Consciousness of disinformation

[Robert J Tiess]

I'm simply curious as to whether not any of the libraries on
this list have made any sort of concerted effort to alert their
patrons as to the potential for informational inaccuracy or
disinformation on the World Wide Web.  Do you attempt to
raise any consciousness, or do you assume the patrons
may know or discover this on their own.

I'm not saying, of course, this is a primary task for librarians,
or even what librarians should be focusing on.  Indeed, with
all the informational sources these days, tracking good,
dependable information is a challenge in itself, compounded
by the impermanency of Internet URLs.  As a library technician,
I work every day with librarians who rely increasingly each
day on the Internet as a source of information.  They are
quite aware of this issue and go first thoroughly through
the in-house collections first before resorting to cyberspace.

 We also ask our patrons to exercise their critical thinking
skills and common sense and to be mindful before citing any
Internet sources.  Since we introducted Internet access earlier
this year, more patrons are coming in each day and
conducting their research mostly via the Internet, so the
issue has not waned in importance; it has increased.

				Robert
				rjtiess at juno.com

Library Technician, Webmaster
Middletown Thrall Library - www.thrall.org