For immediate release: January 18, 2013

For more information, contact: Amy Yeager Association of Research Libraries 202-296-2296 amy@arl.org

Washington, DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) will host a Library Assessment Forum at the upcoming ALA Midwinter Meeting, featuring LibValue research conducted at the University of Tennessee. The forum will be held on Friday, January 25, 2013, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in the Sheraton Seattle’s Ravenna Room. No registration is necessary to attend this event.

In a panel presentation, Steven Smith, Regina Mays, and Teresa Walker from the University of Tennessee will discuss their efforts to demonstrate the value of the library with the LibValue project. Steven Smith, professor and dean of libraries, will discuss how the value and return on investment studies are used from the perspective of a dean: how he has used the studies to support the library, how they meet the needs of an outcome-based budgeting model, and how his campus leadership has responded. Regina Mays, assistant professor and assessment librarian, will discuss her perspective on LibValue from a practitioner/assessment librarian’s point of view. Teresa Walker, associate professor and head of integrated user services, will demonstrate how the LibValue work has been used to assess student success in relation to the use of the learning commons environment.

The Library Assessment Forum will conclude with an overview of the recent Library Assessment Conference held in Charlottesville and a discussion of plans for the 2014 Library Assessment Conference scheduled to take place August 4–6, 2014, in Seattle.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at http://www.arl.org/.