Librarians against fake news: A systematic literature review of library practices (Jan. 2018–Sept. 2020)

Abstract

This study's purpose is to systematically review the literature to identify the most recent library practices against fake news. Libraries are perceived as an important player against the fake news phenomenon. However, this role is often cornered in a positive self-perception of the work of librarians. This article investigates the tangible practices of libraries, discusses their efficiency, and provides a categorization of those practices. It was performed a systematic literature review of the last three years to retrieve the most recent library practices. After the extraction, with a final set of 27 documents, a multi-step qualitative analysis and a categorization were developed. Findings show most studies emphasize academic libraries practices and are mainly focused on information literacy instruction. The current debate is around strategies that intend to reiterate an authority-based source evaluation versus the challenge to recognize an emotional-based reaction to fake news in a post-truth world, and the need to scout libraries' new routes.