While there is general agreement regarding the educational and cultural advantages of exhibits, research and academic libraries often adapt the operating guidelines and procedures of exhibit planning and installation from museums and other non-library institutions. To discover procedures and policies developed specifically for research libraries…

This collection of library documents, which illustrates current techniques for conducting user studies in order to facilitate specific public services planning and priority-setting efforts at the member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), contains excerpts from: (1) four general user studies conducted at the University of…

Responses to a one-page questionnaire on library security were received from 89 of 117 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions (76%). The questions, which covered administrative security control, security policies and procedures, permanent identification of library materials, and swift responses to possible theft were derived from a…

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit presents the results of a survey of library members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) which assessed their perceptions of expert systems and determined their level of expert system development activity; 78 of these ARL libraries returned useable surveys, and 7 submitted planning…

In January 1983 the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) surveyed its members regarding their fund raising programs. A response rate of 85% (95 out of 113 libraries surveyed) was obtained. It was found that 85% of ARL member libraries had been involved in university-wide fund campaigns; that over 75% of the respondents had also conducted…

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit is based on information from 22 of the 71 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries that responded to a 1986 survey of 91 ARL academic libraries concerning the analysis of professional and non-professional positions, and on information collected from 17 additional libraries that…

Compiled from information and documents gathered during telephone and in-person interviews with Association of Research Library (ARL) member libraries, this publication examines cataloging policies designed to supplement national and network standards and cover situations that are not addressed at the national level. A concise summary discusses…

Focused on the development of definitions and guidelines for management statistics, this Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit is based on the responses of 91 academic members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to a survey investigating their internal uses of statistics, external statistics reporting, and tools for…

At the request of the Pennsylvania State University Library, the Office of Management Studies surveyed Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members requesting information and documentation illustrating the organization, nature, and level of the library instruction function at their institutions. A review of the responses from 64 of the 94 ARL…

One section of a spring 1979 Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) survey on communication in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions examined how members exchange information with external groups including the university administration, faculty, users, support groups, other libraries, and the profession in general. According…

This kit presents the results of a survey conducted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in 1974 to investigate and document various experiences of academic and research libraries in reclassifying portions of collections or entire collections and the relationship between libraries' particular classification schemes on effective…

Based on an October 1982 survey of 31 selected members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), this report presents library planning documents, general system descriptions and reviews, and examples of library specifications--all dealing with integrated library information systems (ILIS). An ILIS is defined as a fully interactive integrated…

In the spring of 1979, the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) conducted a survey to identify common practices, approaches, and problems related to communication in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions. Survey responses were received from 75 of the 105 ARL libraries; the responses and statistical results are included in…

For this kit, 119 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic libraries were surveyed to determine the impact of online catalogs on the training needs of technical services staff and on the planning and organization of programs to meet these needs; responses were received from 66 libraries. Analyses of the responses indicated that the…

The introduction to this Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit explains the Conspectus method, which was developed in 1980 by the Research Libraries Group (RLG) as a means of systematically and qualitatively evaluating large library collections. The discussion considers advantages and disadvantages of this tool, which evaluates past…