Research libraries at Canada's universities are still a long way from the top, says the latest report from the Association of Research Libraries.

According to the study, Holdings of University Research Libraries in U.S. and Canada, which includes 14 Canadian institutions among the 113 university libraries measured, Toronto maintains its fourth place for a second year in a row and four other Canadian institutions - Alberta (#22), UBC (#24), Montreal (#47) and McGill (#49) - are in the top half of the list, and except for Montreal, each improving its position from the previous year.

At the other end of the scale, McMaster (#111), Waterloo (#112) and Guelph (#113) still register last in the annual rankings.

This year's analysis finds that rankings have improved at Laval (#72), Western (#80), Queen's (#104) and Saskatchewan (#108), while worsening at York (#93) and remaining constant at Manitoba (#106).

"We're encouraged by some of the results," said James Turk, CAUT's executive director. "But our universities are in turmoil after years of underfunding by the federal and provincial governments and the shortfall is being reflected in our research libraries."

To remedy the situation, Turk said, governments need to provide adequate funding for post-secondary education.

"Research libraries play a unique and important role by collecting, managing, preserving and providing access to a huge body of knowledge," he said. "They can't fulfil their mission to provide first-class resources unless governments restore appropriate funding."

The Association of Research Libraries has collected statistics on its university library members since 1961-1962 and its annual report compares numerous library holdings measurements including collections, staffing and expenditures.

The current ARL statistics are available at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/arl/index.html.