Misinformation, or fake news, has exploded across social media platforms and communities over the past few years, with serious social and political implications. Many library practitioners and organizations have argued that libraries can and should play a central role in educating the public about this emerging issue. However, serious gaps exist in understanding how libraries can create effective community education about misinformation. This article maps out a research agenda that researchers and public library practitioners can use to make libraries more effective sites for combatting misinformation. This research agenda is grounded in analysis of interviews and workshop discussions of public library staff from Washington State. This analysis reveals three areas in which academic partners can support public libraries: through the design of effective programming, through the development of tools that help librarians keep up-to-date on relevant misinformation, and through interventions in the political and economic contexts that hamper the freedom of librarians to engage controversial topics. Our hope is that this article can help to spur more expansive library and information science research across these areas and become the beginning of a longer and more empirically grounded conversation about how public libraries can achieve their potential for combating misinformation.

(Seattle IT) delivers powerful information solutions for the City and the public we serve. As Seattle strives to become a safe, affordable, vibrant, innovative and connected City, the need for effective technology solutions is critical. Seattle IT supports City departments in the pursuit of this mission by connecting people with their government, ensuring an effective and productive workforce, and building a digitally equitable community.

Public libraries, nonprofits, and community organizations are key providers of digital literacy and technology education in their communities. Given that they play a crucial role in helping persons outside formal education to navigate the digital world, these organizations have the potential to be key players in addressing problematic information. These institutions could provide critical support in this area since they teach people to use information and communication technologies and how to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information effectively and efficiently. This poster explored how seven digital literacy curricula for adults address problematic information. We found problematic information related lessons were siloed from other lessons on social media or online searching, and these curricula do not use current best practices for evaluating information but rely on older information literacy models.

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