The Google Effect: How Search Engines, YouTube, and Other Sites Promote Misinformation

Allie Stevens, Shawna Thorup, and Janice Weddle

December 3, 2020 at 02:00 P.M. CST

Zoom Link: https://emporiastate.zoom.us/j/95133770451

This webinar will introduce recent scholarship that explores how search engines' and social media's algorithms can lead to very different search results for different people and how this impacts both individuals and society. We will discuss ways librarians in every setting can teach our communities about these differences to increase awareness.

Allie Stevens is the director of Calhoun County Library in Hampton, AR. She received her MLIS from Louisiana State University in 2015, and was a 2018 ALA Emerging Leader. Shawna Thorup is Head of Reference and Instruction at Northwest Arkansas Community College, which is located about three miles from the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville. Shawna earned her MLS from UCLA and has more than 20 years of library experience.

Janice Weddle has worked at Hendrix College’s Olin C. Bailey Library since 2017, where she oversees the library’s public services as the Assistant Librarian for Instruction and Outreach. Janice earned her MA in Library Science from the University of Missouri.

Shawna Thorup is Head of Reference and Instruction at Northwest Arkansas Community College, which is located about three miles from the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville. Shawna earned her MLS from UCLA and has more than 20 years of library experience.