| Year | Program Activity |
|---|
| 1908-1962 |
James Gerould (Minnesota and Princeton) collected descriptive statistics on research libraries |
| 1961/62 |
ARL begins to publish statistical data based on variables begun with Gerould |
| 1962/63-78/79 |
Data for these years published as Cumulated ARL University Library Statistics, 1981 |
| 1963 |
Data variable of net volumes added |
| late 1960s |
Investigation begins into quantitative criteria for membership |
| 1966/67 |
Annual ARL salary survey data collection begins |
| 1968 |
Data variable for microforms added |
| 1972 |
Data variable for current serials added |
| 1973 |
SPEC data collection program begins |
| 1974 |
Data variable for interlibrary loans added |
| 1976 |
Data variable for expenditures for current serials added |
| 1976-1986 |
No new data categories added to ARL statistics |
| 1978 |
Report of the Task Force on Statistics and Regression Analysis of the ARL Data |
| May 1980 |
ARL adopts new criteria for membership, and an ARL Index comprised of 10 variables, determined by factor analysis (vols, vols added gross, micorforms, current serials, library materials expenditures, binding expenditures, total salaries, other operational expenditures, professional staff, support staff) |
| Nov. 1980 |
"The ARL Library Index and Quantitative Relationships in the ARL" report prepared by Kendon Stubbs for the Committee on ARL Statistics |
| 1982 |
ARL contracted with Paul Kantor to test four performance measures (availability of library materials, accessibility of library materials, analysis of patron activity, and delay analysis of ILL -- measures developed by the Collection Analysis Project) and to produce a manual |
| 1982 |
Committee on ARL Statistics begins discussion on new data categories |
| 1984 |
Supplementary statistics data gathering begun to test ability to gather new data (variables include monographs purchased, staffing, monograph expenditures, professional salaries, professional fring benefits, nonprofessional salaries, nonprofessional fringe benefits, student wages, student fringe benefits, automation expenditures, external and reserve circulations, reference transactions, branch libraries, and instructional faculty) |
| 1984 |
Objective Performance Measures for Academic and Research Libraries by Paul Kantor published. |
| 1984/85 |
Pilot Preservation Statistics Survey |
| 1985 |
OMS Occasional paper by Mary Cronin that reviewed literature of performance assessment |
| 1985/86 |
Data collected on monograph and serial purchases |
| May 1986 |
ARL Membership Meeting 108 on "Research Libraries: Measurement, Management, Marketing" focuses on statistics and measures |
| 1987 |
ARL SPEC Kit 134, Planning and Management Statistics, categorized the types of statistics collected by ARL libraries in four groups: measures of activity and workload, measures of holdings, measures of facility use; measures of resources generated and expended) |
| May 1987 |
ARL membership adopts 5-variable index as membership criterion (volumes held, volumes added gross, current serials received, total operating expenditures, total staff) |
| 1987/88 |
"ARL Preservation Statistics, Internal Report 1989" |
| 1988/89 |
Annual data collection begins for ARL preservation statistics |
| 1989 |
"Future Directions for ARL Statistics" report by Committee on ARL Statistics approved by ARL membership, with recommendations to: 1) collect statistics on the full range of holdings in ARL libraries and on records in online catalogs, 2) count government documents in separate collections, 3) develop access measures |
| 1989 |
Beth Shapiro, Michigan State University, serves as Visiting Program Officer to investigate access and performance measures for research libraries |
| 1989 |
ARL SPEC Kit 153, The Use of Management Statistics in ARL Libraries addressed internal and external users of statistics |
| 1989 |
Jean Loup, University of Michigan, serves as Visiting Program Officer to investigate statistical projects, including the university E&G expenditures |
| 1989/90 |
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provides support for studies to investigate new measures for access: reference, circulation, electronic services, resource sharing, physical facilities, other public services |
| 1990s-date |
ARL provides custom reports for salary or statistical data |
| 1990-date |
Supplementary questionnaire includes questions on access measures |
| 1991 |
"Inventory of Library Access Characteristics" covers library facilities, equipment, resource sharing, and some access services |
| 1991 |
Service measures (interlibrary borrowing, library instruction, reference transactions, circulation) collected as part of main ARL statistics |
| Oct. 1991 |
ARL membership meeting panel on ARL statistics at which Irene Hoadley summarized work by Advisory Committee on ARL Statistics to analyze uses and directions of the statistics in charting library growth and effectiveness |
| 1991/92 |
E&G Expenditures collected on annual basis |
| Mar. 1992 |
ARL newsletter article, "New Directions for ARL Statistics" by Sarah Pritchard |
| 1992 |
ARL/RLG ILL Cost Study |
| 1992 |
ARL publishes ARL Academic Law and Medical Library Statistics, 1977/78-1991/92; disaggregated law and medical library data collection begins |
| 1992 |
Mellon study on University Libraries and Scholarly Communication published, uses ARL data to analyze economic trends in research libraries |
| 1993 |
ARL statistics available through gopher and ftp |
| 1994 |
ARL adopts strategic objective to focus on "describing and measuring the performance of research libraries and their contributions to teaching, research, scholarship and community service" |
| 1994 |
ARL Membership report proposes inclusion of qualitative factors to supplement quantitative membership criteria |
| 1994 |
ARL begins annual publication, Developing Indicators for Academic Library Performance: Ratios from the ARL Statistics, with introduction that documents the current environment for performance measures in higher education and academic libraries |
| 1994 |
ARL statistics available over the web |
| 1994 |
"The Survey of Professional Job Titles" conducted -- a one-time survey that asked libraries to suggest job titles for expanding the position titles in the ARL Annual Salary Survey (analysis showed no action required) |
| 1994 |
"Survey of Endowed Positions" was a one-time survey that reported the number of endowed positions in ARL libraries |
| 1994 |
"Educational Credentials for Professional Librarians: MLS vs. non-MLS salaries" compared the salaries of professionals with MLS vs. those without one, using data from the ARL Annual Salary Survey 1994, and did not find any differences in their salaries |
| 1994/95 |
Stanley Wilder, Louisiana State University, serves as Visiting Program Officer to examine demographics, results in The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians: A Profession Apart |
| 1995/96 |
Kendon Stubbs, University of Virginia, serves as Visiting Program Officer to provide support for developing workshops on measuring user satisfaction & quality service, resulting in a series of 5 successful user survey workshops in 1996/97 |
| 1995/96 |
ARL conducts survey on Innovative Services in ARL Libraries |
| 1996-date |
ARL Statistics program sponsors workshops on managing datasets |
| 1996-date |
ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee examines measurement activities, such as SERVQUAL and the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program |
| 1996-1997 |
ARL ILL/DD Performance Measures Study, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation |
| 1996-1999 |
Study on the Character and Nature of Research Library Investment in Electronic Resources by Timothy Jewell, ARL Visiting Program Officer, funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources |
| Apr. 1998 |
"Issues in Research Library Measurement," special issue of ARL newsletter |
| July 1998 |
ARL Board discusses ARL Index and statistical measures |
| Jan. 1999 |
New Measures Retreat, Tucson, Arizona |
| 2000 |
LibQUAL+® launched |
| Oct/Dec 2003 |
"Special Double Issue on New Measures," special issue of ARL Bimonthly Report |
| 2003-2004 |
ARL Library Investment Index to replace ARL Membership Criteria Index |
| 2005 |
MINES for Libraries® launched |
| 2006 |
Library Assessment Conference in Charlottesville (first in a series of biennial conferences) |
| 2007 |
ClimateQUAL® launched |
| Aug. 2010 |
"Value in Libraries: Special Issue of RLI on Assessing Organizational Performance," ARL Bimonthly Report |