President Obama recently declared October to be National Information Literacy Month. From the text of the proclamation:

Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation… Over the past decade, we have seen a crisis of authenticity emerge. We now live in a world where anyone can publish an opinion or perspective, whether true or not, and have that opinion amplified within the information marketplace. At the same time, Americans have unprecedented access to the diverse and independent sources of information, as well as institutions such as libraries and universities, that can help separate truth from fiction and signal from noise… An informed and educated citizenry is essential to the functioning of our modern democratic society.

We in the library could not agree more! Read the full text of the proclamation here, and stop by the library to find out more about how you can find and evaluate information. We think the CRAAP test is a good place to start for evaluating.

[thanks to alert reader Cheryl for the link!]