Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that explored public perceptions of the credibility of “facts and figures” contained within five social media posts produced by political parties in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The study consisted of an online survey conducted in Spring 2017 (n=538). Respondents were asked to gauge the reliability of “facts” contained within the posts, to provide reasons for their answers, and to indicate how they might go about confirming or debunking the figures. Findings Less than half the sample believed the posts’ content would be reliable. Credibility perceptions were influenced by various factors, including: a lack of cited sources; concerns about bias or spin; a lack of detail, definitions or contextual information; personal political allegiance and trust; negative campaign techniques; personal experience of policy issues; and more intuitive judgements. Only small numbers admitted that they would not know how to find out more about the issues or would be disinclined to look further. The majority appeared confident in their own abilities to find further information, yet were vague in describing their search strategies. Originality/value Relatively little empirical research has been conducted exploring the perceived credibility of political or government information online. It is believed that this is the first such study to have specifically investigated the Scottish political arena.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that explored human behaviour in response to political “facts” presented online by political parties in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The study consisted of interactive online interviews with 23 citizens in North-East Scotland, in the run-up to the 2017 UK General Election. Findings Participants demonstrated cognitive and critical responses to facts but little affective reaction. They judged facts swiftly and largely intuitively, providing evidence that facts are frequently consumed, accepted or rejected without further verification processes. Users demonstrated varying levels of engagement with the information they consume, and subject knowledge may influence the extent to which respondents trust facts, in previously unanticipated ways. Users tended to notice facts with which they disagreed and, in terms of prominence, particularly noted and responded to facts which painted extremely negative or positive pictures. Most acknowledged limitations in capacity to interrogate facts, but some were delusionally confident. Originality/value Relatively little empirical research has been conducted exploring the perceived credibility of political or government information online. It is believed that this and a companion study are the first to have specifically investigated the Scottish political arena. This paper presents a new, exploratory fact interrogation model, alongside an expanded information quality awareness model.

Cataloguing has been undergoing significant transformation for the last several years in order to keep up with the changing world of digital technologies, dramatically increasing the number of resources to be catalogued and data to be managed in such a way that would satisfy library users’ needs and expectations. Cataloguers had to face a shift in thinking about bibliographic data and consequently a shift in practice to the new cataloguing standard of Resource Description and Access. This research investigated cataloguers’ experiences with using RDA and the current issues they encounter and discuss while RDA is still being reviewed and shaped. It also documented and explored their opinions and concerns regarding understanding of theoretical concepts behind RDA and the new Library Reference Model. The investigation took place in a virtual environment of two of the most popular listservs dedicated to cataloguing and, in this way, allowed a direct and immediate access to opinions expressed by cataloguers around the world. In order to explore their experiences, a qualitative, based on elements of grounded theory, content analysis of archive and most recent posts was conducted and compared with the literature on the research done in the initial period after RDA implementation. The research results indicated some strong divisions among cataloguers and different levels of understanding of the changes being introduced. It also showed a potential paradigm shift in cataloguing, professional knowledge and mental flexibility required of cataloguers. Moreover, the significant amount of learning that cataloguers have had to and will have to undertake in the nearest future, suggests an inordinately important need for adequate training and dialogue between them and the RDA Steering Committee that would be led in a more comprehensible way to enable those who call themselves ‘average cataloguers’ understand the model better and become confident, rather than confused, practitioners.