Introduction

Welcome to the American Library Association (ALA) Committee on Accreditation (COA) Standards review information and comment collection site.

UPDATE February 12, 2015: The Council of the American Library Association (ALA) approved for adoption the 2015 Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies on February 2 at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago. Read more on the Draft Standards page.

UPDATE January 23, 2015: The Committee on Accreditation (COA) has approved the revision of the Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies. The COA will present this revision to the ALA Council for adoption at Council II on Monday, February 2, 2015, 10:00am, MCP-W375e/skyline.

UPDATE August 1, 2014: The Committee on Accreditation seeks comments on the third DRAFT revised Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies. Comments on the third draft will be accepted through October 24, 2014. Please use the comment feature on the Draft Standards page.

As part of its charge to develop and formulate standards of education for library and information studies, the COA reviews the Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies on an ongoing basis. The current Standards were adopted on January 15, 2008.

The COA develops standards for accreditation through a consensus-building process that involves various communities of interest, including educators, students, and professionals in library and information studies. Throughout the standards-development process, the COA seeks, receives, and uses comments and suggestions from the communities of interest in both the United States and Canada.

The COA will host discussion forums at the 2014 Annual ALISE Conference, the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, and the 2014 ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas. The program at ALA Midwinter will be on Sunday, January 26, 2014, 4:30pm-5:30pm, in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, PCC-201 B.

The following is a brief description of each page in the right-hand navigation. If you have questions or trouble navigating the site, please contact Laura Dare in the Office for Accreditation at kprice@ala.org.

Page 1: Draft revised Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies

The Committee on Accreditation seeks comments on the DRAFT revised Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies. Comments will be accepted from December 6, 2013, through October 24, 2014.

Page 2: Standards Review Plan Tentative Timeline

Standards review and development is an ongoing, five-year process. The current cycle was begun in 2008 following the adoption of the 2008 Standards. The COA develops standards for accreditation through a consensus-building process that involves various communities of interest, including educators, students, and professionals in library and information studies. Throughout the standards-development process, the COA seeks, receives, and uses comments and suggestions from the communities of interest in both the United States and Canada.

The Standard Review Plan Tentative Timeline outlines this process. It includes both a complete list of constituent groups that are contacted during comment collection and the dates of upcoming rounds of comment collection.

Page 3: 2008 Standards

This page contains a link to the 2008 Standards for Accreditation of Master’s Programs in Library and Information Studies (PDF). We welcome and encourage you to comment on the current Standards. Because the deadline for comments on the 2008 Standards has passed, the comment feature has been turned off on this page..

Page 4: Summaries of Comments Collected on the 2008 Standards

As stated above, part of the review process entails gathering comments from stakeholders. Via several online surveys between 2010 and 2013, stakeholders commented on the 2008 Standards. Summaries of the comment collection on individual standards appear on page 3.

Page 5: Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Library Education

The Final Report of the Presidential Task Force on Library Education was issued on January 13, 2009, to the ALA Executive Board (2008-2009 EBD#12.30) for discussion and referral to the ALA Committee on Accreditation. The report includes recommendations to the 2008 Standards (found on pages 21-38), and comments on the report were collected between May and September of 2009. This section of the site documents this comment collection process and includes the following:

 

Please use comments feature on the Draft Standards page.