By: Lauren Reiter

Throughout the year, the Informed Consumer committee has coordinated programs for students, staff, and faculty aligned with PA Forward’s five literacies: basic, information,
civic/social, health, and financial.

In the final post of this series, we will discuss information literacy, which is perhaps the PA Forward literacy most familiar to academic library employees. PA Forward “envision[s] a
Pennsylvania where citizens know how to use online resources and current technology to improve their education, to enhance their job skills, and to fully participate in a digital society.”

To help students develop the skills needed to evaluate information found online, Emily Reed, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Penn State Harrisburg, presented “Don’t Let Fake News Fool You” as part of the Informed Consumer series in February. In the presentation, Emily guided students through how to identify fake news, distinguish misinformation and disinformation, and manages biases. Attendance included students from three Penn State campuses, as well as many library employees.

If you are interested in PA Forward literacies or the Informed Consumer series and want to talk more, please reach out to Informed Consumer committee chair Lauren Reiter at  lmr29@psu.edu.