Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Massachusetts Libraries: Academic Libraries

A group of scientists and lawyers are starting a new intellectual property pledge, hoping to spur companies and universities to release their IP in the fight against the coronavirus. The pledge is available at https://opencovidpledge.org/ as of 4/1/20.

For this post, Brandon Butler, Tucker Taylor and I will be talking about the new realities of moving online – focusing on copyright and what I call the “Zoom question!” But first we’ll take a slight detour through a dense and rarely traveled forest of the Copyright Act: Section 110(2), also known as the TEACH Act.

"This page includes selected resources for learning the facts about Coronavirus and examples of how libraries are interrupting not only the spread of misinformation but also related racism and xenophobia."

In our work fact-checking political claims and debunking viral deceptions, we have found a tremendous amount of misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s a guide to our coverage of the facts. Click on the headlines for the full stories.

"In late December 2019, a new coronavirus was discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan. As the disease eventually dubbed COVID-19 spread from that region to the rest of the world, something else came with it — an “infodemic” of rumors and misinformation. [This site is] a compilation of claims we’ve fact-checked so far, separated by category."

Know the facts about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and help stop the spread of rumors.

As part of a comprehensive effort to combat misinformation about COVID-19 and the new strain of coronavirus that causes it, NLP created this resource page to provide accurate information about the pandemic and free resources to educators and the general public.

In response to the significant amount of misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomson Reuters and the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) are teaming up to provide high school and post-secondary educators with classroom resources that will inspire relevant and rich discussion about media literacy. As part of these efforts, we are offering a podcast titled Slowing the Infodemic: How to Spot COVID-19 Misinformation, as well as a companion short video, infographic, and classroom guide to teach media literacy skills through inquiry based learning. Using these resources, students will gain knowledge about the origin of common information we accept as fact, their role in accepting knowledge without inquiry, the process used by professional journalists to verify information, and the skills necessary to think critically about the media messages around them.

Recorded on 3/20, accessible via free registration.
In this webinar, we hope to provide valuable insights on how to counsel patrons when they ask you COVID-19 related questions.

"The coronavirus pandemic is rife with misinformation. Use your library’s digital reach to help people sniff out fake news."

From digital information literacy expert Mike Caulfield, this guide applies the SIFT evaluation method to coronavirus information.

Twitter account associated with Mike Caulfield's "Sifting Through the Coronavirus Outbreak"

Article about coronavirus misinformation and the SIFT approach