Articles & Chapters

Libraries Combating Disinformation: From the Front Line to the Long Game

Francesca Bolla Tripodi,

Jade Angelique Stevenson,

January 5, 2023

Interventions designed to enable librarians to build out their long game and empower patrons across the United States to better confront misinformation now and in the future

There is an urgent need to build the public’s resilience to disinformation. Librarians are trusted community members capable of taking on this fight, yet they may be hesitant to assume a frontline role in confronting politicized misinformation. We conducted ethnographic observations and interviews across three Montana libraries to understand the informational needs and search habits of library patrons and the role that librarians play in promoting effective search practices. While Montana poses a unique set of challenges regarding broadband speed and access, our findings replicated studies in school settings across the country regarding a reliance on antiquated search literacy techniques. Librarians interviewed expressed challenges with confronting patrons about specific information claims that might be politically sensitive but expressed confidence in their ability to build patron trust and teach effective search literacy practices. Based on this research, we built and tested interventions designed to enable librarians to build out their long game and empower patrons across the United States to better confront misinformation now and in the future.
Tripodi, F. B., Stevenson, J. A., Slama, R., & Reich, J. (2023). Libraries Combating Disinformation: From the Front Line to the Long Game. The Library Quarterly, 93(1), 48-71.

Download PDF at DSpace. Shared under the MIT Open Access policy with Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.

Written by

Francesca Bolla Tripodi

Written by

Jade Angelique Stevenson

Written by

Rachel Slama

Rachel Slama is a research scientist at MIT and co-director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab—an interdisciplinary lab comprised of learning scientists, engineers, and STEM education and simulation experts. Slama directs projects that use digital tools to promote adult learning at scale including a multi-institutional effort to promote the public’s search literacy in libraries, military institutions, and healthcare. Previously, she served as a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research and has worked as a bilingual teacher in New York City. Slama brings a track record of translating high-impact research into accessible findings for policymakers, researchers and practitioners and has presented her independent analyses at a Senate HELP committee briefing. Slama received a doctorate from Harvard in education policy analysis, an Ed.M. in international education policy from Harvard, an M.S. in bilingual childhood education from Pace University, and a B.A. from Emory University.

Written by

Justin Reich

Justin Reich is an educational researcher interested in the future of learning in a networked world. He is the director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, which aspires to design, implement and research the future of teacher learning. He is the author of Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in Schools andFailure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education from Harvard University Press. He is the host of the TeachLab podcast, and five open online courses on EdX including Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online Reasoning and Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices. Justin is a former fellow and faculty associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

On leave in Fall 2024.

Written by Francesca Bolla Tripodi

Written by Jade Angelique Stevenson

Written by Rachel Slama

Written by Justin Reich

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