Introduction

2025 Update

The library component has been removed from IPEDS as they warned us in 2024.

We encourage people to contribute to the ACRL Survey:

• Deadline: February 28, 2026
• Documentation

The reporting period is the previously completed fiscal year. So for the February 28, 2026 deadline, many of us are reporting data for the July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 fiscal year.

While there are more questions in the ACRL Survey than there were in the IPEDS library component, if you don’t have extra time, you can just gather your data the same as you did last year and submit it to the ACRL Survey. For this use case, we are keeping and updating our IPEDS documentation (this resource). You can also see the old archived IPEDS library component instructions here.

Note that you can use some of the data for free in ACRL Benchmark, but there is a cost to use all the features. We will see if we can secure consortial access to this resource.

Send your data to PALS as well

We have data from IPEDS up through FY23. We have a few concerns with data after that:

• Concerns with FY24 data quality from IPEDS (See September article “Gutted NCES Releases First Batch of Higher Ed Data”)
• We don’t know when we will gain access to the full paid version of ACRL Benchmark
• There is a time lag for both IPEDS and ACRL data

It makes sense to collect data ourselves, so we can continue to analyze library data in MN. Remember, this is not private data, it has been publicly and freely available for many years from IPEDS here. If you did the ACRL Survey and downloaded your file, you can just paste the content into our PALS forms. You could also do the PALS forms instead of the ACRL Survey if you prefer. Here are the forms:

• PALS form FY24 (This is the same data you collected and reported to IPEDS by the April 2025 deadline.)
• PALS form FY25 (It has the same IPEDS questions from last year, just remember to update your data for FY25.)

In preparation for collecting this data, we consulted with State Library Services at the Minnesota Department of Education, because they have been collecting data for public and school libraries. We would love it if we could gather the data for all academic libraries in Minnesota through these forms.

Why is this data still important even though the library component has been removed from IPEDS?

This data is really useful for benchmarking and data storytelling​. Remember PALS did a pilot project on library staffing and budget in 2023 and we also used the IPEDS data for a recent presentation at the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference 2025: Sketching Out the Story of Minnesota’s Library Workforce. (Need to be logged in to our support center for both of those resources.)

Now that the Academic Libraries component has been removed from IPEDS, there is no longer a mandate to report library data – it’s up to us to fill this gap. ​Please submit your data to ACRL and PALS.

Summary of links and resources

ACRL Survey (deadline February 28, 2026)​

• Instructions and worksheet​
• Submit the data to ACRL here​
• If you have problems logging in there, contact acrlbenchmark@ala.org​

Please also send your data to PALS ​

• PALS Documentation​ (this resource)
• Submit your data to PALS:
  • PALS form FY24 (This is the same data you collected and reported to IPEDS by the April 2025 deadline.)
  • PALS form FY25 (It has the same IPEDS questions from last year, just remember to update your data for FY25.)
• Questions? Put in a PALS ticket ​