As a library worker, I’m worried about the state of information in the world right now. I know you’ve heard some version of this sentiment in the past, so feel free to skip to the Question of the Month details below. If you’re still with me, here’s what’s on my mind. Social media, the polarization of politics, and the sheer volume of content online have all contributed to a massive amount of misinformation and disinformation — readily available on the internet. What is the difference, you may ask. Well, here’s a nifty resource that will hopefully help explain, but in brief, the difference is largely about intent. Misinformation is just false, but there’s no indication that the person who wrote it, post it, or spread it had malintent. Disinformation, on the other hand, refers to misinformation that is broadcast, generated, or shared with the intent to deceive, manipulate, influence, cause alarm or any other negative effect on the recipient. You can see that there’s a big difference between those two concepts. There’s also another type of information that you might not have heard of (I hadn’t either). It’s malinformation. Again, intent is important here. The intent with malinformation is to be truthful. It stems from facts, but the truth has been stretched in some way — distorted in the process. That act of distortion is where the danger lies. So, these are the three types of information battling it out online right now for who can do the most damage. Who can influence, isolate, and turn people against one another and towards radicalization the most. Notice, I’m using abstract concepts, anthropomorphizing, describing them as if they’re people. There are real people who have contributed to all these types of inaccurate information being online or in print, but this post isn’t about that. Much has been written about the way social media algorithms operate, feeding users misinformation and disinformation if they’ve interacted with similar topics on the platform in the past. Profit is just one motive or factor driving this proliferation. Check out the Canadian Democracy @ Work modules for a more in-depth look at this critical topic, but that is not the focus of this post. This post is about wanting to positively impact our community and cultivate civic engagement. And so, with that aim in mind, we are introducing the Question of the Month at VPL. We can’t claim credit for the idea, however. It was Harrisburg Community Library in South Dakota that came up with Question of the Week. We’ve adapted it to suit our needs at VPL. Every month, starting in the new year, we will pose a new query to our customers, starting a dialogue between them. Folks who want to participate may add a Post-it with their response to the display at participating libraries. The goal is for people to see that the answers to a lot of the questions will be the same for many of them. Questions like, what do you value most about Vaughan? What is the most important thing a community should have? We’re also partnering with the City of Vaughan (as we are wont to do) to help increase awareness of the municipal election coming up in fall 2026. It’s so important to participate in all levels of democracy, not just federal. There’s a lack of detailed information about what happens in an election at the municipal level out there. We’re trying to change that, so be on the lookout for municipal election and civic engagement content this year in the lead-up to the vote. In the meantime, I scoured our catalogue for writers tackling civic life in unique ways. We’ve all had the lecture. There’s no point in repeating that, but some authors are coming at democratic participation and public discourse from helpful and innovative perspectives. I’m going to keep it short today, and just talk about one promising read, but I will be coming back to this topic in future blog posts.