UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State University Libraries again have been recognized among the top 10 research universities in North America, this year ranking No. 7, and rising to second among public university research libraries in the United States, according to the 2015-16 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Library Investment Index.

The ARL index, published in the Almanac of Higher Education 2017-18 and included in the Aug. 18 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, provides a yearly snapshot of the size of each research library's collections and its capacity to provide services to students, faculty and staff, as well as to visiting researchers. The University Libraries consistently rank among the top 10 among more than 110 peer institutions’ libraries surveyed.

This year the University Libraries rose to second among its public institutional peers in the U.S., behind only its Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) partner the University of Michigan Library, which is third in the overall rankings. Libraries of BTAA members the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ohio State University are listed as No. 15 and No. 16, respectively.

"The University Libraries receives strong, ongoing support from our University leadership that empowers our faculty and staff to provide robust collections that support Penn State’s threefold mission of research, teaching and public service. We hear often that our physical and online collections’ scope and scale, and our ability to provide that information to them conveniently, are significant factors in helping Penn State recruit and retain top faculty and students," Barbara I. Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, said.

"Our faculty librarians and staff at every Penn State location take great pride in being able to provide critical support for knowledge creation and student academic success at the University and in research collaborations with highly regarded peer libraries across the continent — and, increasingly, around the world," she added. "This ranking validates our efforts to provide the highest level of scholarly resources, services and innovative spaces, across the University and online, for each student, faculty and staff member."

The ARL ranking system, which this year examined 114 colleges and universities that provide data based on the prior academic year, is based on dollars spent for total library expenditures, as well as for salaries and wages and library materials, plus the number of professional and support-staff employees. 


For additional information about University Libraries collections, visit https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections.