Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators: A Practical Guide

As the role of instruction and information literacy continues to grow in the academic library, librarians are faced with a need to develop a more focused set of skills to teach effectively in library instruction programs. At the same time, many libraries struggle to offer meaningful training and professional development to improve instruction, especially without a set of established standards for what makes a good instructor. This document is intended to help instruction librarians define and gain the skills needed to be excellent teachers in library instruction programs and to foster collaboration necessary to create and improve information literacy programs. In many academic libraries, instruction librarians also serve as coordinators of instructional services and as instructional leaders in their organization. In addition to proficiencies needed for librarians with teaching responsibilities are the skills required for instruction coordinators to manage programs. They also must operate effectively at all levels of the academic organization in order to implement broad-reaching, curriculum-integrated information literacy programs.