• To study the use of library collections, Carol Tenopir and Donald King of UT are updating a cost and readership study at the University of Pittsburgh, first done in 2002–2004. In addition to collecting longitudinal data that will give an invaluable snapshot of the rapid changes in the processes and functioning of the library as well as the impact of these changes on costs, this study will look at how library journal collections affect the success and productivity of faculty and students. • Rachel Fleming-May and Crystal Sherline of UT are conducting an experimental-design study of the impact and outcomes of library instruction on learning. This study is examining how multiple types of library instruction impact various measures of student success, including learning outcomes, library anxiety, and information literacy. The study will also investigate how the library as place affects students’ comfort with, enjoyment of, and perception of the larger university. • Ken Wise and Gayle Baker of UT are examining the value of special collections, including the role that special collections play in donations from alumni and the community, in recruiting faculty and students, and in generating goodwill and prestige for the university. • Finally, Martha Kyrillidou and the team at ARL will be involved in multiple aspects of the project, from promoting public awareness to developing web- based tools that implement the models the larger team develops. In addition, Kyrillidou is working with the team to integrate data that has already been collected through existing ARL tools. This integration supports an important goal of the project: to make value and ROI assessments as easy and seamless as possible for overworked and overloaded professionals, largely by utilizing pre-existing data-collection methods wherever possible. These projects are the beginning, but by no means the end, of what Lib-Value hopes to accomplish. Information will be distributed via the project website2 and through ARL as the study progresses. Project feedback, updates, and presentations have been featured at the ARL Library Assessment Forum held on Friday afternoons prior to American Library Association Annual Conferences and Midwinter Meetings. The Library Assessment Blog is an additional venue for disseminating related news and information.3 An important factor in determining the research priorities for Lib-Value has been the feedback received RLI 271 39 Lib-Value: Measuring Value and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries ( C O N T I N U E D ) AUGUST 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC