Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy That Illustrate Best Practices
Overview, Purpose and Use, History

Overview:

The Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy That Illustrate Best Practices attempts to articulate elements of exemplary information literacy programs for undergraduate students at four-year and two-year institutions.

The Characteristics identify and describe features notable in information literacy programs of excellence.  The Characteristics are not, however, descriptive of any one program, but rather represent a meta-set of elements identified through examination of many programs and philosophies of undergraduate information literacy.

In addition, though guided by the definitions found in the Final Report of the ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (1989) and the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000), the Characteristics themselves do not attempt to define information literacy per se.  Instead, the focus is on defining the elements of best practices in information literacy programming.

Although an attempt was made to categorize and organize the Characteristics for ease of use and logical presentation, the order does not reflect any judgment of priority.

Purpose and Use:

The Characteristics are primarily intended to help those who are interested in developing, assessing, and improving information literacy programs.  This audience includes faculty, librarians, administrators, and technology professionals, as well as others involved in information literacy programming at a particular institution.

Individuals involved with information literacy programming are encouraged to use the Characteristics in a variety of ways. These Characteristics present a set of ideas which can be used when establishing, developing, advancing, revitalizing, or assessing an information literacy program. The Characteristics also provide a framework within which to categorize the details of a given program and to analyze how different program elements contribute to attaining excellence in information literacy programming.  Because the Characteristics are descriptive in nature and the result of a meta-analysis of many programs, they may also be useful for benchmarking program status, improvement, and long-term development.

It is important to note, however, that no program is expected to be exemplary with respect to all Characteristics; the list is not prescriptive. Rather, individuals are encouraged to consider the Characteristics as well as library and institutional contexts in establishing information literacy program goals and strategies.

Librarians are also encouraged to make use of the Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries for specific guidance on library involvement with information literacy programs.

History:

The Characteristics were developed through a multi-phase process which involved professionals from multiple sectors of higher education including librarians, faculty, administrators, and professional organizations. Beginning in April 2000, suggestions for an original draft of the Characteristics were gathered through a Web-based Delphi polling technique. Members of the Best Practices Project Team and Best Practices Advisory Panel then wrote a document based upon these suggestions and revised it several times. A working draft was distributed widely for comment and went through a further revision. A penultimate draft was completed in March 2001 and was used as the basis for selecting ten institutions for a national invitational conference on best practices in information literacy programming, which was held in Atlanta in June 2002. As part of that meeting the Characteristics were further refined. The revisions culminated in this final edition.

 Questions and comments about the document can be directed to Tom Kirk, kirkto@Earlham.edu.

ACRL  Information Literacy Resources