Short version:
Radical Reference, with a little help from our friends at Counterpoise, will be offering three Skill-Sharing Workshops at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston.

Sunday, January 16 at the Counterpoise booth, #2641 in the Exhibit Hall of Boston's Hynes Convention Center

1-1:30 Fact-Checking for Independent Media. Created by Emily Drabinski and Jenna Freedman and presented by Jenna.

1:30-2 Alternative Resources. Presented by the world renowned Jessamyn West.

2-2:30 Alternative Libraries and Infoshops. Presented by Shinjoung Yeo. Shinjoung was channeling Cheryl Yanek's thesis "Alternative libraries: is their existence necessary?" as well as ChuckO's article on Infoshops.

E-mail us for more information.

Long version:
FACT-CHECKING: Part of the mission of Radical Reference is to support independent journalists. One way to do that is to help them ensure that their publications & productions are beyond reproach, regarding accuracy. Emily Drabinski, a librarian who worked as a fact checker for 5 years and Jenna Freedman, a Radical Reference co-founder who has also done some professional fact-checking, have created a train-the-trainer workshop. The idea is that librarians can take this back to their local independent media outlets and either train the journalists or do the fact-checking themselves. The session also looks at how to find and evaluate online resources, including those available from the public library.

ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES: Jessamyn West, of librarian.net fame will expand on the discussion of resources -- for journalists, librarians, or anyone -- and how rumor checking is a vital part of today's information work.

ALTERNATIVE LIBRARIES AND INFOSHOPS: Moving on from alternative materials in libraries, Shinjoung Yeo, another of Radical Reference's co-founders and a long-time community activist, will look at when libraries themselves are outside of the realm of traditional librarianship. Although unavailable to present, Chuck Munson, who has founded two InfoShops and runs the InfoShop site, will contribute materials to the discussion.

Because we are merely meeting at a booth in the exhibit hall--think small press, not large database vendor--the workshops will be close and informal.

SEE ALSO Radical Reference Meeting at ALA Midwinter.