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“THAT’S A BIT SUS!” – SPOTTING AND CHECKING MISINFORMATION

This article has been written by Zayna Hussien on behalf of Tohatoha. She talks about the part libraries can play in countering misinformation.

The world is living through an infodemic, an overabundance of information that makes it hard to tell the difference between accurate information and misinformation. New Zealand is not immune. A recent study by the NZ Classification Office ‘Challenging Misinformation in Aotearoa’

(June 2021) found that approximately half of the New Zealanders surveyed had at least one belief associated with misinformation.

Misinformation is a complex problem that requires a collective effort from multiple organisations to address. Libraries are well-placed to counter it as we are a trusted profession. We can build on that trust to educate and equip our communities with the tools they need to better navigate their digital environment and build resilience to mis/ disinformation. While the information environment has changed, our mission has remained unchanged: to help communities find accurate and trustworthy information.

‘A BIT SUS’ PROGRAMME

Tohatoha has worked on countering misinformation in New Zealand through the ‘A Bit Sus’ programme launched last year in partnership with SLANZA. It is a 10-week course aimed at upskilling librarians in evidence-based techniques and best practices for supporting youth and schools in countering misinformation and preventing its spread.

Funded through grants from the NZ Libraries Partnership Programme, Internetnz, and the US Embassy, the programme includes an escape room activity for students developed by the University of Washington. The escape room is designed to have participants experience various misinformation tactics to increase their awareness of the spread of misinformation.

The first cohort included 15 librarians from across New Zealand completing the online course during Term 1, with the second cohort beginning at the start of Term 3. Participants learned evidencebased strategies and updated how they introduced information literacy in their school library.

Information literacy is a core tool that sometimes gets a bit rusty. Unlike the technologies we use, there is no sales rep and very little support to help stay current. Consequently, approaches may be outdated and fail to address the needs of our communities in the changing digital environment. Investing in ourselves and our libraries means we can counter misinformation more effectively using specific evidence-based techniques to teach information literacy skills.

THE LATERAL READING TECHNIQUE

The preferred technique used by Tohatoha is lateral reading. Developed by researchers at Stanford University, it has a strong evidence base and is easy to use and teach, even when you only have a moment at the reference desk. Here’s how it works: you leave the document, social media post, or whatever it is you are evaluating, and you open new search tabs. The three questions to answer are: “who is behind the information”, “what does the evidence say,” and “what do other sources say about this issue”. Fact-checking as you go saves time and quickly allows you to triangulate where the work in question fits in the larger discourse.

THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIBRARIANS

Librarians have so many opportunities to weave lateral reading techniques into our work with library users. Moving past a first instinct to shut down questions related to misinformation, we can use the opportunity to demonstrate and teach information literacy techniques that will help our patrons find better information –this time and in the future. The same goes for our work curating and collecting resources. The more and higher quality materials we make available, the more effective lateral reading techniques will be for everyone using our websites and our collections.

Misinformation is an old problem, and it is not going to go away. We need to prioritise educating our communities in information literacy as a core part of our work. No one else is better placed than we are to do this work and lead the way towards building solutions to the infodemic we are all living through.

Zayna Hussein is an educator with Tohatoha Aotearoa Commons and a senior librarian at Auckland Libraries. Born in Fiji and now living in Auckland, she has been in various library roles for the past 15 years. Zayna enjoys learning new skills and sharing her knowledge. In her spare time, she enjoys books, board games, and hiking.

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2022-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

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