Founded in 1932, The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit membership organization of research libraries and archives. Member organizations come from public and private universities, federal government agencies, and large public institutions in Canada and the US. ARL's mission is to empower and advocate for research libraries and to shape, influence, and implement institutional, national, and international policy by developing the leaders and enabling strategic cooperation among partner institutions to benefit scholarship and society.

ARL bridges policy and practice, contributing at the intersection of three venues in the research and learning environment:

• Research libraries and their parent organizations
• Research and learning communities
• Public policymakers

Examples of recent work:

• Evolving AI strategies in libraries
  • Two polls covering member libraries that track their progress in exploring and implementing AI tools, generating a report analyzing the results and providing recommendations.
• Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS)
  • A project report (December 2023) detailing what researchers and administrators need to consider for data management and sharing to comply with funder policies.

Resources

Association of Research Libraries. (2025). Home. Association of Research Libraries  https://www.arl.org/