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by Ann Snowman
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is an organization of 125 research libraries in
North America whose mission is to influence “the changing environment of scholarly
communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities
they serve.” Penn State is a member along with such luminaries as the New York Public Library,
Harvard and Yale.
Early in 2009, directors of ARL libraries were asked to contribute a descriptive narrative or
profile of their respective institutions. Specifically, “(a) provide an introductory paragraph
placing your institution within the parent organization if you are a university library; (b) in your
closing section emphasize horizon issues and developments for the next three to five years; (c) as
you describe collections, services, and collaborative relations, be specific in terms of products
and services that are strategically important and identify assessment approaches you are currently
using if applicable.” The result was a wide-ranging collection of narratives that illuminate the
current environment of research libraries subsequently analyzed by a consultant using Atlas.ti
(textual analysis software). The result is a complex map of relationships among various terms
and concepts that help analysts understand the relevance of words and phrases in the narratives.
As a participant in the ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows Program, I was afforded the
opportunity to work on this project and assist in the assessment of the profiles with colleagues
from Georgia Tech, University of Florida, and University of Michigan.
We read the profiles and identified a number of emerging themes such as digital publishing, escience
and data curation, and mobile applications. We then asked colleagues at this and other
institutions to reflect on the need to measure these new activities by adding them to either the
ARL Statistics Worksheet or the Supplementary Statistics or through some other method.
One thing that took us by surprise was the broad interest in better reporting methods for
instruction that would reflect asynchronous instructional activity, that is the online components
of library instruction. Our report, submitted to ARL’s Statistics and Assessment Committee at
the October meeting is located at http://www.arl.org/stats/aboutstats/profiles.shtml.
