Monday, October 23, 2017

School librarianship has seen renewed interest as a potential corrective to “fake news” and other recent (real and perceived) information literacy failures. The internet has weakened traditional journalism, altered the economics of academic publishing and content production, created new networks of bigotry and disinformation, and, at least in theory, empowered young people around the world with immediate access to information and new tools to share their own knowledge and identities. But by largely hewing to traditional notions of bias, authority, and the nature of academic and civic engagement, school librarians may have reinforced existing inequalities and made themselves less relevant in the world our students will face. Can we transform information literacy instruction to help create the world we want to live in? Join us to discuss what these changes might look like and how we can implement them in school libraries.