September 4, 2007

Purdue leaps 35 spots in research association's library rankings

Purdue went from 77th in 2005 to 42nd in the 2006 (2005-06 data) rankings of libraries at research institutions in the United States and Canada. In the United States only two institutions came close to Purdue's jump - Rice University from 108th to 85th and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 76th to 55th.

"We're committed to our libraries and very proud of the investment we have made at Purdue," said university President France A. Córdova. "A strong library system is integral to the quality of any research institution."

The rankings should not be used to compare one library against the others in terms of the quality of collections, services or success in meeting the needs of users, said James L. Mullins, dean of Purdue Libraries. Rather the new criteria, based for the most part on expenditures, can be used to measure comparative support provided to libraries by each university.

Until this latest ranking, the criteria relied on a more historic view of library collections, including the number of volumes held, number of volumes added each year, number of current serials received, operating expenses, and the number of professional and support staff.

This time the association ranked libraries based on three areas of expenditures - overall funding; funding for salaries and library materials; and the number of library faculty, professional and support staff.

"These criteria are a better way to assess how well Purdue Libraries is being supported by the university to meet the information and research needs of our students, faculty and staff," Mullins said. "As a science- and engineering-focused university, our average cost for information resource databases and journals tends to be significantly higher than many other institutions due to the high cost of science, engineering and medical publications. By assessing the amount of funds committed to purchasing library materials, it provides a better comparison than just the number of current journals received.

"We still commit a significant portion of our materials budget - about 20 percent to 25 percent - to the purchase of books, the primary means of scholarly communication in the humanities and social sciences."

To assess how well the information resources meet the needs of students and faculty, Purdue Libraries undertook a survey developed by the association in the fall of 2005. It solicited responses from all faculty and a sampling of undergraduate and graduate students on how well the libraries met their needs through information resources, services and facilities. The survey will be undertaken again in the fall of 2008 as a follow-up to determine the impact of new information resources, services and facilities during the intervening years.

The Association of Research Libraries is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries at comprehensive, research-extensive institutions in the United States and Canada that share similar research missions, aspirations and achievements.

Writer: Jim Bush (765) 494-2077, jsbush@purdue.edu

Source: James Mullins (765) 494-2900, jmullins@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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