For academic teaching librarians, the world has changed radically in the past two decades. The shifting technological and educational landscapes have not only brought opportunities and challenges, but have also called into question the assumptions, practices and frameworks that were once the foundation of information literacy instruction and constituted the basis for articulating and communicating the librarian's teaching role. While we may have gained greater status and acceptance as educators in our institutions (Cowan, 2014), and reflective practice and expression has given us a deeper appreciation of the nature and purpose of our role (Corrall, 2017), we find that our responsibilities and role expectations are in a constant state of flux. We understand ourselves perhaps better than ever before; however, this understanding also demands a closer, more forensic examination of our role and purpose, and several authors and practitioners have begun to question some of the basic principles of our practice that were previously considered immutable. A good example of this type of questioning is found in Julien's article ‘Beyond the Hyperbole: information literacy reconsidered’, in which she challenged the ‘immense burdens that we have placed on the term information literacy (and its synonyms)’ by equating it with ‘sustainable human development, participatory civic societies, sustainable world peace, freedom, democracy, good governance, and fostering of intercultural knowledge and mutual understanding’ (Julien, 2016, 126). Her contention was that, although ‘we see ourselves at the forefront of these great goals when the notion of information literacy is invoked’ (p. 127), the goals are beyond the means of what is achievable by librarians working alone. Ultimately, she proposed a reappraisal of our role in relation to the facilitation and promotion of information literacy in different contexts: ‘Above all, what is needed is a sense of perspective. Information literacy is not a silver bullet to slay the world's ills, nor sufficient to achieve all of humankind's loftiest goals, but it is an important goal, and should remain on our practice and advocacy agendas’ (p. 130). Articles like this suggest a conceptual rebalancing that may seem at odds with the goals for information literacy and the role of librarians that were established in influential, high-level documents, such as the Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning (Garner, 2006), and the report of the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts (Thompson, 2003), otherwise known as the Prague Declaration.