The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has announced the publication of ARL Profiles: Research Libraries 2010, a report that includes a thorough content analysis of narrative descriptions of research libraries at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The profile analysis has engaged qualitative methods to describe research libraries that complement the annual quantitative ARL Statistics.
The contextual information provided in the report documents the importance of the public good research libraries provide in an increasingly globalised environment by making their services more readily available. The report notes that research libraries are becoming an integral part not only of the physical but also the virtual academic experience in addition to setting standards and exploring best practices with national and international visibility, among other things.
When ARL directors were interviewed in 2005 and asked to describe a research library in the 21st century, there was general sentiment that the annual ARL Statistics and the toolkit of assessment services developed by ARL, though useful, were not adequate to provide important contextual information on the transformation of research libraries. ARL Profiles: Research Libraries 2010 documents in an evidence-based manner the changing environment and fills in this gap. Textual narrative descriptions of collections, services, collaborative relations, and other programmes, as well as physical spaces, capture the essence of a research library today and demonstrate the value delivered to library users.
Between 2008 and 2010, ARL member libraries submitted narrative profiles that offer an alternative way of describing research libraries. These narratives stand alone as important descriptive information of the state of research libraries at the dawn of the 21st century. The profiles allowed for a creative approach with a focus on critical qualitative categories emphasising institutional and research library community - level aspects of services, collections, and collaborative relations.
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