Guidelines, Standards, and Frameworks
ACRL Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks help libraries, academic institutions, and accrediting agencies understand the components of an excellent library.
These documents are provided as a free service to the academic library community. Your donation to the ACRL Advancement Fund, which supports initiatives that strengthen ACRL’s influence in higher education and its ability to create diverse and inclusive communities in the association and the profession, assists us as we continue to provide these important resources.
ACRL standards, guidelines, and frameworks are issued under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA) license.
Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education opens the way for librarians, faculty, and other institutional partners to redesign instruction sessions, assignments, courses, and even curricula; connect information literacy with student success initiatives; collaborate on pedagogical research and involve students themselves in that research; and create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond.
Applying the Framework
Get training in using the ACRL Framework for your library or organization with our new virtual workshop Engaging with the ACRL Framework.
Discover ways to use the Framework in instructional settings, as well as share your own activities and teaching resources related to the Framework, with ACRL's Framework Sandbox.
Envisioning the Framework offers a visual opportunity for thought, discovery, and sense-making of the Framework and its concepts. Buy it in the ALA Store!
Launched in 2017 by the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Advisory Board, this free toolkit supports professional use and understanding of the Framework.
Standards for Libraries in Higher Education
The Standards for Libraries in Higher Education are designed to guide academic libraries in advancing and sustaining their role as partners in educating students, achieving their institutions’ missions, and positioning libraries as leaders in assessment and continuous improvement on their campuses.
Applying the Standards
Get training in using the ACRL Standards for your library or organization with our new virtual workshop Putting the Standards for Libraries in Higher Education into Action.
From external library reviews and preparing accreditation reports to facilitating staff retreats and strategic planning, ACRL provides a wide array of consulting services to help academic libraries grow and succeed.
The Library Assessment Cookbook features 80 practical, easy-to-implement recipes to help librarians of all levels of experience measure and demonstrate their institutional value. Buy it in the ALA Store!
Benchmark is the newest tool for data-driven planning and advocacy in academic libraries. Subscribe for premium access to robust data dashboards and more.
Standards Committee
The ACRL Standards Committee is responsible for overseeing the development of standards and guidelines adopted and promoted by the Association. The Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee, a component committee of the Standards Committee, oversees the development and review of discipline-specific information literacy documents. ACRL Standards, Guidelines, Frameworks, and model statements are reviewed and updated by the membership on a regular basis. The ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures contains complete information on the creation and review of ACRL Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks. Learn more about the Standards Committee and the Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee.
Additional Information
- Subject-specifc information literacy documents are under review and revision to reflect the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.
- Direct commercial permissions requests for ACRL Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks to David Free at dfree@ala.org.
- Non-English translations of ACRL Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks are contributed by individual volunteers from the library community and are not vetted by ACRL. Neither ACRL nor American Library Association is responsible for translation errors.
- For other ACRL documents that are not Standards, Guidelines, or Frameworks (for example, white papers, position statements, and reports from ACRL and ALA units), vist the White Papers & Reports page.
