© 2017 Tizra Inc. 9 Catalpa Rd., Providence, RI 02906 • 401 400-2989 www.tizra.com DIRECT DIGITAL PUBLISHING Tizra’s fl exibility allows ARL to deliver both paid and free content with enhanced accessibility. A CASE STUDY ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES “We needed to ‘walk the walk’ when it came to the accessibility practices we recommend to our members. Tizra’s ability and willingness to support our initiatives were an important part of our decision making process.” “Tizra is always improving and adding new features and capabilities… They keep us up to date and help us stay relevant.” —Lee Anne George, Publications Program Offi cer BACKGROUND The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofi t organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada, making up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace, which spends more than $1.4 billion every year on library materials. ARL provides leadership in public and information policy, fosters the exchange of ideas and expertise and facilitates the emergence of new roles for research libraries. ARL publishes reports, issue briefs, talking points, position statements, monographs, compilations of statistics and many other types of documents on a wide range of current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and library education professionals. THE CHALLENGE Drive Down Costs and Increase Engagement In 2007, ARL began investigating ways to improve communication and engage with its community, rather than just pushing out publications. At the same time, the economic downturn had the organization looking for ways to reduce costs. Both of these drivers were behind ARL’s decision to move some of its core publishing online—both through blogs and digital publications. By moving its newsletter online, ARL could reduce both print and fulfi llment costs. But ARL knew it didn’t want to just post PDFs, they wanted a full e-commerce platform