The growing pressures and the complex conditions which now bear upon research libraries are not adequately reflected in the development of policies, plans or current service activities. In the place of current, reliable, and extensive information which might be reflected in decisions and actions, librarians seem to operate normally on the basis of…

In 1973, the Technological Institute Library, along with the other science libraries of Northwestern University, began a study of reference use. For each reference request received in the libraries, the date, time, duration, mode, class of question, and user type were noted. These statistics were tabulated and analyzed by computer. It was…

This Association of Research Libraries (ARL) kit on preservation of library materials contains: (1) descriptions of preservation programs and objectives from Boston University, the University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, and University of California at Los Angeles; (2) a description of the Library of Congress' National Preservation…

In response to Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members' increased interest in the enhancement of manpower resources by greater utilization of paraprofessionals, ARL conducted a survey investigating various aspects of paraprofessional employment in the academic library. For the purposes of the survey, paraprofessional positions were defined…

This kit on planning systems updates a 1974 Management Studies Office Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit in which developments in planning activities among Association of Research Libraries (ARL) were reviewed. At the time of the original study, in 1972, planning techniques and systems were a subject of much interest because rising…

Program presentations on issues related to staffing considerations in research libraries and business meeting minutes are combined in this report from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Under the program title, "Organizational Futures: Staffing Research Libraries in the 1990's," a report by the Task Force on Research Library Staffing…

Describes a study which investigated plans of Association of Research Libraries members in New England for total automated library systems, whether compatibility of microcomputers with existing or proposed equipment is a factor in microcomputer selection, plans for microcomputer use, and how appropriate microcomputer tasks are identified and…

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit on Bibliographic Instruction (BI) in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) examines current developments as well as anticipated trends based on a SPEC telephone survey of 25 ARL libraries with active BI programs. Two themes which ran through the mid-1985 interviews were the use of new…

Describes the background, goals, methods, and results of a needs assessment study at the New York Public Library. This structured, phased self-examination was designed to form a consensus about the institution's long term needs and priorities. (CLB)

The need to plan for operating and service patterns and to establish priorities for services to readers in the new Reference and Bibliographical Center at the Newberry Library guided this self-study. From December 1983 to August 1984, 32 staff members (grouped into 1 study team and 4 task forces) investigated the critical issues of bibliographic…

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…

This report summarizes activities conducted from fall 1984 through spring 1985, under a planning grant from the Council on Library Resources for Innovation and Improvement of Basic and Supplementary Education for Academic and Research Libraries. The report includes a review of selected literature related to educational programs for academic…

The Library Catalog Cost Model described in this report was developed to assist each of the 72 individual libraries participating in the project to compare the costs of alternative future forms of the catalog, emphasizing the costs of implementing AACR 2 (Anglo American Cataloging Rules 2). Inputs characterizing their costs and modes of operation…

This inventory provides profiles, tables, and listings describing automated library activities at 103 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions. The inventory includes analyses of aggregate information from individual library profiles which are then divided into three categories that reflect primarily bibliographic functions: (1)…

This publication reporting the responses of 92 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members to an automation inventory survey conducted in March 1985 was generated from a database developed by ARL to provide timely, comparable information about the extent and nature of automation within the ARL library community. Among operational systems, the…