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The Purdue University Libraries and their dean, James Mullins, hosted the 2013–2015 ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) Diversity Scholars for an annual site visit, April 7–8, 2014. The two-day program was organized by a planning committee consisting of Purdue Libraries faculty and administrators and included formal presentations and discussions, networking events, tours of Purdue Libraries facilities, and other events. Highlights of the site visit included sessions on the topic of promotion and tenure in a research library setting (where librarians hold faculty status); emerging roles in a research-intensive context; and metrics and assessment as they relate to collections, electronic resources, and user experiences. This important and unique component of the ARL IRDW also included a poster session featuring research projects of numerous Purdue Libraries faculty, and a reception held at the home of Dean Mullins.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Purdue Libraries site visit for the IRDW. The broad objective of this event is to provide these emerging professionals with an in-depth look at the operations of a major research library. More information about the site visit component of the IRDW and the 2014 program agenda can be found on the ARL IRDW website. Also of interest is the April 16 INSIDe: Purdue University Libraries article by Nancy Newison, “ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce 2014 Visit to Purdue Libraries.”
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s 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 https://www.arl.org/.
