OMB83 Change Memo

MEMORANDUM OMB # 1850-0582 v. 15

DATE: May 12, 2015

TO: Rochelle W. Martinez

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget

FROM: Richard Reeves

Postsecondary Branch Chief, Administrative Division, National Center for Education Statistics

THROUGH: Kashka Kubzdela

OMB Liaison, National Center for Education Statistics

SUBJECT: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 2015-16 Academic Libraries Collection Change Request (OMB# 1850-0582 v.15)

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) would like to make changes to the IPEDS reporting beginning with the 2015-16 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) web-based data collection. Current authorization for IPEDS expires December 31, 2016 (OMB# 1850-0582 v.13-14) and covers activities through the start of the 2016-17 data collection. A formal request for three-year renewal will be submitted in 2016; however, through interaction with the postsecondary industry and related groups NCES has identified certain needed modifications for the 2015-16 collection cycle.

IPEDS is a web-based data collection system designed to collect basic data from all postsecondary institutions in the United States and the other jurisdictions. IPEDS enables NCES to report on key dimensions of postsecondary education such as enrollments, degrees and other awards earned, tuition and fees, average net price, student financial aid, graduation rates, outcome measures, revenues and expenditures, faculty salaries, staff employed, and academic libraries. The IPEDS web-based data collection system was implemented in 2000-01, and it collects basic data from approximately 7,500 postsecondary institutions in the United States and the other jurisdictions that are eligible to participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. All Title IV institutions are required to respond to IPEDS (Section 490 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 (P.L. 102-325)). IPEDS allows other (non-title IV) institutions to participate on a voluntary basis. About 200 elect to respond. IPEDS data are available to the public through the College Navigator and IPEDS Data Center websites.

Origin of Changes

The proposed changes originated during the data collection cycle in 2014-2015 and the subsequent data quality review of the first IPEDS collection of the Academic Libraries survey component. The changes, detailed below and reflected in the attached instrument (IPEDS 2015 IC Outcome Measures-Admissions-Academic Libraries.docx), are proposed to appropriately direct data providers to complete the component and to clarify instructions.

Institutional Characteristics (IC) Header and Academic Library (AL) screener questions (screen change): Currently, we ask for total library expenditures in the IC Header to determine eligibility for the AL. This practice has resulted in institutions reporting estimated AL expenditures which sometimes require amendments when the final expenditures are known. In some cases, the misreported data in the Fall resulted in the wrong form assigned for Spring reporting. We propose to ask a Yes/No question on whether library expenditures are greater than $0 in the Header during the fall collection and then adding an additional screener question in the AL component in the spring that asks whether expenditures were greater than $100,000 to determine the correct form. This change is to mitigate all the errors in reporting library expenditures in the Fall versus the Spring and help institutions provide accurate data. This will not increase burden – the proposed question design better allows for the appropriate assignment of survey screens for institutions.

Collecting e-books (instruction change). Currently, we count e-books based on the number accessed by users. Starting in 2015-16, we propose to count e-books based on titles searchable through the catalog, including those in aggregated sets. This will not increase burden and the clarification may reduce confusion, reporting error, and burden – it is an instruction change to mitigate the confusion surrounding the counting of e-books with unlimited user access.

Collecting circulation (instruction change). Currently, we count circulation from both the general and reserve collections, and circulation counts include returnable and non-returnable items in interlibrary loans. Starting in 2015-16, we propose to count circulation only from the general collection and to have interlibrary loan circulation exclude non-returnable items borrowed from other libraries. This is to align with recommendations from the Technical Review Panel and to utilize more comparable methods with the library industry. This will not increase burden – it is an instruction change that will clarify and better align with recommendations from the Technical Review Panel meeting on Academic Libraries.

The proposed changes do not impact the originally estimated respondent burden for the 2015-16 data collection or the cost to the federal government.

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