The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the University of Washington (UW) Libraries will hold the next Library Assessment Conference on Wednesday–Friday, December 5–7, 2018, in Houston, Texas, at the Westin Galleria Houston. The University of Houston (UH) Libraries and Texas A&M University Libraries will serve as hosts for the event, working with the conference sponsors on local arrangements and meeting planning.
Since 2006, the Library Assessment Conference has convened every two years. The conference goal is to build and support the wide-reaching community of library assessment practitioners and researchers who have responsibility or interest in this broad field. The multi-day event is a mix of invited speakers, workshops, and contributed papers and posters that stimulate discussion and provide feasible ideas for effective, practical, and sustainable library assessment. Previous conferences have been held in Charlottesville, Virginia (2006, 2012); Seattle, Washington (2008, 2014); Baltimore, Maryland (2010); and Arlington, Virginia (2016).
Planning for the 2018 conference is underway and details about the event will be posted on the Library Assessment Conference website. Registration will open in summer 2018.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
About the University of Washington Libraries
The University of Washington (UW) Libraries, located in Seattle, is the largest library in the Pacific Northwest. The UW Libraries is well-known for its innovative programs and services in assessment, organizational development, user spaces, and institutional collaboration. Its print and digital collections support world-class research and scholarship in such areas as health sciences, environmental sciences, area and language studies, and the Pacific Northwest. UW Libraries is on the web at www.lib.washington.edu.
About the University of Houston Libraries
The University of Houston Libraries advances student success, knowledge creation and preservation, and globally competitive research. UH Libraries comprises the MD Anderson Library, the William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, the Weston A. Pettey Optometry Library, and the Music Library, providing high-impact collections, spaces, and tools that spark opportunities for transformational learning, discovery, and scholarship.
About the Texas A&M University Libraries
The Texas A&M University Libraries, located in College Station, serve 67,000 students, 3,700 instructional faculty, and 19 colleges and schools. The Libraries are driven by: information literacy programs to support University strategic missions, digitization and conservation efforts to protect collections, scholarly communications programs to enhance scholarly visibility, open access projects to reduce student costs, and re-imagining of library spaces to invite collaboration.
