With summer winding down, university students around the world are preparing to go back to school. On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, court proceedings surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, and ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the school year comes at a tumultuous time that brings with it loads of digital rumors and false information.
To see how university students are learning to battle mis- and disinformation online, our own Madison Dapcevich sat down with Diane Prorak, a reference and instruction librarian at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Prorak teaches students how to find information related to coursework, and as part of her work, she reached out to our newsroom to learn more about how we do what we do. But because her work is invaluable in fighting the digital rumor mill, we wanted to learn a bit more about her important work.
Prorak teaches workshops for first- and second-year college students, generally around the ages of 18-22.
“We teach research skills and evaluation of information as part of their first-year writing courses,” she told Snopes. “We try to teach them to do information research themselves efficiently and effectively.”
Here’s how her library is helping students:
Snopes: As a professional who works with students daily, what are some of the most persistent online trends pertaining to mis- and disinformation?
Prorak: First, many students come to college with some outdated notions about information, such as that a website with...
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