ACRL Information Literacy Framework

Today’s ICOP discussion was led by Leslie Morgan. Her discussion, entitled “ACRL Information Literacy Framework (Advisory Board) & Hesburgh Libraries Teaching and Learning Services,” began with a discussion of Leslie’s participation on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Board, on which she currently serves.
The Board has several tasks, including the review and progress assessment of the Framework implementation plan; to offer strategic overview for future directions for research and practice; to promote communication by contributing to the Framework website and listserv, and to advise and participate in the development and use of a “sandbox” repository for Framework examples and implementation.

Leslie felt that the ACRL Board’s Framework sandbox could be very beneficial to us in ICOP. She outlined some of the many characteristics of this sandbox, including interactive, organized, searchable, intuitive, participatory, diverse, critical, open, and user-focused.
The purpose of the sandbox is to be a resource for librarians seeking to engage the Framework in their instructional practice, giving them access to materials created by others in the field. The materials could include lesson plans, worksheets, blog posts, posters, rubrics, syllabi, interviews, podcasts, videos, data sets, pamphlets, and many other formats and genres.

Leslie wondered how we as a group could contribute to the sandbox, and this led to a discussion of how ICOP librarians were using the Framework in their present instruction. All of the librarians present want to reinforce the “hidden web,” moving away from Google searching to database research. Some would like to add more multimedia content to their instruction, as well as visual elements to their libguides. Many of the instructors also expressed the desire to have a less invasive way to communicate basic library policies to students in order that they may focus better on the actual instruction.

We next examined the Framework libguide Sherri Jones had created, which includes subpages under each of the six Frames to offer ideas and links to incorporate into classroom instruction. This could become our own Framework sandbox from which we could pull the most useful to contribute to the ACRL’s sandbox. Sherri is welcoming relevant links to add to these pages as we discover them.