The 2016 American Library Association’s annual conference recently concluded, and a troubling issue came out of it. The Association of College and Research Libraries voted to rescind a previous resolution passed in 2000, the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. And while the ACRL plans to continue to support information literacy in some way going forward – such as networking librarians to share their experiences, lesson plans, rubrics, and assessment tools – there is now no longer a universal policy supporting the inclusion of information literacy components in college courses. And that has caused concern among academic librarians.

You might wonder where that leaves you – will IU East still offer in-class library instruction in the same way? Do we still value information literacy, as a vital component of our foundational classes? And the answer to that is simple and resounding – our commitment to information literacy is absolutely undiminished. After all, IU East has standards of our own, and the concept of information literacy is built into our core objectives. In fact, it is the second point in the Indiana University East Campus Learning Outcomes:

“University educated individuals have the skills to efficiently and effectively locate, retrieve and evaluate information in order to use academically valid source material. Educated individuals have the ability to assess the accuracy, credibility, objectivity and timeliness of information and use that information ethically through appropriate documentation methods.”

The Campus Library commitment to information literacy is solid. You can expect the library to maintain a strong instructional presence on campus and online, and to continue to offer high quality information literacy instruction.

We’re always here to assist you in pursuing your research goals. Whenever you need help, ask us at iueref@iue.edu!