How does someone evaluate the authenticity, reliability, trustworthiness, truthfulness and bias of information, especially amid the proliferation of content and outlets? How do they navigate the polarization caused by contradictory information? How do they make sense of the tsunami of material that cascades across every social media account?
Karl Stutzman, former director of library services at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, was pondering those challenges a few years ago, particularly in regard to religious leaders. How do pastors and their congregants navigate the information they encounter?
He raised the topic with other theological librarians in Indiana — at Anderson University, Earlham College, Grace College & Seminary and Concordia Theological Seminary — all fellow members of the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI). These conversations led to a research project.
Ruth Szpunar and Eric Bradley from Aestiva Solutions conducted the research in 2024 and published a report last May that highlights their findings.
There were 69 survey respondents from a variety of Protestant affiliations. They also conducted 10 interviews with folks currently serving in vocational ministry.
It’s a small study, but it covers the previously unexplored field of the information literacy of religious leaders.
Karl Stutzman and Ruth Szpunar spoke with Faith & Leadership contributor Heather Grennan Gary about the project and its findings. The following is an edited transcript.
Faith & Leadership: How did the idea for this study come about?
Karl Stutzman: Librarians are very aware of information literacy — it’s just the air we breathe. And for theological librarians who work in a seminary environment, part of what we’re doing is educating religious leaders who are going to put together and share information with their communities.
Consider a sermon on Sunday morning: The preacher is building a case based on how they’ve informed themselves, and they’re gathering a community of people around what are essentially information sources. Religious texts are more than that, of course, but they are information sources too. So how do you understand them in your context?
Religious leaders are also fielding a lot of questions about current events and modern life as well as theology. They’re working with a variety of information sources — sometimes conflicting or biased or agenda-driven sources that can be confusing or overwhelming. The information literacy aspect of what they’re doing shouldn’t be underestimated.
Our initial thought was to develop an information literacy toolkit for religious leaders, but then we decided to take a step back and hear from religious leaders themselves about how they actually practiced information literacy and how librarians might be able to help them. We developed our research proposal and received a grant from PALNI to do that.
Ruth Szpunar: I would’ve liked more interviewees, but we had enough to see some themes and patterns emerge. There are a few places in the report where more research is needed before we can accurately say something is a trend. So those findings come with a little asterisk.
F&L: The term “information literacy” sounds straightforward, but how do you define it?
RS: Well, the American Library Association says it’s the ability to recognize when information is needed and the ability to locate, evaluate and use the needed information effectively. We asked our respondents how they verify and evaluate information from news sources, theological sources, social media and what we called “information that challenges your understanding.”
They named a number of evaluation techniques: critical thinking, consultation with others, discernment, research. The most mentioned way respondents said they evaluate and verify information is biblical alignment. They also mentioned the importance of thorough reading, cross-referencing sources, and determining the authenticity, trustworthiness and possible biases of a source — all key elements of information literacy.
F&L: What exactly did you want to learn through this research project?
RS: There was very little existing research on the information-seeking behaviors of faith leaders, so we were essentially starting from scratch. We wanted to learn how they find and evaluate the information they need and how they handle other information they encounter in their work. We were also curious if information literacy varied based on demographic factors, and whether they thought they needed to teach or model information literacy skills to their parishioners, and if they were prepared to do so.
F&L: What general themes emerged?
KS: Our study showed that religious leaders feel pretty competent, confident and equipped in their own information literacy. They have the ability to evaluate information — they filter it through the religious and theological lenses that they’ve been trained on, and they might cross-reference it with another source or consult with someone they trust.
But they don’t necessarily feel that this ability is as developed as it could be among members of their congregations. And figuring out how to encourage information literacy within their congregants is a lot more challenging than just attending to their own information literacy.
The sense I got from some respondents is that if we could actually get people on the same page with how they assess information, that could help build unity — or at least the ability to understand each other. So much of the current struggle with polarization comes down to people reading different information sources and having different and limited strategies for evaluating that information.
RS: The interviewees were a small, self-selected group, so that’s a caveat. But what came across to me is that the religious leaders as a whole really do care about information literacy.
The interview dove deep into scenarios like how they know they’re giving a good response when they’re asked about a news event or a theological issue. We talked about social media, smartphones and how their information-seeking behavior has changed over the years. We asked how they incorporate sources in their work.
One interviewee said that they create a bibliography for every sermon; so, you listen to a sermon, and you’ve got a list of resources. That’s huge information literacy that has nothing to do with news. So it wasn’t that they were just good at news consumption or evaluation. It was that they came across as people who are really well-rounded in information literacy principles.
F&L: Where did you see a difference in information literacy among the respondents? Did age, gender or denomination play a role?
KS: Anecdotally, the older generations seemed a little better equipped to handle some of the information literacy challenges. Their media diets were a little more varied, and they indicated an ability to take a step back and gain a more balanced view of situations.
Sure, they don’t always know the ins and outs of new technology and new media. But the problems being addressed on these platforms are very old problems, human problems. We need to lean on the wisdom of seasoned leaders, and they need to know that they have a role in speaking to this context.
Maybe they’re not on TikTok, but over the years they have developed information literacy skills and maturity, and they have a lot to offer to younger leaders navigating the information ecosystem.
RS: I want to be careful about what I say, because these responses are not analyzed for statistical significance, and it’s a limited sample size. But I was comfortable enough with two patterns that emerged to put them in the report.
First, for the question about handling information that challenges their understanding of something, respondents who had been out of seminary for 6 to 10 years were more likely to use consultation to evaluate this type of information. Those who had been out of seminary longer, people who’ve been in religious leadership for a decade or more, were less likely to use biblical alignment. They were still going to use biblical alignment, but it wasn’t the first thing they mentioned. They were focused on other, stronger methods of information literacy. That’s how I would read that data.
For the question “How do you verify information?,” respondents who were out of seminary for 5 years or fewer were more likely to use research, and those who had been out for 6 to 10 years were less likely to use source evaluation. I have no explanation for that, but that data was strong enough to include in the report.
Only one gender difference emerged in the data: Women were way more likely to consult with others when faced with information that challenges their understanding about something.
F&L: What were some of the common themes regarding social media and AI?
RS: A lot of them reported not using social media at all. The ones who do focus on church stuff. One respondent said they used to be really engaged with social media, but then they realized that they weren’t changing anyone’s mind about anything, so they stopped. I think in general none of them were currently on social media trying to convince their people of anything.
When we created the questions, AI didn’t have the huge footprint it has now, so we didn’t ask about it. If we were creating the questions today, we would’ve asked.
But again, we were focused on the person, not the technology. If you are an information literate person, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking at books or a smartphone or AI. If you have information literacy methods in place, then it doesn’t matter what the technology is. It could be something in 10 years that we can’t even imagine right now, and you’ll still be able to draw on those information-evaluating behaviors.
KS: These days we’re all swimming in superabundant digital information and needing to parse it somehow. It doesn’t discriminate based on religious tradition or theological viewpoint or whatever. This is a challenge that everyone’s facing.
There’s a lot to be gained from working together at these challenges. Everyone needs an approach to information literacy that fits their tradition, and maybe that’s a role for religious leaders, to determine what’s appropriate within their tradition.
F&L: How did your interviewees talk about their congregations in regard to information literacy?
RS: We asked, “How do you model, promote or teach information evaluating behaviors to your parishioners?” And the interviewees were absolutely concerned about this. The No. 1 thing that came across in interviews was the importance of encouraging critical thinking in their parishioners. Also, making sure that they’re providing diverse, trustworthy resources for them was very important.
None of the interviewees said, “Oh, I learned how to do this in seminary, and then I was done.” They talked about things that they had taught themselves in order to improve their information literacy. So it’s important for leaders to communicate to their congregations that information literacy builds on itself, and it doesn’t end.
F&L: How can theological or academic libraries help religious leaders deal with issues around information and disinformation? What resources can they provide?
KS: I recently hopped over from an academic theological library to a public library. But based on nearly 17 years as a theological librarian, I can tell you we had alumni and people in ministry looking to us to get access to information.
On a regular basis, I’d have alumni reaching out to me like, “Hey, Karl, remember me? I need such-and-such an article.” We had energetic users of Atlas for Alum [a database of articles from theological and ministry journals]. We had to change the EBSCO password every year, and if we didn’t instantly send out the new password, we would start getting desperate emails from alumni.
Lots of religious leaders continue to build on competencies long after their formal training in order to deliver something meaningful to their communities. They’re already looking to librarians for personal information access, but they might not be thinking of how librarians can help them help other people with those issues.
F&L: This was a small study. What kind of follow-up would you like to see?
RS: The dream was always, how do we come up with some sort of toolkit, some information literacy resources for religious leaders? That’s where I would love to see things go forward.
KS: Our project is done, but in my ideal world, this could spark something bigger. I’d like for someone with the resources to do it to say, “Hey, let’s put some librarians and religious leaders in a room together and see what they come up with to address these challenges.”
Both of those groups, theological librarians and religious leaders, really are in the grind and struggling with issues of information literacy. And if they could come apart for a while to be creative together, I think that could be a real gift to everyone.
