Austin, Texas
May 18-20, 1994
Duane E. Webster
Executive Director
Association of Research Libraries
For over two hundred years, American research libraries have enjoyed a steady growth of collections and expansion of services. A recent study of trends in university funding prepared for ARL by Kendon Stubbs, University of Virginia, finds, however, a widespread decrease in the proportion of university funding directed to research libraries in the last decade. This decline in university funding for the functions of research libraries was paralleled by a decline in funding available from the federal government and private foundations.
Simultaneously, an explosion of opportunities in information technology, electronic media and networked information is occurring. The increased availability of computers and computer networks is revolutionizing the way students and scholars undertake research, learn, access information, and publish. Research libraries are at the leading edge of applications for these new forms of information access and use.
As we look to the future, redefining the research library in an electronic information environment challenges us to attract new investments and operating funds while pursuing the core mission of research libraries to provide equitable access to the record of human existence and accomplishment.
The Association's response to the twin challenges of consolidation of funding resources and burgeoning technological opportunities is the pursuit of three broad strategies. First, new ways of strengthening research libraries performance and capabilities are being developed. Second, new efforts are being directed toward introducing and effectively using multiple forms of electronic information. Third, alliances are being formed with other agencies in higher education to shape a hospitable future environment for research libraries. The work of the past year was orchestrated with these three strategies in mind.
Research libraries have actively sought approaches for reducing staff-intensive activities while improving the cost effectiveness of the services and resources offered. One indication of this trend is found in the annual statistics gathered by ARL at the end of 1993. These data demonstrate convincingly an increasing investment in information technology, a continuing commitment to maintaining collections, and a slight decline in the percent of resources allocated to staff. The 1992/93 Annual Statistics, along with the 1992/93 Annual Salary Survey provide a most compelling picture of how research libraries are changing.
In this last year, the ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee recommended that the ARL Board increase the financial support for the ARL Statistics Program and extend the focus of this program to include measurement of research library performance. This recommendation was accepted by the Board and the entire membership who voted approval of a dues increase for this purpose effective in 1993. Redefinition of this core capability allowed the recruitment of new staff--Martha Kyrillidou who joins ARL in 1994.
ARL devotes the single biggest allocation of dues income to maintaining the Office of Management Services and its array of training, consulting, and information services aimed at change and development of research library organizations and staff. The number, diversity, and value of these management services has long been recognized as one of ARL's most notable achievements. The last year saw a continuation of an impressive activity level for the OMS directed by Susan Jurow. The Office focused it efforts on bringing new and emerging management concepts into academic and research libraries. Training and consulting projects were redesigned to support experimentation with reengineering, continuous improvement, team-based and learning organizations.
A very important extension of OMS services is emerging in the cultural diversity area. Kriza Jennings, OMS Diversity Consultant, began providing training and consultation services that resulted in fifteen programs provided to members in 1993 aimed at helping libraries provide healthy work environments for a culturally diverse staff and user population. The demand for these development services continues to grow. Members voted to increase dues in 1994 to support the creation of a new capability aimed at recruiting minorities to research library careers. This dues allocation was supplemented by a generous grant from the Delmas Foundation.
A new Office of Research and Development (ORD) initiative in 1993 was the North American Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Project to redefine and improve interlibrary loan operations in research libraries. Jaia Barrett, with Mary Jackson (on loan from the University of Pennsylvania), worked closely with the Committee on Access to Information Resources to examine the interlibrary loan and document delivery functions in the context of electronic resource sharing among libraries, and the provision of direct user access to networked information resources. Discussions were advanced with an array of system and software providers, and potential developers, about the need to devise additional capabilities for existing systems. Over 30 ILL/DD vendors and system participants now participate in the NAILDD Project Developers /Implementors Group (DIG).
Integrating electronic information services is of central importance to research libraries. ARL's investment in this issue continued in 1993. The topic is addressed by ARL from two points of view: promoting a library capacity to use the emerging campus and national telecommunication infrastructure, and shaping the transformation taking place in the way scholarly information is created, disseminated, and used.
The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) which brings ARL into a collaborative endeavor with EDUCOM and CAUSE was created in 1990 to influence the future direction for networked information services in research institutions. The Coalition under the direction of Paul Evan Peters enjoyed a most productive and influential fourth year of existence. It advanced the established agenda of six priorities for the almost 200 members of its Task Force. It moved forward with six major initiatives including: The Rights for Electronic Access to and Delivery of Information (READI) Project, The TopNode for Networked Information Resources, Services, and Tools, and an information packet for I new networking users.
The ARL Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing (OSAP) established in February 1990 and led by Ann Okerson has created new links with scholarly societies, higher education groups and member libraries in order to advance ARL positions on issues related to changes in scholarly communication and the skyrocketing costs of information. In 1993, the Office conducted a number of campus based programs to help members inform faculty of some of the current pressures at work to change scholarly communication and optional responses. A third edition of the ARL Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Academic Discussion Lists was published. A third symposium on electronic publishing was held in cooperation with the AAUP, AMS, and NSF, and the proceedings were published.
The ARL Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Literacy Project, a project of the Federal Relations and Information Policy capability, has sparked interest from a diverse community of users resulting in an expansion of the project from 31 to 71 U.S. libraries in the past year. The project seeks to stimulate new GIS applications, particularly within the networked environment. The project will continue to expand and to add Canadian research libraries.
A particular vexing set of issues facing research libraries as they strive to integrate electronic information services into their information services is copyright. In this last year, the ARL Board of Directors established an Ad Hoc Working Group on Copyright Issues chaired by Jim Neal and bringing together representatives from four ARL standing committees (Information Policies, Access, Scholarly Communication, and Preservation) and the ARL Board of Directors. The Board convened this group in response to a number of recent developments in the copyright arena. The group was asked to identify and define possible strategic responses by ARL to these challenges. Late in the year the group produced an agenda of actions which is guiding current efforts.
The Association invests heavily in activities aimed at shaping the future environments within which research libraries will perform. These investments include efforts to establish national information policy and federal legislation, alliances with other higher education organizations concerned with scholarly resources, and the collection and dissemination of information advocating these interests.
The Federal Relations capability, headed by Prue Adler, effectively represented the Association on several important legislative fronts including: follow-on NREN legislation, restoration of HEA funding, support for extending LC's, NAL's, and GPO's funding, continued funding for the NEH Preservation Program, and reconceptualization of a federal information access and dissemination program. Efforts now focus on the evolving information infrastructure and information policies such as privacy, pricing, access, and copyright issues in a networked environment and include work with other members of the education, library, and public interest communities to ensure that the needs of libraries are met in this time of rapid change.
The emergence of an ongoing working relationship with both the staff and elected officers of EDUCOM and CAUSE led to the creation of the Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance) and the production of a series of Executive Briefing Papers aimed at University Presidents. In 1993 two papers were issued entitled "What Presidents should know about the Future of University Libraries: technology and scholarly communication" and "What Presidents Need to Know About the Impact of Networking on Campus." These papers was distributed to over 3,500 academic institutions in North America.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is an active player with ARL in fostering a productive environment for the future scholar. Funding from The Foundation has supported an intensive ARL examination, undertaken with faculty and area studies specialists, of the state of North American access to foreign publications. Launched in 1991, the ARL Foreign Acquisitions Project, under the direction of Jutta Reed-Scott with guidance from the Research Collections Committee, is making a determination of research trends, foreign publishing patterns, and the state of research library collections in support of foreign and area studies.
The Foundation itself also undertook a major study, the results of which present a compelling call for university-wide attention to a broad range of scholarly communication trends and the roles of research libraries in support of scholarship. On behalf of the Foundation, ARL published University Libraries and Scholarly Communication and is promoting discussion of the findings. Over 6,000 copies of this study have been distributed and a dozen campus based discussions held.
Of particular importance to the Association in 1993, was an initiative by the Association of American Universities that led to the establishment of the AAU Research Libraries Project. This AAU project is operated in collaboration with the ARL. A Presidential Steering Committee was established with Myles Brand, University of Oregon, serving as chair. Three task forces were formed to address the topics of managing scientific and technological information, access to foreign language materials, and management of intellectual property. Preliminary reports on progress of this effort were made at the Fall 1993 ARL Membership Meeting. Final reports with recommendations for action by AAU and ARL are due in the Spring of 1994.
To be effective, the Association has focused its energies and resources on a few strategic issues. In 1993 the ability of the ARL to act on an agenda widely recognized as important to the future health and well being of the research library was again demonstrated.
Crucial to the success of ARL is the direct involvement of the research library directors in the program of action and influence. Understanding the role of libraries in the chaotic environment of higher education requires a level of knowledge that can only be provided by the chief executive officers of research libraries. This leadership involvement provides the direction for ARL staff to create strategic opportunities for shaping the larger context of scholarly communication and higher education. The resulting partnership continues to be dynamic and rewarding.