At its 1998 Fall Membership Meeting held earlier this month in Washington, DC, the membership of the Association of Research Libraries voted to invite The George Washington University Libraries to join as the 122nd member. Located in Washington, DC, the University has been classified as a Carnegie Research University II since 1973. Jack A. Siggins is the University Librarian. The membership vote followed an extensive review of qualitative and quantitative documentation and a site visit. 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.
Membership requires high standards in size of collection holdings and in quality of service.
We look forward to working with other ARL members on common interests in electronic collections, digitization, and preservation and plan to take advantage of ARL expertise in the areas of management and leadership development. The George Washington University is a major teaching and research university founded in 1821. The University Libraries serve as a resource in support of the research and instruction conducted by the approximately 1,175 faculty and 16,000 students. The Libraries include a distinctive Washingtoniana collection, a collection of post-Cold War materials from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and East Asia, as well as an important Judaica collection donated by the Kiev family. Membership in ARL is institutional.