Misinformation – Creating a Quick Reference Guide on Information Consumption
Abstract
What is Misinformation and where does it come from? How can librarians evolve their instruction to teach students to evaluate and verify sources of online information? What are others doing to combat Misinformation? How do we make all this information relatable and palatable for students, librarians, and instructors? These questions and more drove the project with the intention to provide students, librarians, and instructors with analytical tools to combat misinformation. The creation of the Misinformation research guide stemmed from patron inquiries. As information professionals, we tried to fully understand concepts surrounding misinformation in order to be able to pass the knowledge onto our university community. We picked through an information overload of misinformation resources that assisted in our understanding and is partially reflective of the authors’ research and learning that is ongoing. The guide collects initial concepts to jumpstart critical thinking and asks readers to reevaluate sources, news, and their environment around them. We strive to engage students in more analytical thinking, to delve deeper, and use some of the tools we’ve provided to discern for themselves what is misinformation and what is true. This presentation will also cover what goes into creating a misinformation research guide, including both the easy and challenging parts, how we focused on the topic of misinformation, and what learning outcomes we wanted.