All That's Not Fit to Print: Fake News and the Call to Action for Librarians and Information Professionals

"Dewey Defeats Truman." "Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby."  Fake news may have reached new notoriety since the 2016 US election, but it has been around a long time. Whether it was an error in judgment in a rush to publish election results in November, 1948, or a tabloid cover designed to incite an eye roll and a chuckle in June, 1993, fake news has permeated and influenced culture since the inception of the printed press. But now, when almost every press conference at the White House contains a declaration of the evils of "fake news", evaluating information integrity and quality is more important than ever.  In All That’s Not Fit to Print, Amy Affelt offers tools and techniques for spotting fake news and discusses best practices for finding high quality sources, information, and data. Including an analysis of the relationship between fake news and social media, and potential remedies for viral fake news, Affelt explores the future of the press and the skills that librarians will need, not only to navigate these murky waters, but also to lead information consumers in to that future.  For any librarian or information professional, or anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by the struggle of determining the true from the false, this book is a fundamental guide to facing the tides of fake news.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Fake News: False Content in a Familiar Format  2. How We Got Here  3. Sharing is Not Caring: Fake News and Social Media  4. How To Spot Fake News  5. Fake News In The Field: Library Schools and Libraries  6. The Future of Fake News: The View From Here Conclusion

About the Author :
Amy Affelt has spent her entire career in economic consulting, and frequently writes and speaks on fake news, Big Data, Internet of Things, adding value to information, and evaluating information integrity and quality. She is the author of The Accidental Data Scientist: Big Data Applications and Opportunities for Librarians and Information Professionals (Information Today, 2015), and is the Big Data columnist for EContent Magazine. She is a Fellow of the Special Libraries Association.

Review :
Discerning reliable, authoritative news and information has gotten much harder in this connected, technologically-driven era. Amy Affelt provides a useful and informative guide to navigating the challenges--and an important call to arms for librarians and information specialists to play a leading role in defending and advancing the importance of objective facts on behalf of all of us. Librarians are on the front lines in 21st Century info-wars and struggles over misinformation and weaponized narratives. Library patrons would dearly love it if they had nearby trustworthy allies to help them navigate these new societal challenges. Luckily, Amy Affelt has created a playbook for her colleagues, showing them how they can exploit their talents to be reliable knowledge stewards to their communities in an ever-more confusing world. In this age of misinformation, librarians play a crucial role in helping people make sense of what is true or not. This book is an excellent tool for anyone interested in improving their information diet, with practical tips for finding quality sources, as well as techniques and tools for checking out content sourced online. Most importantly, this book places our current situation in a wider historical context. As humans, we've always been drawn to rumors and conspiracies, but how can we cope when digital technologies have super-charged everything, from the creation to the dissemination of false and misleading information. This book shows you how. All That’s Not Fit To Print is an important and timely resource for information professionals grappling with issues of veracity, authenticity, and authority. It dives deep into current trends to inform the discussion and lays out actionable insights on how we should engage around questionable content. This timely clarion call to arms encourages librarians to be at the forefront of the fake news cultural and political battle, helping them to recognize their evolving roles in today’s ethical and technological struggle and to be prepared to fight for the truth. Amy Affelt, in All That's Not Fit To Print, has written an effective primer for librarians and information professionals on the challenge that is fake news. Covering the current development of this across social media she covers the key issues, a variety of effective tools and resources, and an informed call for librarians to adequately arm themselves to combat the dreaded 'fake news' scourge that we find ourselves in. Definitely worth a read for experienced and budding librarians. Amy Affelt’s All That’s Not Fit To Print is a timely, intensely interesting, and easy-to-read book full of important, common-sense advice for those of us in the library and information professions who want to hone our skillsets to become information quality experts. It is revolutionary in that it is a book to guide information professionals to realize their role and encourage growth of methods long-present in our profession. Affelt’s book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about information quality from one of the best in our field. Gone are the days when we could reasonably trust the news. As long as responsible journalism is under attack, we can no longer assume that news is grounded in facts and reality. Fortunately, Affelt provides the guidance we need to decide what to believe, and what to discard. With All that’s Not Fit to Print author Amy Affelt gives us all that we need to identify and combat the fake news epidemic that is causing confidence in media to significantly decline. While aimed at libraries and librarians who are leading the way in developing digital and information literacy skills, this book’s advice is for everyone who seeks to ensure that the information they use and share is of the highest quality. Kudos to Amy Affelt for producing a very readable, enjoyable and easy to understand guide to separating distortions, misinformation and lies from the high quality information we need to make good decisions on a daily basis. Reasoned and passionate, thorough and provocative, Amy Affelt’s latest does much more than recap the issues and name the disease: she’s created a clear roadmap for librarians and media people alike to ensure reality-based reportage not only survives but flourishes. Informative, insightful, in-depth. Amy Affelt uses her expertise, as a noteworthy research librarian, to teach others about fake news and how to work the complex and convoluted process of obtaining accurate informational text. All That's Not Fit to Print is helpful, timely and relevant.