On Friday, December 12, the membership “voted to endorse the 2026 Standards for Accreditation (2026 Standards),” https://www.neche.org/neche-2026-standards-for-accreditation/.
Unfortunately, and to my disappointment, the Commission paid little more than lip service to the essential role libraries play in the education ecosystem at higher education institutions, by adding a scant reference in Section 2.2, covering faculty and staff:
“2.22 The institution has academic support personnel (e.g., librarians, academic advisors, instructional designers) sufficient to support its teaching and learning environment and, as appropriate, its research and public service mission. (See also 3.9 and 4.2)” (emphasis added)
The 2026 Standards also remove specific mention of the need for libraries once found in the 2021 Standards under Section 7.22:
7.22 The institution provides access to library and information resources, services, facilities, and qualified staff sufficient to support its teaching and learning environments and its research and public service mission as appropriate.”
and, replacing it with:
“3.9 The institution provides access to information and learning resources—physical and/or digital—that are sufficient for the needs of its academic programs, research activities, and public service mission.”
Through its updated standards, NECHE has made it clear that libraries and librarians are no longer central to the research and education mission of colleges and universities.
As with the recent news that MIT will shutter libraries and lay off staff, I’m afraid that the new standards will only embolden more institutions to do the same, placing their trust in “digital” replacements.