As you may be aware, the United States Department of Education is considering a proposal to discontinue the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) library survey. This survey serves a key role in the academic library community, documenting information on library resources, services, and usage. Its discontinuation would impact libraries’ efforts to quantify their work and would hinder the ability of libraries to benchmark and document accreditation requirements, for example. As a library community we have the opportunity to influence this potential change by advocating for the importance of IPEDS to academic libraries. 

MCLS will submit an official response and is encouraging its academic members to respond as well in opposition to the discontinuation of the IPEDS library survey. The formal comment period ends May 3. Comments can be submitted to the U.S. Office of the Federal Register via this link. If you have any questions, please reach out to services@mcls.org.