Hitch your wagon to institutional goals

Abstract

The landscape of accreditation and accountability in higher education is in a period of rapid change, coalescing around issues identified in the 2006 report of the Spellings Commission, “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education.” Information literacy librarians need to connect their instructional efforts to the institutional strategies and initiatives that address continuous improvement whatever their source, e.g. accreditation agencies, funding bodies such as state legislatures, institutional participation in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), University & College Accountability Network (U-CAN), or internal initiatives of the institution’s administration. The challenge for instruction librarians is great, requiring delivery and assessment of educational programs while simultaneously facilitating the library administration’s engagement with institutional education initiatives. It is our fundamental belief, however, that the library is poised to be in a position of leadership when it comes to answering these external pressures on higher education for accountability. The Information Literacy QEP at Trinity University illustrates a number of the leadership challenges that instruction librarians must engage and their example is one that will encourage us to continue to grow in the area of assessment of student learning. While all solutions will be local, the lessons learned from the Trinity experience regarding institutional engagement and cultural change can be generalized.

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