Vetting through inquiry
I often tell my students that an inquiring mind can lead to answers. From this standpoint, learners can begin to focus on the questions and curiosities that arise from information sources and refrain from viewing these sources as tasks requiring a vetting process. Through the course of inquiry and discovery, they begin to unearth the various voices and opinions that constitute a topic or conversation, and from there, they begin to see gaps, discord and misinformation. This process can be time-consuming, of course, but it is also prevents consumers of information from viewing a topic through a singular lens. Again, form questions and curiosities and follow them in all directions and through all distances. When this occurs, credibility is usually left standing.
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Comments (3)
Hi Fabio:
Do you see a place in the library curriculum to help future librarians deal with mis/disinformation when they work with the public? If so, what might that look like?
Excellent question. Not only should there be a place in the library curriculum for this subject, I believe it should be near the top of the library science hierarchy. Mis/disinformation is showing no sign of digression and enabling librarians to successfully combat or curtail this growth provides patrons with a trained ally in this fight.
Library curriculum for mis/disinformation should, in part, focus on some of the more obvious aspects of mis/disinformation -- what is it? how to recognize it? how to evaluate and find correct information -- but it should also entail the transfer of knowledge to the general public. As librarians, we serve the general public and provide a service. This has always been the case and should not change. But sometimes showing a patron how to perform a service is a service in itself. Librarians can help navigate the waters of mis/disinformation because we are trained to do so, but we should also be passing along this knowledge to our patrons. The transfer process should play a prominent role in the library science curriculum.
I agree with you, Fabio. An active approach to processing information, where users interrogate and evaluate it through inquiry is a powerful learning opportunity!