This ARL Survey Coordinators and SPEC Liaisons meeting focused on the recent analysis of feedback and charting of future directions undertaken by the ARL Statistics and Assessment Committee and the Task Force on Reviewing the ARL Statistics, the ARL Annual Salary Survey, and the ARL Supplementary Statistics. The group also was informed about the status of the annual surveys as well as the upcoming availability of SPEC Kits as digital publications and the call for SPEC Kit proposals for 2012. The survey coordinators engaged in a discussion of the issues related to the revision of the annual statistical surveys.

Many thanks to Kirsten Kinsley and Rachel Besara (Florida State) for providing the following notes.

Gordon Fretwell updated us on changes to the NCES ALS:

• Discussion are underway to turn this survey into an annual (currently it is biennial)
• The data will go into a production cycle so that it is available in 12 months.
• NCES subcontracts to the census data.
• A campus coordinator rather than one person in the library will be the key holder. It will probably be from the office of Institutional Research. They will check the data and hit the submit button.
• We are attempting to establish a good connection between ALS and ARL. ACRL stats might go away if ALS goes yearly. We want the definitions for these annual surveys to be the same when the same questions are being asked.
• At least some of the most recent ALS data may migrate into the IPEDS surveys.
• It's going to take time. The federal report is going to be evolving with libraries over time.

SPEC Kits (Martha):

• Progress has been made to make SPEC Kits electronically available through the Tizra platform.
• Lee Anne George has created a list of topics and is soliciting a call for proposals for ARL SPEC Kits.

Update on ARL Annual Statistics (Martha):

• Expect the ARL index out the first week of Aug; final data verification underway.
• Salary statistics just published for 2010-2011.