As the third wave of COVID-19 surges on in different parts of the globe, human society is faced with an onslaught of information related to all aspects of COVID-19. The World Health Organization defines an infodemic as “too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak.” Accurate health information will play a critical role in this global fight against the pandemic. Lifesaving decisions need to be taken by individuals to questions like:

  • Should I take the vaccine or not?
  • How seriously should I follow the COVID-19 protocols? 
  • Should I believe all the forwarded content was shared with me? 

Everyone is going to take her/his/their decisions based on how convinced they are with the information searched, found, and read by them. In this context, the panel of speakers will share their experiences in creating health-related content. Librarians and information professionals will play a significant role in this health informatics battle.

Panelists from five different Asian countries will discuss challenges, strategies and training adopted and imparted for creating accurate and authoritative content. We will share the training imparted to create awareness among primary and secondary students to create and share content. This panel will further address the global challenges of creating multilingual content in forms that are easily accessible and understandable.

Sponsored by IFLA Science & Technology Libraries Section

Presenter Biographies

Dr. Syeda Hina BatoolDr. Syeda Hina Batool is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Information Management, University of the Punjab, New Campus, Lahore, Pakistan. She has done her Ph.D. from iSchool, University of Sheffield, UK. Her research interests focus on examining information literacy instruction and related literacies (health, digital, workplace, visual, media, etc.), through a qualitative research lens.

Dr. Sam Chu Dr. Sam Chu is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Dr. Sam has obtained 2 PhDs in Education each in e-Learning from University College London, UK & the second Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Hong Kong. His research interests are AI literacy, gamified learning & 21st Century Skills, social media in education, digital literacies, school and academic librarianship, Knowledge Management, and Intellectual Capital.

Dr. Bhakti-GalaDr. Bhakti Gala is an Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Science at the Central University of Gujarat, India. She has received her Ph.D. degree in Library and Information Science from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. She is currently heading a health informatics project on “Dealing with COVID-19 and saving people’s lives in South Asia (SA) areas & beyond – A health informatics promotion project’ funded by the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T, USA). Her areas of research are Information Literacy, Equitable access to information, Digital Libraries, Metadata and Authority Control, Open Access, and Open Content.

Dr. Md. Anwarul Islam Dr. Md. Anwarul Islam is an Associate Professor of Information Science & Library Management at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Knowledge Science, JAIST, Japan. His research areas are Infometrics, Information Literacy, Information seeking behavior, cloud computing in teaching and learning, social media, and Knowledge Management.

Prasadi Kanchana Jayasekara is working as a Senior Assistant Librarian at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. She is currently reading her doctoral degree in Information Systems at the Business School, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She received her B.Sc. degree in Agriculture from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the National Institute of Library and Information Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her research interests include social media – information behavior, altmetrics, and information literacy.

Moderator Biography

Dr. Debal Chandra Kar

Dr. Debal Chandra Kar is serving as University Librarian at Galgotias University. Previously he worked at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (2011-2021) as University Librarian, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi as a Fellow and other different positions (1986-2011) including TERI University as University Librarian (2001-2005). He has been privileged to receive a number of awards recognizing his achievements like SLA Fellow (USA), SLA Bonnie Hilditch International Science & Technology Librarian Award 2008, SLA Presidential Citation Award 2008, SLA Proquest Dialog Member Achievement Award 2011, SLA-S&T Librarian Achievement Award 2011, and SLA-PAM Special International Librarian award 2018, from the Special Libraries Association USA. He was the founder-editor of World Digital Libraries – an International journal (2008-2012). He served as president of SLA Asian Community/Chapter in 2008, 2017, and 2021. He is Vice-Chair of the IFLA Regional Division Committee – Asia and Oceania 2021-2023 and IFLA Social Science Libraries Section Standing Committee 2021-2025 member.