IPEDS ALS component - back up for comment

[Brannon, Sian]

Copying from posts on another email list:

 

NCES has moved forward with their proposal to remove the Academic Library Survey component of the IPEDS survey, and there is now ANOTHER public comment period for their proposal to the Office of Management and Budget.  
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/05/24/2024-11405/agency-information-collection-activities-submission-to-the-office-of-management-and-budget-for 
Please consider entering a new comment in support of keeping the ALS.  

Heard today:  There were 716 or so responses in this round of commenting.  ~700 were in favor of KEEPING the Academic Library Survey component of the IPEDS survey.  

NCES provided a response to the comments submitted about the first notice. It's not easy to find but you can access it from this page. The document of interest is called "Appendix E - IPEDS 2024-25 through 2026-27 Response to 60 Day Public Comments."

ACRL/ALA/ASERL/ARL's original statement:  https://www.arl.org/news/association-of-research-libraries-and-partners-urge-national-center-for-education-statistics-to-retain-vital-academic-library-survey-in-ipeds/ 

 

 

Sian Brannon, Ph.D.

(hear my name) (she/they)

Senior Associate Dean, UNT Libraries

940.891.6945

Please know that I don’t expect a response outside of your own work hours.

 

Our Core Values:  
Courageous Integrity | Be Curious | We Care | Better Together | Show Your Fire 

 

[Kathleen K Bell]

Sian, thanks so much for the notice. Appreciate Martha forwarding the message from ALA, too. I edited Appendix E so you can see the response just for the Academic Library Component. I am going to send this to my staff.

Kat

Kathleen Kim Bell, MA MLS MS

Strategic Planning and Grants Lead

kbe...@gmu.edu

   George Mason University Libraries

   4400 University Drive, MSN 2FL

   Fairfax, VA 22030

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From: Brannon, Sian <Sian.B...@unt.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2024 4:27 PM
To: arl-a...@arl.org <arl-a...@arl.org>
Subject: [ARL-ASSESS] IPEDS ALS component - back up for comment

 

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[Laura Baker]

Thank you all for this information.  It is worth pointing out the response from NCES to the previous comments, the response in Kathleen's attachment and that is linked off this page as Appendix E.  Even though there were 701 out of 717 comments in favor of keeping the Academic Libraries Survey, NCES still decided to cancel it.  Appendix E gives their reasons.  One that stood out to me was that it was the least accessed data out of everything in the survey.  NCES also states that while commenters cited benchmarking as a primary reason for using the data, the purpose of the survey is for decision-making, not benchmarking.  I think we could argue that benchmarking leads to decision making, but some examples might help.  And I don't know how to respond to the lack of usage.

I think our follow up comments can't simply reiterate our previous arguments.  If 701 out of 717 comments were not sufficient, then I don't see how more of the same would help.  I think we have to address NCES's responses in Appendix E.  What points could libraries make in rebuttal?

Laura

--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laura Baker
Librarian -- User Experience and Assessment
Abilene Christian University Library
221 Brown Library / ACU Box 29208
Abilene, TX  79699-9208

bak...@acu.edu
phone: (325) 674-2477
fax:   (325) 674-2202
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Martha Kyrillidou]

The low usage is not surprising given that librarians can access these data through other third vendor parties that have incorporated these data into their environments.

Martha Kyrillidou, PhD, MEd, MLS | QualityMetrics, LLC | Helping Libraries Achieve Success

Silver Spring, MD | mar...@qualitymetricsllc.com | 202.251.9829 | qualitymetricsllc.com

I work flexibly - so whilst it suits me to email now, I do not expect a response or action outside of your own working hours.

Research Associate, iSchool, U of Illinois, kyri...@illinois.edu | orcid.org/0000-0002-1937-653X |

marthakyrillidou.org/

[Kathleen K Bell]

I do wonder what they count as "usage" – I am never downloading the entire dataset, but I might do an export or just individually pull metrics into another spreadsheet. 

Kat

Kathleen Kim Bell, MA MLS MS

Strategic Planning and Grants Lead

kbe...@gmu.edu

   George Mason University Libraries

   4400 University Drive, MSN 2FL

   Fairfax, VA 22030

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From: Martha Kyrillidou <martha.k...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2024 10:51 AM
To: Laura Baker <bak...@acu.edu>
Cc: arl-a...@arl.org <arl-a...@arl.org>
Subject: Re: [ARL-ASSESS] Re: IPEDS ALS component - back up for comment