Understanding Accreditation: The Librarians Role in Educational Evaluation

The restructuring of the role and responsibility for quality assurance in higher education that took place during the 1990s produced new organizations, new standards, and new processes. Librarians have taken this restructuring as an opportunity to review and revise standards for libraries and to participate in the accreditation process of their parent institutions. This has implications for the ways in which libraries demonstrate their worth and importance to society. New knowledge and skills may be required if academic librarians are to fulfill their role and use this opportunity. In today's environment, accreditation is seen to be the external validation of an internal quality assurance process. This is the challenge that awaits the academic library community.