Fake news and digital literacy: The academic library’s role in shaping digital citizenship

As proven authorities on information literacy, librarians are well positioned to lead learners through a politically and digitally polarized environment and advocate for the development of digital citizenship. In October 2017, the Florida Chapter of the Association of College and Research Librarians (FACRL) hosted its annual conference and engaged attendees in conversations to explore digital literacy in higher education and investigate the library’s responsibility to lead the charge toward the creation of learners with the requisite skills to engage critically and ethically with information in an open knowledge society. The 2017 FACRL Annual Conference featured nine innovative and engaging presentations and posters that challenged the popular reference to fake news and illuminated corresponding opportunities for libraries and librarians to champion digital literacy initiatives at their respective institutions of higher education. In this issue of The Reference Librarian, we are pleased to feature articles from four of our distinguished presenters. Librarians Mia Tignor and Angie Neely-Sardon from Indian River State College present a model for academic libraries seeking to develop news and information literacy skills in their article, “Focus on the facts: a news and information literacy instructional program.” In addition, Tignor and Neely-Sardon highlight the librarian as the source evaluation expert contributing to the discussion of the librarian as central to digital literacy initiatives in institutions of higher education. Author Sonnet Ireland explores the use of social media memes to teach information literacy in the article, “Fake news alerts: teaching news literacy skills in a meme world,” highlighting innovative techniques to engage students in the important discussion surrounding digital citizenship. Amanda Closier shares strategies from the Open University (UK) to assist distance learning students in the development of digital and information literacy skills in the article, “Walking the talk: using digital media to develop distance learners’ digital citizenship at the Open University (UK).” Finally, authors Christopher Jordan, Victor Lawrence, and Cristy Moran collaborate to showcase media literacy and social justice initiatives at the North Regional/Broward College (NR/BC) Library, a joint use facility. The article “Experience from the field: programming in a joint-use partnership library” provides tips on collaborations in and outside joint-use libraries and contributes to the discussion on media literacy programming in joint-use libraries. Future issues of The Reference Librarian will also feature several pieces originally given at the 2017 FACRL Annual Conference providing additional insights and showcasing digital literacy initiatives designed to position the academic library as a champion of digital citizenship in higher education.