The 152nd ARL Membership Meeting was held May 21–23, 2008, at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. ARL President Marianne Gaunt, University Librarian, Rutgers University Libraries, developed the program for this Membership Meeting to explore some of the ways that research institutions are encouraging and supporting innovative e-scholarship within and across disciplines. ARL hopes that this meeting will promote the development of leadership capacities that support change in the roles of libraries within the broader research and higher education communities.
The program invited experts to share in-depth content and experience on a few key trends that will affect library roles and priorities. To encourage learning and focus discussion on areas of greatest interest to the ARL community, the schedule included regular opportunities for the audience to interact with speakers and colleagues.
NASULGC President Peter McPherson opened the program on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 21, with remarks on the challenges research institutions face as they seek to support new methods of research and e-scholarship. He also discussed opportunities for creative responses.
The program continued Thursday morning, May 22, with experts providing a more detailed examination of three dimensions of this complex and exciting new environment:
distinct disciplinary practices in the life cycle stages of scholarship and implications for the information infrastructure requirements;
assessing quality in new forms of scholarship and scholarly inquiry; and
institutional policies and practices affecting the use and re-use of scientific data in a semantic Web environment.
On Thursday, lunch was served and followed by John Wilbanks, Executive Director, Science Commons, speaking on “Institutional Libraries: Hubs of the Research Web.”
Thursday afternoon featured presentations and discussions with researchers and librarians involved in collaborative efforts to support e-research.
The program concluded Friday morning, May 23, with a plenary session focused on open source strategies in academic institutions, followed by concurrent discussions.
A Library of Congress (LC) working group recently released a report examining the future of bibliographic control in the 21st century. At a breakfast briefing on Friday, Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress, and two of the ARL representatives to the working group—Judith Nadler, Library Director, University of Chicago, and Brian E. C. Schottlaender, Audrey Geisel University Librarian, University of California, San Diego—provided an overview of the key findings of the report. They addressed LC’s response as well as how research libraries are affected by and might address the report’s recommendations locally.
The ARL Business Meeting was held on Thursday morning. The ARL President, selected committee chairs, and the ARL Executive Director presented reports. There was also time for member representatives to raise topics for discussion with colleagues.
Early Wednesday afternoon, each of ARL’s three Strategic Direction Steering Committees has identified an issue that warranted a briefing and discussion. On Thursday and Friday afternoons, concurrent discussions were held on topics related to the overall program theme and on other issues of current interest.
Three receptions were held. The ARL Board of Directors hosted a reception at the hotel on Tuesday evening, May 20. On Wednesday, Dean of University of Miami Libraries Bill Walker and University President Donna Shalala hosted a Cuban evening (reception and dinner) at the President’s residence in Coral Gables. On Thursday evening, the libraries of Florida State University and the University of Florida, along with ARL, co-hosted a reception in honor of retiring ARL Executive Director Duane Webster.
On Friday afternoon, the University of Miami Libraries hosted interested meeting participants for a box lunch and tour of the libraries and campus.