The Association of Research Libraries Statistics and Measurement program: From descriptive data to performance measures

摘要

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has collected descriptive data from its members for the better part of the 20th century. As the libraries' environments change to one of increased interest in accountability and institutional outcomes, an ARL New Measures Initiative has been established to develop different and innovative ways for libraries to describe their contributions to their institutions. These new measures will assist libraries to move away from data that just describe a library's inputs and outputs to data and programs that can help libraries measure their performance over time both to benchmark with peers and to improve their own operations.