Infodemic during COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of Library Professionals (Presentation Slides)

During the COVID-19 pandemic situation, when information outbreak is enormous, it is the time to remind the society of the importance of libraries and librarians in organising and disseminating accurate & reliable information. Accurate information is the key to handling a chaotic situation. The exchange of false information seems to be on the rise. It has created a situation of 'infodemic' as stated by the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). This has not only affected research work severely but has also created chaos among the laypeople. The present study tries to investigate the attitude, perception & responsibility of a library professional for this purpose as they are the essential provider of information for academic as well as a social community. The study was carried through a short online survey with a structured questionnaire designed on a Google form. A total of 150 respondents (N) was selected for the study over four designated domains viz. Library Assistant, Assistant Librarian, Deputy Librarian and University Librarian. The findings of the study reveal that some part of regular citizen, political leaders, attention seekers & profiteers, and heavily partisan news media are the top responsible sources of infodemic; while WhatsApp & Facebook takes the lead as a major platform for this purpose. Additionally, the study throws light on harms done to people due to this infodemic e.g. anxiety, insomnia, depression and negative thoughts. As an essential practice to fight against such infodemic, all types of library professionals agree to crosscheck information from authentic sources before sharing with others but also take into account updating yourself from time to time with sufficient information as well as not trusting blindly on everything over the internet. Again, the majority of the library professionals agreed with more than one way to stop such infodemic situation, which includes conducting information literacy programmes, social talk, surveys & webinars to ensure mental richness of the user, spreading awareness about official and fake websites, training common people about how to identify & report misinformation etc.