Although ARL exists primarily to serve the needs of research libraries and librarians, its work is of great importance to the scholarly community at large. ARL is guided by the idea that "open and equitable access to information is a fundamental tenet to society." In adhering to this principle, ARL promotes open access publishing and streamlining of the scholarly communication process. For those new to ARL, there's a handy 2 minute tour of the website found in the About section. The Publications & Resources area of the site provides access to a huge list of freely available resources including articles, statistics, issue briefs, conference proceedings, and SPEC kits, which are cumulated sets of best practices from ARL member libraries.