COVID, the political climate, and the pervasive use of online resources and social media have created an environment of distrust and unbelief in science and evidence-based medical information. This handbook, edited by Keselman, Catherine Arnott Smith, and Amanda J. Wilson with contributions from academics and medical librarians, provides information about the roots of this problem and methods to combat it. The book has three parts. The first focuses on definitions, noting that misinformation is explicitly false while disinformation is a deliberate attempt to mislead. The authors discuss the ecology of misinformation and the major role of social media in disseminating it. Part two covers professional practice and how healthcare professionals, educators, and community workers encounter misinformation as they work. The authors emphasize the importance of teaching young people critical thinking so that they can evaluate sources and use social media effectively to get reliable information to the public. Part three examines community engagement, focusing on how public libraries can teach about misinformation and offer tools and techniques for finding reliable, evidence-based information. A well-researched and useful resource for librarians providing health and medical information to the public.

Library Journal

Combating Online Health Misinformation: A Professional’s guide to Helping the Public does an excellent job of describing health misinformation and disinformation; why we fall for it and how we can combat it. It covers timely topics such as the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy and the role that social media plays in disseminating health mis- and disinformation; and aids in understanding the multi-faceted reasons the public believes in false or biased information sources. Health, social media, cultural and science literacy are critically important in identifying misinformation, and the authors offer both insight and practical guidance for librarians, educators, policy makers and healthcare professionals on how to engage and empower their communities to improve their knowledge and understanding of health information.

Susan Harnett, Medical Information Services Librarian, Borland Library, University of Florida

If you are looking to combat the all-important problem of health misinformation, I can heartily recommend Combating Online Health Misinformation: A Professional's Guide to Helping the Public.

Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

I highly recommend this title to any professional who works to engage science, health and information literacy in all contexts. Its depth of coverage is wide-ranging and its value is in the stellar writing and exemplary authority.

Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association

Combating Online Health Misinformation provides an in-depth look at health misinformation from a health information professional’s viewpoint. The book offers a helpful breakdown of how health misinformation spreads and how librarians and health care professionals can combat it. The book’s contributors show that the infodemic is difficult enough to conceptualize, let alone fight, and combating online misinformation is not easy given how quickly it spreads. In a way, this turns a book focused on misinformation into something comforting as it reminds health care practitioners and information professionals that they are not alone in fighting health misinformation, even if it is a battle that must be fought every time new misinformation surfaces.

Medical Reference Services Quarterly