In 2021, Karen Kaufmann called together a group of information literacy researchers and educators to discuss what would happen to practice if information literacy was recognized as a discipline. To prepare for the first meeting, Karen asked the group to read a 2017 article that was in the 10th anniversary edition of the Journal of Information Literacy. In the article, Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, who have been engaged in this conversation for over two decades, examined the sticking points of why the information literacy community has been slow to accept the idea that information literacy is a discipline. The group discussed the issues brought up in the article and decided to invite Sheila and Bill to join our meetings. Hearing about Sheila and Bill’s sustained thinking about the topic over time helped the group coalesce their thoughts about what should happen moving forward.

As the group continued to meet and discuss, Karen and Clarence Maybee became co-leaders, organizing the meetings and planning future efforts. Clarence Maybee named the group Information Literacy is a Discipline (ILIAD). In 2022, members of the ILIAD group suggested that Karen and Clarence submit a proposal to publish a book describing the implications for recognizing information literacy as a discipline. The accepted proposal is for an encyclopedic-style book that outlines the plethora of ideas and activities of the information literacy community that align with the elements of a discipline. Members of the ILIAD group began to present at conferences around the world to introduce the idea that information literacy is a discipline, but also to engage the community in this conversation.