For the first time this year, the National Library Board’s Prove It! Contest went fully digital. An annual school event since 2013, student teams from 27 secondary schools put their information literacy and creativity skills to the test. Videos were created by the students, sharing their experiences of applying the S.U.R.E. (Source, Understand, Research, Evaluate) steps to topics ranging from COVID-19 vaccines myths to conspiracy theories. They further explained how media literacy is essential to reading online news. The students also had to share these videos with their schoolmates.
While millennials are constantly warned about the dangers of the Internet, seniors are equally, if not even more, susceptible to fake news, scam and fraud. With this in mind, we started a new S.U.R.E. skills series for seniors in August called Safeguarding Your Mind Against Fake News. This four-part online workshop was presented in both English and Mandarin. During these interactive sessions conducted by the librarians, participants learnt about the psychological factors that drive fake news and learnt how to be vigilant online. We also created grab-and-go content – from video, quiz to blog – so people could learn how to discern information in everyday situations.
We often consume information at face value, particularly during this age of constant distraction. To encourage the public to broaden their perspectives by reading widely from a range of sources, our team is pushing out Read to be SURE (RTBS) which is part of NLB’s Libraries and Archives Blueprint 2025 (LAB25), a five-year roadmap of transforming libraries into hubs for digital learning. RTBS includes content articles, social media engagement and programme. The first topic on Fast Fashion: Love it or Hate It? was released in November, along with a programme that was livestreamed from library@orchard on 8 December.
Contributed by:
Sara Pek
Head (Engagement), National Library Board
The Pandemic IL (Pain and Pride) Series, is a curation of stories in 300 words by instruction librarians as part of the Council of Chief Librarians (CCL) Committee on Information Literacy (CIL).
Released on a weekly basis, this multi-part story series highlights the pivot to online during the pandemic and demonstrates the resilience, tenacity, commitment and passion by instruction librarians to teach, educate and advocate not only information, media and digital literacy, but multi-literacies using various digital learning strategies. Enjoy.
Rajen Munoo
Chair, CCL, Committee on Information Literacy