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Weekly News Digest
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August 30, 2022 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITI’s Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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News Roundup: Book Bans, Misinformation, and Vaccine Info on Wikipedia
The following are a few articles of interest for info pros.Barbara VanDenburgh writes in “Book Bans Are on the Rise. What Are the Most Banned Books and Why?” for USA TODAY: “A dramatic uptick in challenged books over the past year, an escalation of censorship tactics, and the coordinated harassment of teachers and librarians has regularly put book banning efforts in news headlines.” VanDenburgh provides a good overview and explainer piece: a list of news items about banned books, context for the rise in banning, a list of most-banned books, an explainer on who bans books, and notes on how organizations are pushing back. Mozilla published “Slow Your Scroll: 5 Ways to Fight Misinformation on Your Social Feed” via its Distilled blog, writing that “the internet also connects us with reliable sources. But when it comes to social media, it becomes a matter of whether or not we actually stop scrolling and take the time to verify what we’re seeing and hearing. So, how can we fight misinformation in our never-ending feeds? Consider these five tips.” They include filtering out the aesthetics, knowing when it’s time to dig deeper, and reporting misinformation. Connie Moon Sehat writes in “Why Does Wikipedia Need a Reliable Sources List on Vaccines?” for NewsQ: [T]he Wikipedia community has no … list of reliable sources for specialized topics such as vaccines. In addition, discussions within the community about source quality overall are often based upon one-off conversations tied to individual articles, rather than systemic evaluations. This is why NewsQ has started a project with Knowledge Futures Group that will allow members of the Wikipedia community to use data, based upon previous Wikipedian deliberations, to achieve a more robust, defensible consensus around reliable sources. We are collaborating with experienced Wikipedia editors participating in the Wikimedia DC chapter to gather this data and refine a list of reputable sources of vaccine information throughout 2022 and 2023.
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Brandi Scardilli
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