The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of the leading research libraries in the US and Canada. As of February 2012, ARL comprises 126 libraries at comprehensive, research-intensive institutions that share similar missions, aspirations, and achievements. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace, spending more than $1.4 billion every year on library materials.
ARL currently focuses on three strategic directions: Influencing Public Policies, Reshaping Scholarly Communication, and Transforming Research Libraries. ARL also has two key enabling capabilities: Diversity & Leadership Development and Statistics & Assessment.
The ARL Statistics and Assessment program, through its annually published ARL Statistics, monitors the collections, expenditures, staffing, and services of member libraries of the Association. Statistics have been collected and published annually since 1961-62 and serve as indicators of the costs of serials and monographs as well as of the state of funding for research libraries.
The ARL Annual Salary Survey monitors salaries for more than 12,000 professional positions in member libraries. These data are used to determine whether salaries are competitive, equitable across institutions and personal characteristics, and adjusted for inflation. The survey also tracks minority representation in ARL US libraries and reports separate data for law and health sciences libraries. Statistics have been collected and published annually since 1980.
Models for measurement and evaluation that address issues of service quality, electronic resource usage and value, and outcomes assessment have also been developed. LibQUAL+ is the most mature of these models. It is a suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality. LibQUAL+ has been implemented in more than 1000 libraries across the world. Results have been used to develop a better understanding of perceptions of library service quality, interpret user feedback systematically over time, and identify best practices across institutions.
Other assessment and evaluation projects and services are available through the ARL Statistics and Measurement Program.
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“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
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—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)