Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians: Is There Still a Disconnect Between Professional Education and Professional Responsibilities?

Theresa Westbrock is Instruction Coordinator at New Mexico State University Library; e-mail: twestbro@ nmsu.edu. Sarah Fabian is First Year Experience Librarian in the Halle Library at Eastern Michigan University; e-mail: [email protected]. © Theresa Westbrock and Sarah Fabian In 1993, based on the proficiencies for bibliographic instruction librarians (1986), Diana Shonrock and Craig Mulder investigated if and where librarians were acquiring these proficiencies. In 2007, ACRL approved a revised set of proficiencies: Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators. The authors recreated the 1993 study, using the revised set of proficiencies. Librarians find the new set of proficiencies to be more relevant to their jobs than the older set of proficiencies; however, they are still most likely to acquire the proficiencies primarily outside their library school education.