The librarians described as “excellent” their unique experience of the training organized by “Big Data for smart society” (GATE) Institute in the regional library “Nikola Furnadjiev” in Pazardzhik. The course was held on two consecutive days, immediately after the Day of the librarian on May 11th.
The course was opened by the director of the GATE Institute, Prof. Silvia Ilieva and was led by Assoc. Prof. Milena Dobreva and junior researcher Ruslana Margova. The 35 participants were awarded certificates.
The forum discussed ideas for training teenagers, verifying facts about the benefits of supplements, researching historical facts about local legends and myths, for recognising reliable sources when looking for work abroad. These topics have a significant social resonance and would help improve the skills of different groups of citizens in media and information literacy.
The participants noted the high quality of the content and the excellent structure of the programme. Librarians believe they have gained knowledge on how to recognize fake news and how to use fact-checkers.
Assoc. Prof. Milena Dobreva, who heads the research activities in the field of disinformation at GATE, stressed that this training is unique as it is focused on practical aspects. “Many training programs still have a more theoretical bias, and our emphasis is on exercises with different technological tools and the planning of training programs for different groups of people, where disinformation comes through different channels.”
This is the first detailed training course for trainers among library and community centre specialists after the summer school on detection of disinformation, organized by GATE in 2021 in Plovdiv.