Current Affairs

ACRL Releases AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers

October 17, 2025

ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries) recently published AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers.

Leo Lo, former ACRL President and Dean of Libraries at the University of Virginia, posted on LinkedIn about the publication and with his permission we are sharing it below. Thanks Leo!

From Leo Lo (via LinkedIn):

I’m especially proud to share this milestone – what began as my Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) presidential goal has now come to fruition.

The ACRL AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers have been officially approved by the ACRL Standards Committee and the ACRL Board of Directors (Oct 2025)!

Read the full document: https://lnkd.in/gUwV7SMs

This marks a significant milestone for our profession. The competencies provide a thoughtful, values-driven framework organized around four key areas:

•Ethical Considerations
• Knowledge & Understanding
• Analysis & Evaluation
• Use & Application

The competencies are meant to be adaptable, not prescriptive – a foundation that libraries can shape to their own contexts and needs.

In practice, this means:

• We now have shared language to discuss AiLiteracy in libraries.
• Institutions can build professionaldevelopment, training, and job descriptions around these competencies.
• Library workers can engage with AI adoption as critical and informed stewards rather than passive consumers.

This is just the beginning. The competencies are a livingdocument, and my next step as Past President this year is to create a process and group to regularly review and update them as the technology and our work evolve.

Huge thanks to the ACRL Task Force members, the Standards Committee, and the Board for helping make this vision real. Excited to see how libraries everywhere bring these ideas to life.