Learning at a distance and learning online are growing in scale and importance in higher education, presenting opportunities for large scale, inclusive, flexible and engaging learning. These modes of learning swept the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The many challenges of providing effective education online and remotely have been…

In higher education systems, equal importance must be given to differently abled students. However, not all educational institutions have infrastructure and facilities to admit these students even though accessibility and support for these students is growing. There are many schemes, facilities, services, and financial assistance available to…

As the world becomes more navigable, opportunities arise for people to live in different countries and for students to study internationally. Such capabilities require universities and other institutions of higher learning to accommodate cultural diversity. "Promoting Ethnic Diversity and Multiculturalism in Higher Education" is an…

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…

The process of identifying items in a library's collection by assigning to each a unique machine readable code has been generally referred to as barcoding. Barcoding is often one of the first critical projects a library will embark upon in the process of automation. This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit addresses many of the major…

This SPEC (Systems and Procedures Exchange Center) kit is based partially on the results of a fall, 1984 survey of the 117 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members to determine the extent to which they have reorganized staff and the role played by automation in planning organizational change. Particular attention was paid to the integration…

A 1977 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) survey gathered information and documentation on remote storage for selected library materials, including type and size of facilities, selection processes for transferring materials, operating procedures, and record-changing activities. A summary of the survey results included in this kit reports…

Of the 64 libraries responding to a 1978 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) survey, 37 indicated that they used automated circulation systems; half of these were commercial systems, and most were batch-process or combination batch process and online. Nearly all libraries without automated systems cited lack of funding as the reason for not…

A Fall 1981 Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members found that of 80 respondents, 60 libraries reported 123 specialty positions involving a wide range of activities. The initial document in this kit on specialty positions in ARL libraries provides findings and statistics related to…

Results from a 1978 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) survey on planning for, and conversion to automated acquisitions systems, and the effects of such systems on library operations and use, organization and staffing, and management information, indicate that 38 of 77 responding libraries had instituted some kind of automated acquisitions.…

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…

Developed as part of a statewide coordinated collection development effort, this document is a compendium of the narrative statements of collection development policies from 19 Alaskan university, public, school, and special libraries. Only the basic narrative plus any unique appendices are included for each policy, and some of the policies are…

This document is one of ten kits distributed annually by the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC), a clearinghouse operated by the Association of Research Libraries, Office of Management Studies (ARL/OMS) that provides a central source of timely information and materials on the management and operations of large academic and research…

Of the 53 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions that responded to a 1980 Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) call for Anglo American Cataloging Rules Second Edition (AACR 2) implementation studies, 37 had looked at the impact of the new code on library operations, while 16 indicated they had not done a formal study…

Replacing a January 1980 publication of the same title, this collection of cost tables and other documentation from library materials cost studies conducted by members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) or by library vendors contains excerpts from: (1) local cost studies conducted at Colorado State University, Indiana University, Iowa…