4 Survey Results: Executive Summary in either a vision or mission statement, but instead was assumed to fall into another broader category. In the comments, several respondents connected outreach to the larger missions of their land grant universities or larger organizational missions. The remaining respondents indicated that outreach was included in their mission/vision statements, that they had explicit outreach missions, or a combination of both. The comments in this section provide specific examples of how outreach was either explicitly mentioned in mission statements or integrated in strategic plans and individual position duties. The wide variety of examples illustrates the complexity of how libraries are choosing to commit to outreach at a strategic level, including the nuances in language. Respondents reported that they included outreach in their strategic documents, but called it by many different names. Some libraries reported outreach as connected to liaison library programs, others with instruction, some with community programs, and even some with broader terms such as partnership, collaboration, and communication. The data derived from this question indicate that how libraries choose to address outreach in organizational missions is highly localized to each library’s particular context. Respondents indicated that they are doing outreach regardless of how it is included in their mission and vision statements. Therefore, it is apparent that it is a valued library activity. In addition to understanding if outreach was included in mission and vision documents, the survey questions explored budgetary support for outreach activities. Respondents were asked to describe how their institutions funded outreach activities and to estimate total annual expenditures for outreach. While outreach may be included in mission and vision statements, it does not seem to be explicitly supported within library budgets. Most respondents (47, or 83%) indicated that library outreach activities were funded through their library’s central budget, but 41 (72%) indicated that they did not have a defined budget line for outreach activities. More than half of all respondents indicated that funding for outreach could possibly come from a departmental budget (39, or 68%), special project budget (41, or 72%), or one-time administrative funds (32, or 56%). A few libraries reported using grant funding or monies from personal donations. Written comments indicated even more creative avenues, such as donations from the friends of the library, foundations and endowments, and funds directly from departments. This data suggests that libraries are funding outreach through a wide variety of strategies, but not allocating funds specifically for outreach as a standard budget expense. For the 16 institutions (28%) that did have a defined budget line for outreach, there was no consistency among which person or position in the organization managed the funds. Some respondents indicated that administrative approval was required at the library director level, while others indicated that the funds were managed as a joint activity or by committee. The survey results indicated that the funding model used to administer library outreach seems quite ad hoc across ARL member libraries. Additionally, while 42 institutions provided information on annual expenditures, only 36 could provide a number range. Several respondents indicated that they could not track expenditures since their library lacked a centralized structure for defining and tracking outreach activities and allocating expenses. Of those that did provide an estimate, the annual expenditures varied dramatically with a maximum of over $12 million and a minimum of $4,000. The median of $30,000 may be a truer picture of what is happening, but more research would be needed to explore why such a wide funding range exists and how the money is being spent. Establishing Goals and Outcomes Given that research libraries devote substantial financial and personnel resources to outreach and engagement activities, associated goals and outcomes should be defined and measurable. Library outreach, in comparison with other public services activities such as reference and instruction, remains poorly defined and often ad hoc in nature. For this reason, respondents were asked to identify whether their libraries had developed library-wide outcomes or goals related to library outreach. Over half of respondents (30, or 53%) said that their libraries had library-wide outcomes or goals
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