In 2021 IMLS funded a feasibility study for the transfer of the Academic Library Component survey of IPEDS to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). QualityMetrics offered a number of concrete steps to undertake to ensure a potential transfer is successful from a political, scientific, and administrative perspective.
Concrete steps include:
1. Authorization from OMB (appropriations) or Congress (legislation);
2. IMLS staff representation in the ACRL/ALA/ARL Joint Advisory Task Force on IPEDS Academic Libraries Component Definitions;
3. IMLS should explore establishing an permanent advisory body on academic libraries and higher education;
4. IMLS should pursue and publish a study on the State of Libraries in the Nation;
5. IMLS should establish regular communication with IPEDS/NCES staff;
6. IMLS and IPEDS/NCES staff should jointly prepare the package for OMB clearance for 2025-2026;
7. NCES and IMLS staff should ensure continued and easy access to historical and longitudinal data;
8. IMLS will need to reaffirm the universe of academic libraries and explore outlet level data feasibility; and,
9. NCES/IPEDS and IMLS work closely together to share contact information and convene stakeholders.
With the recent OMB call for comments for upcoming changes to IPEDS, [Federal Register Volume 89, Number 43, PP. 15558-15559] opening the 60-day public comment period on the request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for changes to the IPEDS Collection years 2024-25 through 2026-27, our eye caught the planned elimination of the Academic Library Component survey – as of today four comments are submitted, one explicitly asking for the ALC survey to continue and the other explicitly supporting its elimination noting its lack of use.
The current issue of College and Research Libraries (v85, no2, 2024) just published an analysis of the “Characteristics of United States Academic Libraries in 2020 and Regional Changes from 1996 to 2020” by Samantha Godbey and Staff Hoffman (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.85.2.288) – so clearly the data are used and people may not always go to the NCES website to download the data because they have merged the data in new more interesting and intuitive ways in other environments.
Comments should be submitted through the regulations.gov site linked above and are due by May 3, 2024. Details on the proposed changes can be found in the Supporting Documents posted on the regulations.gov website linked here: https://www.federalregister.
Academic library statistics have a rugged history, yet they provide a shared basic understanding of why libraries are important in learning and research despite limitations in national level data collection activities. In combination with IT and Academic Affairs services, libraries are ensuring students and faculty know and utilize content and technology effectively and learn about new knowledge creation and dissemination methods on a timely and relevant basis.
As a colleague recently shared “Personally I think having library statistics as a part of the IPEDS data collection demonstrates libraries’ essential role in teaching and learning.”
AIR manages the Public Library Statistics and the State Library Administrative Agency statistics as well as the IPEDS data collection activities as a subcontractor to IMLS and to NCES; maybe not all is lost if there is indeed some interest in having some level of national level data for academic libraries and some efficiencies of effort can be achieved through AIR.
Ideally, some data collection effort that can capture value to the learning and research enterprise would answer questions such as:
- How many students use library spaces, services, content?
- How much do academic libraries support sponsored research?
- How much learning and support do academic libraries offer in teaching and learning?
- What is the basic level of investment (resources such as spending and space infrastructure) available and how impactful is it to the lives of students and faculty?
- In an information rich and AI enabled world, what is the unique role of academic libraries in supporting research and learning?
- What are their collaborative advantages?
Hopefully posing some of these questions is the basis for renewed interest regarding the role of the library in the lives of our students and faculty!
In the recent ARL President’s Institute we talked about sustainability using the United Nations sustainability framework — maybe there is a glimpse of hope that we can sustain some self-knowledge about academic libraries at the national level. Such knowledge tightly coupled to the deeper, more meaningful, and sustainable learning gains of our students and faculty as they utilize, appreciate, and produce scholarship can capture our imagination and professional practice in higher education! After all academic libraries are the intellectual home of the scholarly products of our students and faculty, our collective collection, whether they can visited physically or digitally, funded well or poorly, curated as physical or digital scholarly assets and learning objects.
And, yes, not everything can be measured by a national level data collection activity on academic libraries but let’s not throw the baby with the bathwater! For what does stopping the collection of academic library statistics convey about our values in higher education if we cannot link our student level and faculty level data to their achievements, their learning and their scholarship. DOIs, citations, utilization, downloads, circulation of digital and physical assets or even mere appreciation of the intellectual labor and breakthroughs in knowledge, coupled with some level of investment on curating this labor is at the heart of our academic libraries, and it is still at the heart of our values in higher education last time I checked.
Also, see earlier post, including a webinar, on issues around the potential transfer of ALC from NCES to IPEDS! http://qualitymetricsllc.com/planning-the-future-of-the-academic-library-component-survey/
Courtesy of Joyce Chapman’s post on arl-assess, a list of recently submitted comments excerpted here:
Here are some of the most recent comments that have been submitted on the topic:
Please do not eliminate the Academic Library Survey. These data are used in program evaluation (e.g., see the appendix guidelines of the Standards for Libraries in Higher Education – https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/standardslibraries), drive research on the impact of libraries (e.g., see my co-authored study here – https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16727/18650), and are the basis for learning activities in graduate studies in library science (e.g., in my course at UIUC iSchool, 594 EVO: Evaluation and Assessment of Library Services, students use this data set to learn about library services, complete a benchmarking assignment, and develop strategies for collecting data about library services. To loses access to an ongoing dataset on academic libraries will negatively impact library science graduate study, the operation of academic libraries, and research on the impact of academic libraries in higher education.
Eliminating the Academic Libraries (AL) Survey from the annual IPEDS collection would be a grave mistake. This decision would create an equity issue for many academic libraries and, more importantly, their students when they cannot afford to subscribe to costly data services that will otherwise collect this information. It is the only accurate source of information about academic libraries. Because it is tied to the IPEDS data collection cycle, all institutions respond to it. In addition, the data is freely available to everyone–academic library administrators, faculty, and students, who are the most critical stakeholders. Academic libraries rely on the IPEDS Academic Libraries (AL) survey for accurate comparative data to help them advocate for libraries that serve their students. Please do not eliminate the Academic Libraries (AL) Survey from the IPEDS data.
Scrapping the IPEDS Academic Libraries survey would have grim consequences for libraries and universities. This is a vital tool which is the only publicly accessible source of data about US academic library staffing and funding. Library administrators need the data that can be found in the IPEDS Academic Library survey to help them advocate for sufficient staffing and funding after decades of defunding of academic libraries. Since the costs of providing scholarly literature to universities are expanding exponentially, it is vital to the sustainability of academic libraries that they are funded adequately. Not every stakeholder can afford a subscription to the statistics collected by the Association of College and Research Libraries and their subscription agreement includes an indemnification clause that is a barrier for some interested parties. The majority of academic libraries are not members of the Association of Research Libraries and therefore do not have access to their statistics. The increasingly digital and seamless access to library resources has given rise to the false impression that libraries are no longer relevant, but this is far from reality. Libraries have been serving expanding numbers of students while our staffing and budgets have not increased to match.
Removal of the Academic Libraries survey for IPEDS could have negative impacts on academic libraries. Many libraries are already understaffed and underfunded and removal of academic libraries from data collection sends a message that library services and resources are not important. Research, teaching and learning, and information literacy are dependent on well funded, well staffed libraries with dynamic and responsive collections.
Academic libraries use IPEDS data for benchmarking and comparison. There is no other survey of academic libraries that collects this data, so eliminating the library portion of the IPEDS survey will mean that academic libraries no longer have access to the information that they need to compare themselves with other libraries at other institutions. Please do not eliminate the library reporting section of the IPEDS.