Library Workshop Outline: Two Sessions, Two Hours Each

What this outline assumes

One facilitator. A meeting room with movable seating. Most participants bringing a phone or using a library device. Between eight and twenty-five people, with attendance dropping between sessions, which is normal and planned for here.

No specialist knowledge is required of the facilitator. Everything needed is in this outline and the linked materials.

The uneven attendance problem

Multi-session public programming has a predictable pattern: some people attend both, some only the first, and some arrive fresh at the second. A workshop that treats session two as a continuation fails all three groups.

The design here handles it by making each session complete on its own. Session one teaches source evaluation. Session two teaches feeds and images. They reinforce each other and neither requires the other.

Say this in the promotion. Attendance improves when people know they can come to either.

Promotion language

Use description that names the skill rather than the threat. Suggested copy:

Checking What You Read: A Two-Part Workshop. Practical methods for working out where online information comes from and how much weight to give it. Free, no registration required, bring a phone if you have one. Each session stands alone.

Avoid the words misinformation, disinformation, and fake news in promotional material. They read as politically positioned to a substantial part of any public audience and reduce attendance among exactly the people the programme is for.

Session one: Where did this come from

0 to 15 minutes. Welcome, ground rules, and the mechanism: spread runs through ordinary sharing decisions. Establish that “I do not know” is a complete answer.

15 to 45 minutes. Lateral reading taught and demonstrated live on one unfamiliar source, with the facilitator narrating their own searching, including the dead ends. Narrating the dead ends matters; a smooth demonstration teaches that this is easy for experts and hard for you.

45 to 90 minutes. Participants work in threes on the source evaluation worksheet, with two sources: one the facilitator provides, one the group chooses. Circulate and answer questions about method, not about verdicts.

90 to 110 minutes. Reconvene. Each group reports field five only, what they could not establish.

110 to 120 minutes. Hand out the seven-questions checklist and close. Mention session two and say it stands alone.

Session two: Why you saw this

0 to 15 minutes. Welcome and a five-minute recap for newcomers. Do not apologize for repeating; frame it as the one thing worth knowing from session one.

15 to 45 minutes. Feeds as ranked selection. Work through the feed audit worksheet live, with the facilitator using their own feed on the projector if comfortable, or with participants working on their own devices privately.

Participants should never be asked to display their feeds to the room.

45 to 90 minutes. Images and lost context, using the image context checklist. Give three images: one correctly captioned, one re-dated, one cropped. Do not disclose the distribution in advance.

90 to 110 minutes. Reconvene and compare findings. The group that “found” manipulation in the correctly captioned image provides the session’s most useful discussion.

110 to 120 minutes. Close with what the workshop cannot do, and point to the self-directed material on this site.

Room and materials

• Movable seating for groups of three or four.
• A projector or large screen, useful but not essential.
• Printed worksheets, one set per participant.
• Wi-fi details visible on the wall.
• Three prepared images for session two, verified in advance.
• A sign-in sheet only if your library requires one. Do not collect more than you need.

Accessibility

• Provide large-print worksheet copies. The printable versions on this site are designed to remain readable when scaled.
• Read aloud anything shown only on the screen.
• Ensure at least one group table has space for a wheelchair user and is not against a wall.
• Offer to email materials afterwards for participants who prefer screen readers.

Measuring something

Six headline classifications before and after each session, three reliable and three not, prepared in advance. Five minutes total. This gives your library evidence about your own community, which is the only kind that answers your funder’s question.

Version and reuse

Version 1.0, reviewed August 2026. Reuse terms are described on the Terms of Use page.

Facilitator notes

Assumes one facilitator, a meeting room, and participant devices. No specialist knowledge required.

Next step

Use the community discussion guide for session one

Topics covered: Community PracticeMedia LiteracyDigital Literacy