Good news if you are a STEM librarian: the STS IL Framework companion document is here!
Announced in an ACRL Insider post, the Companion Document to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is now fully approved by ACRL!
I am definitely looking forward to leaning on this to inform and guide my own STEM IL teaching and program practice. Some disclosure here: I am quite honored to have been a part of the amazing group of academic STEM librarians who worked to bring this to our profession. My appreciation for what I learned from them and through our work together cannot be overstated.
I am also excited to see how STEM librarians, use, criticize, and improved over time as we gain new understandings. This is how we will move science librarianship forward. Indeed, this iterative process of understanding is tied to both the companion and the original Framework.
As noted in STS IL Companion, we drafted the document with an expectation readers would be familiar with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. I highly encourage you to read and understand this core document as you seek to adopt the STS IL Framework Companion. Further disclosure here in that The Framework is another ACRL document I am incredibly proud to have helped create.
What Next?
While this new document is designed to guide, our task force found importance in emphasizing it be a living document. We like what we put forth, and recognize this reflects ideas and practice that will most certainly evolve; that should evolve.
If you are someone who interfaces with the STS IL Framework Companion, please be an active part of that evolution! As you work with it, also critically evaluate how it can be improved and involve yourself in ways to guide these advancements.