskin, Co-Director of the Project on the Future of Higher Education, spoke about the need for changes in institutional thinking to focus on student learning outcomes and the entire education delivery system.

Scholarly Communication, Faculty, and the Future

A critical element of the academic research institution that has been resistant to change is the process for promotion and tenure (P&T). Leigh Estabrook (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) reported on the results of her Committee on Institutional Cooperation inquiry into the status of book publication as the "gold standard" for P&T. Juan Garcia, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs (Arizona), spoke about the importance of mentoring junior faculty about the publication process. Kevin Guthrie introduced Ithaka, a recently launched nonprofit organization supported by the Mellon, Hewlett, and Niarchos Foundations, which aims to accelerate the development of sustainable initiatives that use new technologies to benefit higher education. Neil McLean (Macquarie University) concluded the program by discussing how to bridge the gaps between information and learning environments.

Plan for the Retrospective Digitization of U.S. Government Documents

At the Federal Relations luncheon, Ken Frazier (Wisconsin) and Judy Russell (GPO) presented an update on an initiative for the retrospective digitization of U.S. Government document collections. In response to a member survey, 47 ARL libraries expressed interest in participating in this endeavor, 5 said they are not interested, and 8 indicated they have questions. Mr. Frazier and Ms. Russell answered questions about the project and discussed why it is important for ARL to take a leadership role. Based on these discussions, the ARL Board endorsed the value of the retrospective digitization of U.S. Government documents and ARL's continued involvement in an investigation of the best means to accomplish this goal, encouraging the working group to continue to address the questions raised.

Positioning ARL for the Future

Sarah Thomas convened a members-only session for reports from the task forces on governance and strategic planning. She emphasized that this was the first of several opportunities for member input into the work of those two groups.

In July, the two task forces will meet with the ARL Board and chairs of standing committees to undertake a strategic organizational assessment of ARL. The outcome of the July retreat will be a brief white paper that articulates what the Association is about and proposes two to four strategic priorities for resource allocation. The results of all these activities will be presented to and discussed with the full membership at the October Membership Meeting.

Additional Highlights from the Meeting

Nancy Gwinn (Smithsonian) chaired a discussion of a paper prepared at the request of the ARL Preservation Committee on "Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method." Based on this and other discussions, the ARL Board accepted the discussion paper and endorsed digitization as an acceptable preservation reformatting option under some circumstances. The Board agreed with the paper's recommendation that ARL take a leadership role in encouraging community acceptance and use of digitization standards and best practices and encouraged ARL staff to secure endorsements of the paper from other organizations with allied objectives.

Carol Mandel (NYU) chaired a briefing on the Year of the University Press and shared ideas for successful local programming. Participants described the ways in which their libraries had established smooth, productive relationships with their university presses.

The University of Arizona and Arizona State University libraries hosted a reception at the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography. During the reception, three ARL directors were saluted by their colleagues: Merrily Taylor (Brown), Martin Runkle (Chicago), and Margo Crist (Massachusetts, Amherst). In addition, ARL President Sarah Thomas paid tribute to George Farr on the occasion of his retirement from NEH. She presented him with a scrapbook of letters from ARL member libraries showcasing the far-ranging impact of the NEH programs he managed.

Presentations, papers, and slides from the meeting are available at http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/144/.

Matz, Judith. "ARL Membership Examines Systemic Change at 144th Meeting." ARL, no. 235 (August 2004): 11. http://www.arl.org/newsltr/235/maymtg.html.