Standards and Best Practices for Florida Academic Libraries

Educational Role: Libraries partner in the educational mission of the institution to develop and support information-literate learners who can discover, access, and use information effectively for academic success, research, and lifelong learning.

3.1 Library personnel collaborate with faculty and others regarding ways to incorporate library collections and services into effective curricular and co-curricular experiences for students.

3.2 Library personnel collaborate with faculty to embed information literacy learning outcomes into curricula, courses, and assignments.

3.3 Library personnel model best pedagogical practices for classroom teaching, online tutorial design, and other educational practices.

3.4 Library personnel provide appropriate and timely instruction in a variety of contexts and employ multiple learning platforms and pedagogies.

3.5 Library personnel collaborate with campus partners to provide opportunities for faculty professional development.

3.6 The library has the IT infrastructure to keep current with advances in teaching and learning technologies

"The Standards include performance indicators, which are intentionally library-centric. Outcomes, however, should be user-centric, preferably focusing on a specific population and articulating specifically what the user is able to do as an outcome of the performance indicator. "
- ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Education

Performance Indicator 3.1 Library personnel collaborate with faculty and others regarding ways to incorporate library collections and services into effective curricular and co-curricular experiences for students.

Sample Outcomes

• Faculty seek the input of librarians on use of library resources in course and assignment development.
• Students use library collections for both curricular and co-curricular information needs.
• Faculty require students to use of a variety of sources from library databases.

Performance Indicator 3.2 Library personnel collaborate with faculty to embed information literacy learning outcomes into curricula, courses, and assignments.

Sample Outcomes

• Faculty seek the input of librarians in developing information literacy learning outcomes for their courses and assignments.
• Faculty introduce, reinforce, and scaffold learning of information literacy learning outcomes.
• Faculty require increasingly sophisticated demonstration of information literacy learning outcomes as students proceed to graduation.
• Faculty seek the input of librarians in evaluating the effectiveness of program curricula for teaching information literacy skills.
• Students demonstrate proficiency in finding, evaluating, and using information.

Performance Indicator 3.3 Library personnel model best pedagogical practices for classroom teaching, online tutorial design, and other educational practices.

Sample Outcomes

• Librarians design and administer information literacy instruction sessions that incorporate hands-on, active learning techniques.
• Faculty seek advice from librarians regarding pedagogical practices.
• Students and faculty indicate that the library tutorials are well-designed and effective teaching resources.

"Many academic institutions use benchmarks to identify their strengths and weaknesses in comparison to similar institutions. For example, benchmarking can be used to demonstrate whether an institution or its library is funded or staffed at levels comparable to similar institutions in a geographic area, with a similar enrollment, or with other related characteristics."
- ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Education

Principle 3: Educational Role

• Participants at group presentations. E.g.: Per full-time undergraduate student. Per enrolled student.
• Number of group presentations. E.g.: Physical. Virtual.
• NSSE “Experiences with Information Literacy” Topical Module Survey data. E.g.: Number of respondents who responded “very much” or “quite a bit” to the NSSE Topical Module question “How much has your experience at this institution contributed to your knowledge, skills, and personal development in using information correctly?” or CCSSE. E.g.: Worked on a paper or project that required integrating ideas or information from various sources (look for responses “very often” or “often”).
• Number of information literacy courses for credit. E.g.: Required information literacy course for credit. Elective information literacy course for credit.
• Number of repeat faculty requestors of instruction services. E.g.: Percentage of instruction sessions conducted for repeat faculty requestors.
• Percentage of faculty who requested instructional services in the past academic year.
• Number of information literacy sessions per instructional librarian.
• Number of courses in which librarians are embedded.

All ACRL Standards information taken from:

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2018). Standards for libraries in higher education.

       Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/slhe.pdf