Libraries are all about good information: finding it, using it, and sharing it. And we want to help train our patrons in the best strategies for finding good information.

We have been…not as successful as we would have liked.

I’m with everyone else. I’ve been talking about the value of doing your own research, coming to your own conclusions.

And yeah, sure: that makes sense. It should work.

Unfortunately, we are now in a situation where it just does not work.

I’m not blaming social media for this. It’s the job of companies to make money. Full stop. It’s NOT their job to help us all to find the best, unbiased information. And so they don’t.

How many of you have had to delete social media apps from your phones? Or to set resolutions to stop looking at them every 30 seconds? How many people have been able to literally see your heart rate increase on your fitness devices when reading social media? *raises hand*

And I’m pretty sure it’s not just me – it’s probably you too. There is a reason for that: they are designed to be addictive. They are designed to draw us in. To take us down whatever pathway has the most interaction from other people – especially if people are Super Excited And Screaming About It.

There is no design to help us stop, to think, and to be responsible users of information.

So, we have to do that part ourselves. And we have to develop skills in our patrons so they can do it themselves too. Everyone needs to learn the difference between a real expert and Some Wacky Dude On The Internet – and to have trust in the first and to disregard the second, no matter how fun, how enticing they sound.

Check out this website: Sifting Through the Coronavirus Pandemic Learn the skills that will make a difference in your ability to sort fact from fiction on the web (and everything in between).

This is the author’s biography: “Mike Caulfield is a digital information literacy expert working at Washington State University Vancouver. He has worked with various organizations on digital literacy initiatives to combat misinformation, including AASCU’s American Democracy Project, the National Writing Project, and CIVIX Canada. He is a winner of the Rita Allen Misinformation Solutions Prize, and the author of the award-winning textbook Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. His approach to digital critical consumption, often referred to as the “four moves”, is popular among those teaching first-year college students how to evaluate and contextualize information sources. His work has been covered by NPR, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Times (of London).”

Here is his strategy: SIFT

“Over the past four years, I have worked with students and faculty to identify the core skills and habits that students and citizens are missing that leave them vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation on the web. We have organized them into a model called SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.

We call these “moves” and we tie each one to a couple simple skills you can usually execute in 30 seconds or less. You can learn all the moves and associated skills in less than an hour, and our work with students indicates that these skills will make a dramatic difference in your ability to sort fact from fiction on the web (and everything in between).”

Start using these SIFT skills yourself. Start teaching them to patrons. Start talking about them.

The information needs we are facing are changing, and the skills we share need to change too. Let’s work on this together!