LISNews: Librarian News

Finding good information on the internet
The internet empowers us to educate ourselves and make more informed choices and decisions without leaving our couches. But if we believe everything we find on the internet, we are likely to wind up making some very poor decisions. In this new digital information age, how do we keep from being misinformed? As a skeptical environmental research scientist and educator I have picked up a few tricks that anyone can use to find and select high-quality information from the internet.

#1 Don’t be scared of scientific papers
#2 Not all websites are created equal
#3 Checking the facts

Readers of all ages will dig out their red capes at the Whitehall branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library as they dive into adventure during this year's summer reading program, "Be a Hero -- Read."

From easy-to-master magic to teen gaming and turtles, children will find a litany of fun activities to help them get excited about reading.
Just look around the library -- Captain Read is everywhere.

Kris Hickey, the Whitehall branch children's manager, said this year's summer reading program is going back to its roots and focusing solely on reading. "We've just gone back to the literacy part of it," she said, "and this is a very literacy-based program."

No longer can participants earn credit for playing an online activity or attending one of the branch's many programs. What they will get credit for, though, is tackling a good book.

"I think as an organization, we decided literacy is really our main focus," said Hickey. "We look at getting everyone to read, then we work at keeping them focused and interested so they are ready for the next level when school starts."

More from Columbus Local News.

The digital divide gets granular
"This makes me think that the digital divide may or may not be growing wider, but it’s growing more granular. As more and more aspects of our culture have a digital dimension, there are more and more ways to get confused, fall behind, and so on. And as more technology assumes an always-on or always-connected state to be the natural state, it becomes easier to have digital cracks in the sidewalk to jump over if you aren’t willing or able to pay for that kind of connectivity."

Teens who read for pleasure are more likely to have professional careers as adults, says a study conducted by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

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