The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education form the highest level outcomes for WSU's Information Literacy Program. ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA) whose primary aim is to enhance the use of libraries for teaching and research at the college level. The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education are comprised of five standards with performance indicators and outcomes for each standard. Each of the nearly 100 outcomes will be incorporated into the Information Literacy curriculum at WSU.
An example of an embedded standard comes from Accessing Information for Research (UCOLL 300), the Libraries credit-bearing information literacy course. ACRL Standard One states that the information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed. The second performance indicator under Standard One states the information literate student identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information. Finally, Outcome B under Performance Indicator Two states that the information literate student recognizes that knowledge can be organized into disciplines that influence the way information is accessed. The Discourse and Disciplines Module of UCOLL 300 meets this outcome sequence by offering readings about scholarly communication, approaches to research, and publication cycles; and by providing students an interactive review.
The Information Literacy Program Outcomes document for the Library Instruction Team provide more detail about how specific leanring outcomes are being assessed.
