By: Leigh Tinik

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released the 2020 Investment Index rankings and Penn State is ranked 10th. For the past fifteen years, Penn State University Libraries has
consistently ranked in the Top 10. The ARL Investment Index is a measure of relative size among the 125-member association and is determined by the following four variables: total library expenditures, salaries & wages of professional staff, total library materials expenditures, and the total number of professional and support staff. It is not an attempt to measure a library’s services, quality of collections, or success in meeting the needs of users.

The Penn State University Libraries 2020 ARL statistics including Penn State Law, Dickinson Law and Penn State College of Medicine are available on the University Libraries website.

In addition, the historical BTAA ARL comparisons have been updated. These visualizations compare Big Ten institutions on eight ARL metrics including: circulation, collections, expenditures, gate counts, inter-library loan, instruction, personnel, and reference. The historical BTAA ARL data is also available to download.