ACRL is partnering with the Association for Institutional Research, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges, to convene two national summits later this year. In the first, a wide range of participants from the higher education sector will discuss the data campus administrators would like libraries to provide and what collaborative assistance is available through institutional research offices. In the second, librarian participants will address strategies to prepare the library community to document and communicate the library’s value in advancing the missions and goals of their colleges and universities.
We are pleased to announce that teams from a broad spectrum of institutions will participate in the upcoming summits, part of the project “Building Capacity for Demonstrating the Value of Academic Libraries.” With grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the summits will gather college and university academic administrators, institutional researchers, and academic librarians from the following institutions:
- Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
- Berea College, Berea, KY
- California State University, Fresno
- Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
- Earlham College, Richmond, IN
- Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
- Hope College, Holland, MI
- Hostos Community College/CUNY, Bronx, NY
- Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
- Linfield College, McMinnville, OR
- Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL
- Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
- North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Greensboro, NC
- Pierce College, Lakewood & Puyallup, WA
- Rio Salado College, Tempe, AZ
- San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
- Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA
- The Pennsylvania State University, PA
- The University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL
- University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
- Utah State University, Logan, UT
Members of these institutions will gather with representatives from accreditation commissions and higher education organizations for dialog around the assessment of student learning and faculty research productivity. The group will provide advice to ACRL as we address the need to build the library profession’s capacity to demonstrate the value of the library.
In addition to senior staff members from our planning partners, ACRL member leaders and staff are joined by consultants Megan Oakleaf and Karen Brown. Oakleaf, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Services and author of the ACRL publication Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report, is the key facilitator and designer of summits. Brown, Associate Professor, Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, is the lead author of the white paper, which will summarize findings of the summits and set a framework for future action. It will articulate action steps for ACRL’s value of academic libraries initiative and also serve as a resource for other library and higher education groups involved with assessment and institutional advancement issues.
The summits, as IMLS planning grant activities, are only a beginning. ACRL anticipates more work in the months and years ahead as we seek to aid members of the library profession in developing the skills to document and communicate library value in alignment with the missions and goals of their colleges and universities.
