(via Gwen Gregory, IACRL Past President)
The ACRL Board of Director has approved Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians, a revision of the association’s 2007 ACRL Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators. Authored by the Standards and Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators Revision Task Force, the shift in focus in 2015 from the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education model prompted the Task Force to closely examine not only the proficiencies themselves but their structure and purpose.
In the spirit of the Framework, the Task Force intended to present a more holistic perspective of the range of work done by teaching librarians rather than a list of skills needed to do a specific job. Teaching librarians have increasingly explored innovative and creative roles within their institutions, and the document is intended to reflect the myriad activities, projects, and responsibilities that teaching librarians from a wide variety of institutions may find themselves taking on at different points in their work life and throughout their careers, as well as the characteristics and strengths needed to flourish within these roles. The Task Force also wanted to provide a basic framework from which teaching librarian roles can continually expand within a variety of contexts. In short, this document was designed to act as a bridge between concept and practice.
Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians is available here.