Trout Library Blog

News in contemporary society comes from a multitude of sources, including print, television, radio, the open Internet, and social media. Some of the news that you consume will originate from reputable sources and will be largely accurate. However, some stories that pass as news contain misinformation that is intended to deceive. The stories might be completely false or contain a kernel of truth mixed with falsehoods. In other cases, a story might be pushing a certain narrative and have a slant that is noticeable only to a discerning reader.

One of the jobs of a librarian is to teach people how to separate fact from fiction, to distinguish good information from bad. In order to help you accomplish what can be a challenging task, I have created a Media Literacy guide. I encourage everyone to make use of this guide.

On the guide's introductory page, you will find definitions of media literacy along with some important organization websites on the topic, such as the Center for Media Literacy, the Center for News Literacy, the News Literacy Project, and the Poynter Institute. Under Source Evaluation Methods, learn about the S.I.F.T. method, the CRAAP test, and the STAAR method. The Fake News and Fact Checking tab contains a vast amount of information, including important definitions, distinguishing fact from opinion, the concept of lateral reading, how to verify the authenticity of images, and links to websites that you can use to fact-check the news.

News articles, especially ones dealing with politics and elections, often cite polls. However, you should never take a poll at face value and should always delve more deeply into it in order to determine its quality. Misleading polls can distort your view of reality. Under the Media Literacy guide's Evaluating Polls tab, learn about what you should look for when determining whether or not to accept a poll's results.

In the Media Literacy guide, there are also tabs for Videos on Finding Good Information as well as Books and eBooks. One book that I would like to highlight is the following:

True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News by Cindy L. Otis

Call Number: 070.43 .Ot88 2020

ISBN: 9781250239495

The CDC defines health literacy as the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. Emphasis is placed on the ability not only to comprehend health information, but also to use it to make well-informed decisions. The Trout Library has many resources to help you find quality health information and to assist you in communicating it to patients. We encourage all students in the Allied Health programs to take advantage of these resources.

In our General Reference library guide, you will find a Health tab that lists a variety of resources that you can use to locate good health information. For basic information, listed are a number of print dictionaries, encyclopedias, and guides to medical terminology that we have in the Library as well as online reference sources from the Credo Reference database. You will also see links to government agency websites, which are good places to go to locate primary sources. In addition, other important medical websites are provided here. MedlinePlus and Merck Manuals contain detailed information about varied health topics, including health conditions. Prescriber's Digital Reference and RxList feature extensive drug information. For health-related statistics, find links to the National Center for Health Statistics, America's Health Rankings, and State Health Facts.

To obtain peer-reviewed journal articles in the health fields, we provide access to a number of databases, both subscription and open access. There are links to these databases on our Databases A-Z list, under the Health tab in the General Reference guide, and under the Databases tab in the various program and topic library guides. Some useful databases to help you locate scholarly health articles are:

• CINAHL (Subscription) -- For off-campus access, retrieve the username and password under Quicklinks in Harcum Hatch.
• PLOS (Open Access)
• PubMed (Open Access)
• ScienceOpen (Open Access)

You should consult the sources provided in our Media Literacy guide as well as those under the Website Evaluation tab of our Research Help guide to help you determine the quality and accuracy of the health information that you find. These resources can be applied to the health fields just as they can to any other realm of information.

We have added a number of new health books to the print collection this semester, and some of them are on display on the slatwall near the Library entrance. One such book that I would like to recommend is the following:

Health Literacy from A to Z: Practical Ways to Communicate Your Health Message by Helen Osborne

Call Number: 610.696 .Os81 2018

ISBN: 9781947937130

The focus of this book is the effective communication of health information by health professionals to their patients. Sometimes patients find medical information to be incomprehensible or they find misleading information on their own that a health professional needs to correct. This book is easy to read and will help you learn strategies for meeting patients on their level so that you can convey the best information to them in a way that they can understand. The book's 42 brief chapters cover topics such as empathy and humanity, humor and healing, listening and speaking, document design, numeracy, plain language, and stories. Several chapters are devoted to knowing your audience and to technology. Each chapter consists of Starting Points; Strategies, Ideas and Suggestions; Stories from Practice, Citations, and Sources to Learn More. All students in the Allied Health programs who work with patients would find this book to be a valuable asset.

Remember that if you have questions about the resources mentioned in this post or any other research need, please don’t hesitate to ask us. You may visit the Library during the hours posted on the Library's homepage, email us at library@harcum.edu, schedule a Zoom Reference session, or call us at 610-526-6085.