Librarians’ Management of COVID-19 Information Glut on Social Media: A Study of Information Censorship, Evaluation, Use and Dissemination in Ogun State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how librarians manage the COVID-19 information glut on social media, in order to curtail the increased spread of fake news, fake health advice, and fake cures in the context of Nigeria. A self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data (via an online survey) from 92 librarians in Ogun state, Nigeria. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22. Findings revealed that librarians were knowledgeable about credible sources of COVID-19 information on social media (mean = 3.24). To a very high extent, they considered and checked the source of COVID-19 information properly before sharing on social media (mean = 3.42) and also checked for the accuracy of COVID-19 information before further sharing (mean = 3.47). The study further suggests that adequate knowledge about the credible sources of COVID-19 information among librarians might have influenced their censorship and evaluation of COVID-19 information. The study, therefore, argued that though social media are important platforms for the dynamic and quick spread of COVID-19 information, caution should be taken, to evidence the source’s credibility before use and further sharing.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• information censorship
• information dissemination
• information evaluation
• information use
• Nigeria
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).