Informing and Extending the Draft ACRL Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education: An Overview and Avenues for Research

250 The draft ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/) has been developed for a world that has changed radically since the turn of the 21st century. It responds to (and challenges) some information-related habits, understandings, and behaviors of students. It acknowledges the vast array of information formats and modes of delivery, and the ease of finding something about almost anything. This fundamental change in availability and access, and the behaviors it engenders, demands a new approach to the essential underpinnings of information literacy. In addition to being information consumers, students are now content creators, though often without recognizing both the attendant possibilities and responsibilities. These roles span students’ lives, from the academic to the personal, and while the Framework focuses on the former, quotidian needs are woven throughout the materials that comprise the toolkit. Educators recognize that information sources, services, and systems have become fragmented. This fragmentation has left academic resources shadowed by those that are ubiquitous, and seemingly easy to use. If students are able to find information that they perceive meets many of their requirements with circumscribed searching abilities, there is no driving need for them to expend time and effort to improve those abilities. The Framework must recognize this reality, while Informing and Extending the Draft ACRL Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education: An Overview and Avenues for Research