ARL Profiles: Research Libraries 2010

This report summarizes a multi-year effort to capture evidence, in the form of narrative profiles, of the value and contributions research libraries deliver to their constituencies during transformative times. When ARL library directors were interviewed in 2005 and asked to describe a research library in the 21st century, there was general sentiment that the suite of ARL Statistics and the toolkit of services offered through the ARL Statistics and Assessment capability were insufficient in answering this question. There was a call for greater flexibility in describing today’s research library in qualitative terms. Textual narrative descriptions of collections, services, collaborative relations, and other programs, as well as physical spaces, were deemed necessary if the essence of a research library and the transformation of its collections and services are to be described and evaluated. This report summarizes the themes and contributions that emerged from the narrative descriptions submitted by ARL libraries.