Washington, DC. Boston College Becomes Newest Member of ARL At its 2000 Fall Membership Meeting held October 18-19, 2000, in Washington, DC, the membership of the Association of Research Libraries voted to invite Boston College Libraries to join as the 112th academic member. Located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, the University is classified in the 2000 Carnegie Classification System as Doctoral/Research Universities-Extensive. Jerome Yavarkovsky is the University Librarian and accepted the invitation on behalf of the Libraries.
"Membership in ARL is important for the national recognition it brings to our collections and services, but more importantly for the opportunity to join the Association in its work to advance scholarly communication and improve research library performance in our increasingly digital world," said Jerome Yavarkovsky.
The membership vote followed an extensive review of qualitative and quantitative documentation and a site visit. The ad hoc visiting committee established to consider the eligibility of Boston College was comprised of Graham Hill, McMaster University (Committee Chair); James Neal, The Johns Hopkins University; and Karin Wittenborg, University of Virginia. The committee reviewed the breadth and depth of collections, uniqueness of research resources, potential contributions to scholarship, and leadership in the library and information science profession.
"The ARL Board of Directors welcomes Boston College Libraries as our newest member and look forward to working them on issues of mutual interest to the research library community," said Shirley Baker, ARL President. Duane Webster, Executive Director of ARL, added, "ARL is delighted to welcome Boston College Libraries to work in collaboration with our membership. This is an accomplishment for the library and for the university itself as it invests in building its research programs and the associated collections in print, manuscript, electronic, and other media, for their participation in ARL benefits not only the library itself, but the students, the faculty, and their scholarly colleagues and researchers throughout North America."
Boston College, founded in 1863, is a private, co-educational university and is one of the oldest Jesuit, Catholic universities in the United States. The Libraries serve as a resource in support of the research and instruction conducted by the approximately 650 full-time faculty faculty and close to 14,000 students. The librarians and staff of Boston College Libraries are actively engaged in leadership on campus with respect to information skills and competencies in the electronic environment and are facilitating the discussion of issues surrounding scholarly communication. The Libraries also include the distinctive Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections, which houses the Irish Collection, literary collections, and the William Butler Yeats manuscripts. A recently established Irish Music Center will complement the Irish Music Archives in the Burns Library.
More information about Boston College Libraries can be found at www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/ulib/bclib.html.
The Association of Research Libraries is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 120 North American research institutions and operates as a forum for the exchange of ideas and an agent for collective action. Membership in ARL is institutional. ARL programs and services promote equitable access to and effective use of recorded knowledge in support of teaching research, scholarship, and community service.
