Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education
These are the higher education information literacy standards suggested by WASC. They include the objectives (standards), performance indicators, and outcomes. Apply at the institutional level, program level, or classroom level. Pick and choose the performance indicators and outcomes you wish to assess under each standard.
Information Literacy Rubric
Curriculum Map
The 5 ACRL Information Literacy Standards
Determine Information Need: ACRL Standard One
The hardest part of research for students is getting started. According to Project Information Literacy, 84% of students reported that they struggle to even begin.
What students need to know:
Pick appropriate performance indicators and outcomes for the student level and need.
EXAMPLES for Standard One
"Lower Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 1.1.e. Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the information need.
"Higher Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 1.1.f. Recognizes that existing information can be combined with original thought, experimentation, and/or analysis to produce new information.
Want a librarian to teach this and other competencies to your students? Visit our Library Instruction page!
Find Information: ACRL Standard Two
Students often do not know how to approach research with a strategy in mind (terminology to use, types of resources to consult, which databases to search, etc.). They also try to search library databases like they search the web using tools such as Google (i.e. using full sentences, etc.). The identification of types of resources is foreign to them - it is all just INFORMATION and the rest of the picture is blurry and doesn't matter.
What students need to know:
Pick appropriate performance indicators and outcomes for the student level and need.
EXAMPLES for Standard Two
"Lower Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 2.2.b. Identifies keywords, synonyms, and related terms for the information needed.
"Higher Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 2.2.e. Implements the search strategy in various information retrieval systems using diffferent user interfaces and search engines, with different command languages, protocols, and search parameters.
Want a librarian to teach this and other competencies to your students? Visit our Library Instruction page!
Evaluate Information: ACRL Standard Three
Students don't always distinguish between the different resource categories such as primary, secondary, scholarly, trade, and popular. They are also at a loss as to how to go about evaluating a source, especially when they are novices to a discipline.
What students need to know:
Pick appropriate performance indicators and outcomes for the student level and need.
EXAMPLES for Standard Three
"Lower Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 3.1.a. Reads the text and selects main ideas.
"Higher Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 3.3.b. Extends initial synthesis, when possible, to a higher level of abstraction to construct new hypotheses that may require additional information.
Want a librarian to teach this and other competencies to your students? Visit our Library Instruction page!
Synthesize Information: ACRL Standard Four
Students often find a variety of sources but do not know how to synthesize the information from those sources into the assignment. There can be a disconnect between the content of the assignment and the sources used and cited.
What students need to know:
Organizing Information
Once a student has found and evaluated information, she will need to organize it. It will allow her to apply information in a way that increases her ability to be understood. There are various ways to organize information:
Synthesizing Information
Synthesis involves determining the importance of information and how it relates to the end product. A student must constantly ask: How will this information help me accomplish my goal? Here are some steps students can follow while reading resources:
Pick appropriate performance indicators and outcomes for the student level and need.
EXAMPLES for Standard Four
"Lower Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 4.1.a. Organizes the content in a manner that supports the purposes and format of the product or performance (e.g. outlines, drafts, storyboards).
"Higher Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 4.1.b. Articulates knowledge and skills transferred from prior experiences to planning and creating the product or performance.
Want a librarian to teach this and other competencies to your students? Visit our Library Instruction page!
Ethically Use Information: ACRL Standard Five
At this stage of research a student will be:
Discussing Plagiarism
Students are not sure what counts as plagiarism. For example, if they sum up a plot of a book, do they need to include a citation? Project Information Literacy has indicated that providing the grounds for citation in a class enables students to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
Here are some suggested questions for classroom discussion:
Explain the need for citing in papers.
During this stage, a student will:
Pick appropriate performance indicators and outcomes for the student level and need.
EXAMPLES for Standard Five
"Lower Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 5.2.f. Demonstrates an understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and does not represent work attributable to others as his/her own.
"Higher Order" thinking skill:
Outcome 5.1.a. Identifies and discusses issues related to privacy and security in both the print and electronic environments.
Want a librarian to teach this and other competencies to your students? Visit our Library Instruction page!
Information Literacy Standards in the Disciplines