On Saturday, January 30, Emily, Kate, and I went up to Hunter College to conduct a workshop on research and fact-checking for members of the collective who put out IndyKids, "a free newspaper and teaching tool that aims to inform children on current news and world events from a progressive perspective and to inspire a passion for social justice and learning."

We had a great time with a small group of adults, teens, and one kid (a fourth-grader who's been involved with IndyKids for the past two years!). We asked about the fact-checking and research methods they currently use, and people described using various Google indexes and techniques (e.g. limiting results to .orgs). Emily went over how the fact-checking process works when someone other than the writer is also responsible for the accuracy of an article. This lead to a discussion about sources (who/what is the best entity to go to when you're checking up on a given fact?). Kate and I talked about the "information landscape," from the open Web to subscription-based online databases, and showed some sample searches for news, facts, and images.

There were also several questions about ethical and legal implications of using images and quoted text found online. The IndyKids crew was familiar with Creative Commons licensing, but, as we librarians already know too well, copyright can be an area of endless ambiguity and interpretation.

Thanks to Amanda for inviting Rad Ref! Our handouts are attached below.