Incorporating the Fifth Standard of ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education into Information Literacy Curriculum

Abstract

The American Library Association’s (ALA) Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) established five information literacy standards for higher education to be used as a guideline by academic librarians and instructors covering all aspects of the research process, from defining information needs, understanding library policies, research skills, and proper citation. Many of these skills remain untaught at the university level. The fifth standard “The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally” is vague and broad in scope and has proven to be the most difficult to incorporate into traditional information literacy sessions. This brief paper addresses the challenges faced by academic librarians in incorporating standard five and urges faculty and librarian collaboration in this aspect of information literacy instruction.