Reference Librarian With increased demands for accountability and assessment in higher education, instruction librarians have opportunities to integrate the problem solving and decision making skills taught in their programs into the instruction goals of their institutions. Nevertheless constraints impair the library's ability to make itself an established part of higher education. Faculty still tend to project their library learning experience onto their students.
Librarians continue to debate information literacy vs. library skills.
Higher education itself is conservative. This paper suggests a wide range of practical assessment methods for librarians. These include using writing samples, interviews, ethnographic studies, flexible information skill matrices and surveys. Close work with faculty will be essential regardless of the methods used. Accountability in bibliographic instruction and information literacy will require greater knowledge, expertise and responsibility on the part of the librarian.