Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@email.unc.edu

Trends in college pricing

Between 2007–08 and 2017–18, published in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions increased at an average rate of 3.2 percent per year beyond inflation. In 2015–16, public funding appropriations per FTE student were 11 percent lower in inflation-adjusted dollars than they were a decade earlier and 13 percent lower than they were 30 years earlier.

“Trends in College Pricing 2017- Trends in Higher Education Series,” The College Board, https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing (retrieved April 10, 2018).

What3Words—online mapping

What3words is a mobile app and online website that provides a simple way to specify a location. The world is divided into a grid of 3m x 3m squares. Each square is assigned a unique three-word address, which can then be used in links for purposes such as delivery instructions, travel and tourism, and emergency services.

What3Words Limited, https://what3words.com (retrieved June 7, 2018).

Projections of education statistics

Postsecondary enrollment rose by 25 percent between 2001 and 2015, and is projected to increase another 13 percent by 2026. The number of high school graduates increased by 20 percent between 2001–02 and 2012–13, and is projected to increase 3 percent by 2026–27. After adjusting for inflation, current expenditures per pupil increased by 14 percent between 2001–02 and 2013–14, and a further increase of 19 percent is projected by 2026–27.

William J. Hussar and Tabitha M. Bailey, Projections of Education Statistics to 2026 (NCES 2018-019), U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018019 (retrieved June 6, 2018).

Wikipedia editors

“Nearly 20,000 new accounts register on Wikipedia projects every month, and English-language Wikipedia alone has 130,000–140,000 accounts that make at least one edit per month. Every month, 75,000–80,000 individual Wikipedia accounts contribute five or more edits to 280 foreign-language Wikipedias or Wikimedia projects. English-language Wikipedia receives about 30,000 of these contributions each month.”

Alex Stinson and Jason Evans, “Bringing Wikipedia into the Library,” American Libraries magazine, May 1, 2018, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/05/01/bringing-wikipedia-into-the-library (retrieved June 7, 2018).

Automated fact checking

Full Fact is the U.K.’s independent fact checking charity. One of their projects is an automated tool that uses machine learning to build models to spot trends in misinformation and to identify claims that have not been fact checked before. The aim is to give fact checkers and journalists real-time fact checking tools.

Full Fact, https://fullfact.org/automated (retrieved June 7, 2018).