Small Words

In the Digital Age, information is infinite. The Internet has made creating and sharing information effortless and social media has given many people a platform to connect on. I value the quality of information over the availability of information and for me, information literacy is the path to understanding the difference. This is the worth of our information institutions. Libraries advocate and provide access to quality information through public services and outreach. They are also in the perfect position to advise patrons on how to find and use materials on the web.

I see the need for information institutions every time I get on my computer. Online, we come across many perspectives. Individuals and corporate entities have a variety of motivations, insights, and approaches for reaching their audiences. Advertisements sell products and use alluring images and pithy sayings to appeal to the viewer. Social and political commentary is honed to be persuasive and powerful. Influencers reach a wider audience by appealing to followers, while many users are simply seeking to be sociable in a supportive space. Data is selected for each purpose, and the result is very different types of information, each tailored to the context and purpose of the product. Information literacy is the best tool for not only engaging but also understanding the whole range of online content. With the internet’s mixture of humor, metaphor, hyperbole, and misleading and false-facts we need tools to untangle the things we find there and just as importantly we need to fight for the institutions that provide those tools.