Information and media literacy are important components of library instruction. When seeking to answer an information need, school librarians ask students to consider authority, accuracy, objectivity, and currency of a source. The criteria school librarians have spent years teaching our students to consider when evaluating information/media has not changed. However, the landscape students and staff are navigating has become more complicated.

Social media plays a big part in our complicated information landscape. During the pandemic social media became an integral part of life for many of us. It was a way to stay connected while living under COVID-19 restrictions. Unfortunately, while social media has many good features, social media can also be used in the spread of misinformation.

As a member of society, being able to answer an information need is not enough. Students need to be able to fact check, recognize opinion and bias, and answer that information need with reliable quality information. Information and media literacy are skills necessary for our students to be college, career, and life ready.

In the November/December issue of Knowledge Quest we have gathered a wealth of knowledge and resources for defining, teaching, and advocating for media literacy. This issue also examines how to integrate social media competencies into information literacy instruction.

About the Content Expert

Donna Mignardi (she/her/hers) is the school librarian at Calvert High School in Prince Frederick, Maryland. She was named 2020 Maryland School Librarian of the Year, and Calvert County Public Schools was awarded the 2021 AASL National School Library of the Year Award. She coauthored the January/February 2020 Knowledge Quest article “School Libraries and Social Justice Education” and the September 2020 School Library Connection article “School Library Instruction and Services: Our Roadmap during a Global Pandemic.” She has presented at AASL National Conferences and blogs for Programming Librarian. Donna is the chair of the communications committee for the Maryland Association of School Librarians. She is a member of AASL.

Knowledge Quest, Volume 50, No. 2 – Graduating Information- and Media-Literate Students

Feature

Graduating Information- and Media-Literate Students
Donna Mignardi

Media Literacy Articles

Media Literacy Resources to Support Instruction across Content Areas
Michelle Lipkin

The Social-Emotional Underpinnings of Our Information Literacy
Jacquelyn Whiting

Gatekeeping Misinformation with Media Literacy Education
Belinha de Abreu

Preparing Students for a Technology-Driven Future: How School Librarians Can Integrate Computer Science Standards into Curriculum
Jim Belair and Nicole Waskie-Laura

Articles

Establishing School Library Leadership as a First-Year Librarian
S. Michelle Dooney

Hacking the Pandemic: Launching Third Space into Cyberspace
Brittany Bowser

Departments

President’s Column
Weaving Media Literacy into Content-Area Instruction
Jennisen Lucas

KQ Editorial Board Liaison Column
Strategies to Teach Students to Be Media Literate
Leanne Ellis

Columns

Research into Practice Column
Cultivating Our Self-Efficacy as School Librarians
Jessica Thompson

CBC Column
Raising Young Thinkers
David Miles

Author: Donna Mignardi

Categories: KQ Content

Tags: #AASLkq, disinformation, information literacy, media literacy, misinformation, SEL, social emotional, social media