Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World

The new metaliteracy book edited by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson, Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World, has been published by ALA Neal Schuman. This timely volume addresses the profound challenges of the post-truth world through the exploration of metaliteracy theory and practice from multiple disciplinary perspectives. An excerpt from the new book features the Foreword, written by Troy Swanson, MLIS, Ph.D., Department Chair Library Services, Moraine Valley Community College, the book’s Table of Contents, with the titles and authors of all nine chapters, and a snippet of the first chapter Empowering Metaliterate Learners for the Post-Truth World, by Tom Mackey. This framing chapter examines the emergence of post-truth terminology, explores several of the related issues that define post-truth circumstances, such as confirmation bias, false information, and personal privacy/information security, and also includes an expanded Metaliteracy Learner Characteristics figure and revised Metaliteracy Goals and Learning Objectives, both developed with Trudi Jacobson.

This edited volume examines both the theory and practice of metaliteracy in the post-truth era with chapters authored by faculty and librarians. Several of the chapters have been featured in this blog, including “Poetic Ethnography and Metaliteracy: Empowering Voices in a Hybrid Theater Arts Course” by Kimmika L. H. Williams-Witherspoon, “When Stories and Pictures Lie Together — And You Don’t Even Know It” by Thomas Palmer, and “Reconstructing Scientific Literacy through Metaliteracy: Implications for Learning in a Post Truth World,” by Allison Brungard and Kristin Klucevsek. This book also features chapters written by Marc Kosciejew, Josh Compton, Nicole A. Cooke, and Rachel Magee, Allison Hosier, and Jaclyn Partyka.

The themes examined in this latest metaliteracy book inform a SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) project by the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative to develop an Open edX MOOC entitled Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World (to be offered in March 2019).