News from The Arthur Holt Library
One of the most basic functions of any library is to provide its users with information. Yes, that includes the contents of the books on our shelves and the articles in the databases and encyclopaedias to which we subscribe, but we’d also like to reach beyond that to give our students insight into issues in their community and the wider world.
With that in mind, we’ve dedicated an entire wall of our Print Zone to displaying news stories that we think might interest the boys. The stories range from the death of Mikhail Gorbachev and the recent attack on Salman Rushdie to the impact of labour shortages and the war in Ukraine. There’s even a story touting the results of a recent test which claims to prove that all cats are psychopaths.
That might sound like a purely light-hearted addition to our news roundup, but it also points to another aspect of the current media landscape that we would like the students to be made aware of – the prevalence of ‘fake news’. Casting a critical eye over the stories that you read, particularly on the internet, has become a necessary part of accessing news. These days, information literacy isn’t just a case of knowing how to find information, it’s also a matter of knowing how to tell fact from fiction.
It’s important for our students to know that the library is both a place where they can trust the information that they are given, and a place where they might learn those skills for themselves.
“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.”
– Neil Gaiman
