Abstract
Internet and communication technologies enable the creation of tremendous amounts of textual, graphic, and pictorial information. User-generated content published through personal web pages, blogs, and social media platforms has not only increased the amount of information available, but also expanded its reach. However, this ubiquity of information and empowerment of its creators leads to potentially controversial, futile, and inaccurate content circulating throughout the world. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, this can create false hope, fear, anxiety, harm, and confusion amongst information stakeholders. The World Health Organization recently applied the term “infodemic” to the COVID-19 pandemic. This commentary briefly discusses the current infodemic, its potential consequences, and the role of libraries—specifically health sciences, biomedical, and medical libraries—to help counter the COVID-19 infodemic. The discussion also has relevance for infodemics relating to other health and non-health affairs.
Highlights
Current events in the Information Age generate a tremendous amount of textual, graphic, and pictorial information, which is disseminated through traditional broadcast television and radio channels, as well as Internet and communication technologies via the web
The “mess” entails the amount of information, and the quality of the information and the research that produced it, the inability of many practitioners to evaluate the information, and the lack of access to credible information for patients and caregivers to make crucial decisions about their care [3]. This mess occurred before COVID-19, but this pandemic has created a market where journal editors are flooded with manuscripts to review and the public has an insatiable thirst for new information from news outlets and social media around the clock [4]
We have the ability to broadly inform the citizenry, while helping to protect the reputation of the scientific and biomedical research domain and ensure the knowledge gained helps humanity, just as it did during past epidemics. This commentary is in no way inclusive of all the possible initiatives that libraries have participated in during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
See end of article for author’s affiliation. Internet and communication technologies enable the creation of tremendous amounts of textual, graphic, and pictorial information. User-generated content published through personal web pages, blogs, and social media platforms has increased the amount of information available, and expanded its reach. This ubiquity of information and empowerment of its creators leads to potentially controversial, futile, and inaccurate content circulating throughout the world. The World Health Organization recently applied the term “infodemic” to the COVID-19 pandemic. This commentary briefly discusses the current infodemic, its potential consequences, and the role of libraries— health sciences, biomedical, and medical libraries—to help counter the COVID-19 infodemic. The discussion has relevance for infodemics relating to other health and non-health affairs
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