Abstract
Overview Information literacy has long been understood in a broad context. Among other aspects, it is a competence to evaluate information and select it according to credibility and trustworthiness.
However, the events of the last year (e.g. Brexit, US elections and others) have proven that credibility and trustworthiness are still underestimated and urgently requires more attention.
Recent development makes us more forcefully realize that the system (objective) relevance of information can be completely different from perceived user-based (subjective) relevance as defined by Saracevic (2007), Hjorland (2010) and others. Users may not consider information to be credible if it only meets the theoretical set of facets anchored in the definition of quality information (e.g. trusted information source, citations, links to the underlying data, etc.).
The decisive factor that leads either to the acceptance or to the rejection of quality or misleading information is "trust" and/or "trustworthiness". If librarians and information professionals are still to successfully execute their fundamental role as information mediators, they must thoroughly understand the phenomenon of trust and credibility and become trusted members of the "social bubbles" of those that come from different social groups and classes.
The concepts and principles of trust as one of the main influential factors of social interaction and coexistence have been explored by many disciplines, especially psychology, sociology, theology, economics, political science and others (Weber & Carter, 2003). The question is to what extent has this social phenomenon been examined from the perspective of information science in respect to trust construction, trust violation, reconciliation of trust and the practice of trust itself.
Method and outcomes The main research goal was to complete a literature review in the field of trust, trustworthiness and credibility in the LIS domain. The prime resources were the LISA and LISTA databases in the timeframe 2008-2016.
We have sorted the outcomes based on the specific research orientation of the papers. We have tried to identify core research topics as well as research gaps on the issue of trust and trustworthiness in the LIS domain.
The outcomes are presented with the use of the Bubble chart data visualization method. Understanding the issue of trust and trustworthiness may make information professionals not only part of the problem of a "post-truth society", but certainly a crucial part of the solution.