Kerrey Woughter is the Director of Library Services at Northwestern Michigan College. She gave us a crash course on information literacy.
Most information is received on line, but there has been a change in the last five years with information pollution ("Fake News" and the like), resulting in a sense of distrust of all information. Kerrey says that one must first make a determination that information is coming from a reliable source.
One place to start is with a so-called CRAAP test:
- Currency
- Reliability
- Accuracy
- Authority
- Purpose
Kerrey says don't be bothered by ads on a website; the ads may be making the website possible. There is also a SIFT test that requires investigating the source of the information and looking for a better one.
Kerrey says do not hesitate to use Wikipedia, as it is a great way to fact-check. The same is true with SNOPES.
To see Kerrey's slides of her full 75-minute presentation, click here. And to view a list of resources, click here.