Information Literacy

In early January, New Jersey became the first state to sign into law a bill to make media literacy a requirement for K-12 schools. This news made me flash back to a conversation my cousin and his seventeen-year-old daughter had about her buying something off of a “sketchy” website. He saw that this site couldn’t be trusted right away, but she didn’t see the problem at all. Being good with technology is a trait society assigns to young people, but perhaps Governor Murphy is right and we need to do a better job of preparing young people for a world filled with misinformation and disinformation. The Mercer County Library System has lots of resources for people of all age groups on the topics of information literacy, media literacy, and internet literacy. 

Learning About Media Literacy by Martha Rustad is a great book for our youngest readers. Media literacy isn’t exactly a fun topic - at least not in the way dinosaurs or superheroes are. However, this book uses straightforward text and clear photographs to explain basic concepts about media, attention, and information, along with an interesting activity to help young readers’ understanding.

Joyce Grant’s Can You Believe It?: How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts is for slightly older audiences than Rustad’s book. It’s also specifically focused on separating fact from fiction in media content. The book is well-written, beautifully illustrated, and really drives home why critical thinking is important. Another book for this reading level (grades 4-7) is Media Meltdown: A Graphic Guide Adventure by Liam O’Donnell. This title is the only fiction book I’ll mention; it’s a story about young people trying to use the media to expose a corrupt developer and discovering the hard way how advertising and media conglomeration affect news stories. This book is probably the most appealing for young readers exploring these issues.

For young adults, the book Debunk It!: How to Stay Sane in a World of Misinformation by John Grant uses real world examples to teach readers how to identify bad evidence and poor arguments. In addition to explaining concepts like confirmation bias, stereotyping, and fake news, Grant also explains why these things are harmful to everyone. Social Media Deception by Bradley Steffens is part of a series called “The Risks of Social Media.” Social Media Deception is about the prevalence of false information on social media. This false information includes scams, fake accounts, ransomware, and more. Steffens discusses who is affected by these problems and what is being done to address these issues.

Charles Seife wrote Virtual Unreality: Just Because the Internet Told You, How do You Know It’s True? to help adult readers distinguish between truth and falsehood online. Seife discusses the digital revolution and how it has changed communication and interconnectedness among people. The Great Courses, a series of college-level courses on various topics, offers Fighting Misinformation: Digital Media Literacy on DVD. This is an eight-lecture series from the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) designed to teach listeners what to look for when it comes to misinformation and how to combat this type of fakery.

Libraries are meant to be a place where information can be freely accessed and the Mercer County Library System is no different. While misinformation and disinformation are very real problems, being armed with knowledge and healthy skepticism can keep us safe from bad actors, and MCLS is here to offer our patrons ways to find the best information.

- by Shanna C., Acquisitions and Cataloging Department