In Librarian Takes It Off in the Stacks, Goes Viral, I left off with some unanswered questions: How do public libraries teach information literacy? How do they incorporate it into their programming? In “Fighting Fake News,” Marcus Banks spotlights an eight-week training course in community journalism for high school students hosted by the Dallas Public Library called “Storytellers without Borders.” Programs like this exist for college and high school students, but what about everyone else? How do public librarians reach the rest of the population?

As librarians, we approach each and every question with the utmost professionalism. We cover all perspectives of a subject and gather multiple sources so our researchers can come to the most truthful conclusion. But in our hyperconnected, networked world, where information flows freely to devices with the tap of a finger, librarians are no longer the gatekeepers of information. Promoting our detective-like information-finding skills is important so people know they can still turn to us when Google can’t cough up a good answer.

I have put together some innovative ways librarians can shine the light on reference services and continue to be the super info-professionals in their communities:

The Roaming Reference Librarian

Visit with some of your regular patrons while they are roaming the stacks or in front of a computer, like the Chattanooga Public Library did. Let them know you are promoting the library’s reference and research services and would be happy to help them research any topic above and beyond what they have found on Google. Equip yourself with a tablet in one hand (and perhaps a pencil behind your ear to look official). You may not get any takers on your first round, but continue to do that for a few weeks, and they will soon seek you out with their advanced research questions.

Straight from the Source: Government Documents

Librarians can continue to grow civic-minded communities by highlighting both local and national government documents. Rather then read editorialized and possibly skewed (maybe fake) news, show your patrons how to get theirs directly from the source by following presidential executive orders, memorandums, and proclamations. Logs like the Congressional Record and the Federal Register help us keep up with congressional activities and proposed rules, final rules and public notices, respectively. Since combing through these sites is often time-consuming, teach your patrons how to utilize the site’s search alerts and social media feeds; ”like” or ”follow” to import the sites into Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feeds.

Set the Record Straight with Database Content

By using social media streams, librarians can help set the record straight by offering multiple sources from the library’s premium databases. Yes, you can actually share full-text news and articles from some of the subscription-based databases in your digital collection—look for the “share” symbol! Sharing articles with the library’s social media fans promotes the vetted, trustworthy, but often underused resources and helps to validate the librarian’s role in the information space. Be mindful of your sources’ political leanings by providing balanced perspectives and viewpoints or sticking to middle-of-the road publications.

Gamification: Escape from the Library

By getting creative with gaming in the library, librarians can teach critical thinking skills that lead to scrutinizing sources and finding accurate information. One way to accomplish that is to create an escape locked in a room at the library. Escape rooms are physical adventure games in which a team is given a series of puzzles to solve and questions to answer in a limited time. A team may unlock one room only to enter a second room and answer additional questions. Escape rooms incorporate engaging elements such as collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, which make them very popular with all ages.

I hope these ideas are just a start for you to engage further with your community and position librarians at the center of the information revolution. This is a great opportunity for librarians to flex their info-muscles and help our communities develop information and media literacy skills so they are better prepared to digest and think critically about the world around them.

I welcome your comments, questions and thoughts about innovative ways librarians can fight fake news in their libraries.

Further Reading

“Before The Internet, Librarians Would ‘Answer Everything’ — And Still Do,” npr.org, December 28, 2014.

See how they did it in Chattanooga Public Library: Meredith Levine, “A Roving Reference Assessment in Teen Services,” Public Libraries Online, January 21, 2016.

Katie O’Reilly, “Libraries on Lockdown: Escape rooms, a breakout trend in youth programming,” American Libraries, September 1, 2016.

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What about today’s students, though? While thirty-something students had the Internet when it came time to do a research paper, we did not have all of the virtual assistance students have today. As a reference librarian, it is alarming to see how many students are clueless when it comes to researching a topic. From my experience, many of them think typing a phrase in to Google is their “research.” Although Google is a very helpful search engine, these students do not know that they must look at the authenticity of the source rather than taking it as informational doctrine.

In the study “How Teens Do Research in the Digital World,” Kristen Purcell et al express that although the finest students will access research on a wide range, they are equally concerned about students not evaluating the quality of online information.[1] Which is why Purcell et al go on to state that they spend time teaching this in the classroom.

According to a survey taken by teachers, 94 percent of students are most likely “to perform research by using Google, while only 18 percent use a print or electronic book, 17 percent search an online database, and 16 percent consult a public or school librarian.[2] While in college, JSTOR was my go-to database; I used it for many literature analysis articles. In addition to this, I lived in the library’s stacks in my search for literature analysis on a particular author. Now, though, if you were to look up a psychoanalytical analysis of Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips,” you could access any angst-ridden teenaged girl’s take on it.

It is so important to teach students how to use search engines correctly. I believe this starts with informing students that “Googling” is inequitable to “research.” A librarian at University Laboratory High encourages students to use Google Scholar and subscribed databases.[3] Google Scholar is a great tool as it includes scholarly articles, which is just the type of information students should be utilizing. This is an especially fantastic tool if libraries are lacking the funding to purchase subscriptions to online databases.

The “Strategies” page on Carnegie Mellon’s interesting Solve a Teaching Problem website by the Eberly Center has a lot of great pointers. A problem is identified, such as “students do not know how to research,” and suggestions are given to alleviate the issue. The university goes on to further explore how to solve the problems by prescreening the students’ research skills, teaching research abilities, collaborating with the library, etc.[4]

What would assuage all of these research problems by the time a student gets to the university level would be to start making online research methods part of the middle school students’ curriculum. Some schools are lucky enough to have a media specialist teach this, while others do not. Many schools have eliminated professional librarians who used to teach research skills, and because of this, teachers must pick up the ball. I realize that teachers are already have their lesson plans stretched to maximum levels, but it is in the students’ best academic interest to teach them effective research skills from an early age.

References:

[1]  Kristen Purcell et al, “How Teens Do Research In The Digital World,” report by Pew Research Center, November 1, 2012.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Leslie Harris O’Hanlon, “Teaching Students Better Online Skills,” Education Week, May 20, 2013, reprinted in Education Week: Digital Curricula Evolving as “Teaching Students The Skills to Be Savvy Researchers,” May 22, 2013.

[4] Eberly Center, “Explore Strategies: Students don’t know how to do research,” Solve a Teaching Problem, n.d.

Further Reading:

Paul Jackson, “Search vs. Research“

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What is becoming increasingly difficult within this plethora of information is finding answers. In 2005, Peter Morville wrote the delightfully entitled Ambient Findability. This should be a mandatory read for librarians. Morville takes us through a discussion of a number of evolutionary methods in the digitizing of data, information, images, and how this affects findability as well as how this journey is changing the way we work and live. The wonderfully informative Web Search Garage by Tara Calishan, who blogs under several titles including ResearchBuzz, tells us how to use the Google search engine to our best advantage. There are many books on searching, with discussions about semantics and federated searching, but I’ve noted some important earlier ones below.

The paradox is that the more things we digitize, even with more and more sophisticated methods of finding them through search and probability engines, the harder it becomes to find these items. Thus we create better software to help us with the finding of digital information. The ebook Desktop Searching Handbook (DSH) arrived in January of 2005 and is a thorough review of several “major” desktop search products.  It reviews Copernic, Google Desktop Search, Lookout for Outlook, MSN Desktop Search toolbar suite, Yahoo Desktop search, and offers a paragraph each on Enfish Find, X1, Blinkx, dtSearch desktop, Ask Jeeves Desktop, Wilbur, and Isys Desktop.  Oddly, they do not include HotBot Desktop toolbar. (HotBot. “Desktop” review of the Beta version, launched in 2004 hhttp://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb040322-1.shtml)  We had software called Kenjin by the company, Autonomy, which similarly searched both desk computer and Internet at the same time. Many of these are gone now, not always replaced with better products. The new Windows 10 now does something similar with its internal program Cortana.

Beyond ‘desktop searching’ we now have some 270 special search engines to help us around the various subjects and types of access. Along with these there are a number of reviews of the Top 10, Top 40, etc. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/alternative-search-engines/ .

With all the help we still have issues about whether the answers give us more questions. Around 2002, PEW Research told us if we used Broadband we’d get more work done. What they didn’t tell us was that the data on which they based the conclusion included listening to radio and watching movies or TV shows. I’m not sure all that was “work” unless one was a reviewer or critic of such things. Thus, defining the context is important as well. I ran into this recently. Someone is doing a survey for “digital humanities librarians.” Without context we don’t know precisely the definition of “digital humanities librarian,” e.g, the subject, Humanities librarians involved in digital projects, or  the activity, Librarians involved in humane/social project such as UNESCO and others.

The government sites tell us veterans will be given long-term health care, but nothing I found seems to tells me how to find out if I’m eligible. The Veterans Administration site also tells us of Medicare and Medicaid help, but doesn’t lead one to discover for oneself what VA eligibility is or how to apply. Other than a phone call, I’m sure it’s all there, but not here, the “Extended Care” page on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ website, http://goo.gl/vZGJp9 . Almost every VA site provides information along with links to additional information, but not the answer to “am I eligible?” or “What are the exact eligibility criteria?”

At one point we had circular references in Statistical Abstracts, e.g., we were told information for one set of statistics came from the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA). When referring to RIAA inquiry of the statistics, they cited Statistical Abstracts as the source. Although dated, perhaps it’s time to get out the The Skeptical Business Searcher: The Information Advisor’s guide to Evaluating Web Data, Sites and Sources, by Robert Berkman: Information Today, Inc., 2005.

Because we librarians are used to looking things up, we forget that calling someone or finding an expert is also a process of accessing information quickly. When I worked at the Lincoln Center (NY) Research Library, we maintained a card file of subjects with names of people and phone numbers whom we could count on to help with answers. Find it Fast, an excellent book which came out many years ago, will be out in a sixth edition by the time readers see this article; Find It Fast: Extracting Expert Information from Social Networks, Big Data, Tweets, and More, Sixth edition by Robert Berkman.

Getting answers is the only reason we need to collect, process, and preserve the tons of digital and print resources being produced each day. Any suggestions or guides to finding answers should be the priority, not just providing information.

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What I’ve been pondering is the difference in reference interviews. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: there are really two types of reference interviews, advising and coaching/counseling. The advising type of reference interview is when a patron comes to seek our advice and help in finding answers. Counseling interviews, on the other hand, are not where patrons come to seek answers from us, but come to get us to help them figure something out. In other words, advice is when we, librarians, tell patrons what we think; counsel is when librarians help patrons figure out what they are thinking.

While they may seem very similar, they are not, and if we use the wrong approach we can actually cause great harm (that statement may or may not be hyperbole). Let me illustrate with the same question. Let’s say both Patron A and Patron B come to your desk asking to help them find a book about becoming a veterinarian. Seems pretty straightforward doesn’t it? But through a solid reference interview you hear Patron A say, “Oh yes, I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian, even when I was a little kid,” but Patron B has a different answer, “Well, I’m guess I don’t know what I want to do with my life, but I like dogs.”

Now, in both cases we can answer the question. We can give both patrons the same book. But does Patron B really leave with the answer they are looking for? No. Patron B is really looking for help on what the heck to do with their life. What Patron B really needs to hear is that it’s OK to not have it figured out. Maybe share a little of your story, or the story of someone you know. Then you can provide them with resources on taking the next steps. And if you have the resources or training, perhaps you can help them figure out what point on the compass they should pursue.

What is really important is to know the difference between the two types of questions. Sometimes patrons are just looking for an answer, but other times patrons are looking for much bigger answers. Many times patrons seek answers that don’t address the issue behind the question. And often times, patrons are looking for someone like us to validate their feelings, doubts, and fears.

May you remember that you can give great advice or great counsel, but know when to provide it. May you remember that we all don’t have this whole life thing figured out, so give your patrons great empathy, and may you remember that sometimes the answer the patron is really seeking is the ear of someone kind, much like YOU.

Photo Credit: Francesca Launaro (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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