The Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories: Modeling User Information Behavior and Motivations paper was undertaken in an attempt to gain professional understanding about what makes information users hesitant about vaccines, and specifically the COVID19 vaccine, and related to that, what drives people’s beliefs in misinformation generally and in regard to politics, which significantly impacted the COVID19 vaccine rollout. As an individual person, I have struggled with understanding why people are hesitant to take the COVID19 vaccine when I see it as a safe path forward to ending the pandemic, and I have likewise wondered why conspiracy theories and misinformation are convincing to the point of being believed in the face of factual evidence. As a librarian, I know I must always put personal beliefs aside to assist patrons when they are seeking information, so I chose to closely examine these information seeking behaviors in an attempt to understand them more completely and guide my own practice in an ethical and unbiased way. In this way, this paper closely follows PLO3 by seeking a way to engage in the changing cultural, educational, and social role of librarians/information professionals and the environments in which we work by taking a careful and thorough approach to assessing information delivery channels and how information professionals might help guide users to reputable and trusted information. Because of this approach, the paper also met RUSA Guideline 1: Inclusion, and RUSA Guideline 5: Evaluation in that the principles that all users are welcome in the library and they should be presented with information sources that have been carefully evaluated should guide reference librarians. ALA Ethics 1, 3, and 7 were used as guiding principles in that information professionals must always present the most reputable information, ensure our patrons’ privacy, and provide access to information regardless of our personal beliefs.

The paper may be accessed by clicking on the image to the left of this description.

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