Citation
Watstein, E.M.a.S.B. (2014), "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education redux", Reference Services Review, Vol. 42 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR.24042aaa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education redux
Article Type: Editorial From: Reference Services Review, Volume 42, Issue 1
For the past 13 years, the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education have served as guide and model for librarians as they design and deliver quality instruction programs and services that contribute to the development of the information literate student. The Standards have also furthered institutional understanding of information literacy and permeated the perspectives of external agencies and other partners in the educational endeavor.
During 2013-2014, the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education Task Force (hereinafter the Task Force) is “extensively revising the Standards to reflect the current thinking on topics such as the creation and dissemination of knowledge, the changing global higher education and learning environment, the shift from information literacy to information fluency, and the expanding definition of information literacy to include multiple literacies, e.g. transliteracy, media literacy, digital literacy, etc.
In support of this charge, the Task Force is further charged to:
Review the recommendations of the Information Literacy Competency Standards Review Task Force, collect feedback from the ACRL membership and the broad constituencies within the higher education community, e.g. faculty, accreditors, library and information science educators, and administrators regarding these recommendations, revise and extensively update the Standards accordingly, soliciting comments on drafts of the new document from the same broad constituencies mentioned above, prior to seeking approval from ILSC and the ACRL Board (available at: http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/taskforces/acr-tfilcshe; accessed 9 November 2013).
For those librarians who have integrated the Standards into information literacy programming and assessment, a signal of changes to come is evident in the intention of the Task Force to propose not standards but “a framework. In her reponse to the Task Forces interim report of September 25, 2013, ACRL Executive Director Mary Ellen Davis noted that “the ACRL Executive Committee approves of the Task Forces direction to move away from the writing of a standard and instead focus on the development of a conceptual framework for information literacy.
Significant changes have overtaken our institutions and the world in the 13+ years since the Standards were approved. Our institutions and the world look utterly different. The information literacy landscape in our libraries and on our campuses continues to emerge and evolve. In light of these transformations, there is no question but that it is time to think in terms of a new theoretical structure of assumptions, principles, rules, and more that holds together the ideas comprising the broad concept of information literacy. Standards revision promises to enrich our community and beyond with fresh ideas, useful information, and, above all, a renewed commitment to the abiding importance of the academic librarys centrality to our institutions educational mission. RSR editors look forward to the continual reevaluation and revisioning of the Standards for lifelong meaning.
Volume 42 Number 1
The articles in this issue cover a wide spectrum of issues. Service design, delivery and assessment are the focus of several authors, including Faix, MacDonald and Taxakis; Gewirtz; Luo; and Scales and Von Seggern. User behavior draws the attention of Dagenais-Brown and Madden. Feldmann turns her attention to academic business librarians and community entrepreneurs, exploring expanding roles and new outlets. Knapp, Rowland and Charles consider a familiar topic – embedding librarians, in context with a not-so-familiar topic – student retention. Carter and Samson and Swanson consider the backbone of our libraries – our leaders and our staff. Regardless of their interests, RSR readers have many choices in this issue.
Eleanor Mitchell and Sarah Barbara Watstein