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Good day all, I received the following email from a colleague of mine regarding new proposals eliminating data collection about Academic Libraries on the NCES IPEDS (National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Data System) survey. Many of you may have already seen the new proposal or submitted a comment for Docket ED- 2024-SCC-0040, regarding this proposed action by the US Department of Education, but incase you hadn't seen the proposal and link for public comments are linked below. Best, Patrick Waite Collections Analyst Librarian W.E.B Du Bois Library University of Massachusetts Amherst 154 Hicks Way Amherst MA 01003 *apologies for cross posting* From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Sarah Fitzgerald Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 8:24 AM To: msp-lib Subject: [msp-lib] Please consider voicing your opinion on the elimination of the Academic Libraries Survey Hello Librarians, The US Department of Education has proposed to eliminate the Academic Libraries portion of the NCES IPEDS (National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Data System) survey. This is the only free dataset about academic libraries which allows libraries to compare their budgets, staffing, and collections to their peers and justify the need for funding to their university administrations. You can view the proposal to end the Academic Libraries dataset and the comments people have made on it here: https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2024-SCC-0040-0001 You can make a comment on the proposal here: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/ED-2024-SCC-0040-0001 Why is the Academic Libraries component of the IPEDS Survey important? Most academic libraries are not members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL includes only the largest 127 research libraries in North America) and therefore do not have access to ARL statistics. Many academic libraries cannot afford to subscribe to the Association of College and Research Libraries statistics. UMass has not been able to subscribe to the ACRL Statistics since 2021 because ACRL requires institutions to agree to an indemnification clause which violates our university policy on agreements. Many universities share similar policies about indemnification clauses. Neither of these subscription-based datasets allow libraries to compare their budgets and staffing to institutional budgets and staffing, which is important because library budgets have not kept pace with the growth of the institutions we serve. Academic libraries make higher education affordable for students and research affordable for scholars. They also support the public good by providing access to information for patrons who are not affiliated with the institutions we serve. The costs of the information we provide access to are increasing rapidly. Libraries need data to demonstrate our value and continue our missions. Although other parts of the IPEDS survey track some information about number of librarians, curators, and archivists, this includes employees in other units of universities and excludes the many non-librarian staff members without whom libraries cannot function. If you feel moved to make a comment on the elimination of the Academic Libraries IPEDS survey, please do so. Thanks, Fitz ######################################################################## to manage your DLF-ANNOUNCE subscription, visit https://www.diglib.org/announce