Information literacy

There’s so much information at our fingertips, but how do we know whether a source can be trusted? These tools will help you find reliable sources and evaluate the accuracy of the information they share. 

Recommended reading

Anti-social Media

 Siva Vaidhyanathan

Outnumbered

 David Sumpter

Test your knowledge

Think you can easily determine which social media accounts are run by real people? Take this quiz to see how easy it is to be duped.

Spot the Troll

Learn more with Checkology

Take easy-to-understand video tutorials about misinformation, understanding bias, conspiratorial thinking, and the role of journalism in democracy by creating a free account with Checkology. Their Check Center also helps to verify possibly misleading information shared on social media.

Create a Checkology account

Check your facts

Easily monitor the accuracy of statements from elected officials, find out about the latest Internet hoax, and check the truth factor of various online articles and posts with these impartial fact-checking tools.

PolitiFact
Keep tabs on statements from elected officials and check those statements for accuracy. Visit PolitiFact
Hoax-Slayer
Get information about Internet hoaxes, scams, and security issues. Visit Hoax-Slayer
Snopes
Visit this independent fact-checking website to verify or debunk the most popular claims on the Internet. Visit Snopes

Explore biases

Learn how biases, both your own and from popular media sources, affect how you understand the news. These tools expose and explain media and confirmation biases and help you think objectively.

Media Bias/Fact Check

Check the bias and factual accuracy of a large number of news sources.

News Literacy Project

Learn about confirmation bias, the tendency to search for, interpret and recall information in a way that supports what we already believe.

AllSides

Discover the media bias of different sources and get news stories on key issues from multiple perspectives.

Library databases

Academic
Look here for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world’s leading journals and reference sources. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. Search Academic
News publications
This innovative full-text newspaper resource allows you to search articles instantly by title, headline, date, author, newspaper section, or other fields. Search News
Opposing Viewpoints
Continuously updated information and opinions cover hot issues and offer excellent arguments from a variety of perspectives. Search Opposing Viewpoints

How to spot fake news

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has created this infographic with eight simple steps to help you spot fake news. The graphic is available for download and print in many languages.

Visit IFLA to download
How to spot fake news poster