Information is everywhere, bombarding us from all angles. With that influx of information comes great responsibility to weed out the good from the bad, to consume and share information responsibly and ethically. But it’s not always easy! This week is the United States Media Literacy Week (https://medialiteracyweek.us/about/theme/evaluate/) and the focus of today is Evaluation. Evaluation of information is a key component in both media and information literacy, and one that grows in importance as misinformation finds its way to our screens. The Elihu Burritt Library is doing a lot to help students learn how to evaluate the barrage of information that greets them each day. Libraries are wonderful places to go for access to reliable, credible information through sources that have already been vetted by professionals in the field, as well as librarians who work hard to help patrons navigate a tricky information landscape to find what they need. Libraries provide access to information; librarians provide the knowledge needed to critique and use that information.

In addition to reference help, our one-shot, and our embedded information literacy sessions with classes, where we teach students how to be critical of information they find, we are also running our second annual “Research on the Run” workshops throughout the fall semester, with an emphasis on finding and evaluating credible material. Our “Database Dashes” provide quick, 15-minute overviews of some popular databases that provide vetted material and get students off Google and into the databases. Our Evaluation Events focus on different aspects of evaluation through short video tutorials, including one on Lateral Reading, a newer technique used to evaluate websites. Lateral reading gets the user to verify a source by getting them off the website in question, evaluating its credibility by looking at what other sources say about the website itself. Through these different offerings, we hope to continue providing tools to students to help them escape the trap of misinformation and give them confidence to find sources that are trustworthy and appropriate for research. To learn more about our Research on the Run events, visit our guide at https://libguides.ccsu.edu/ResearchOnTheRun.

Subscription access to The Chronicle of Higher Ed is now available to members of the CCSU community through the Elihu Burritt Library at https://bit.ly/chroniclehe.

For details on how to find & use The Chronicle, see: https://libguides.ccsu.edu/2022-23/chronicle

The Chronicle of Higher Ed is provided as part of a shared subscription through the CSCU Library Consortium.

June is PRIDE month for the GLBTQ community. Each year the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan is being honored nationally. It is a special time for recognizing the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally, and for remembering those who paved the way and those who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The celebration includes pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia, and concerts. 

The LGBTQ Archives in the Elihu Burritt Library at CCSU hold primary material related to the struggle for gay rights, and is particularly strong in Connecticut collections, offering comprehensive coverage of local political and cultural history from the 1960s to today.  

Collections in the LGBTQ archives tell the stories of overturning the sodomy ban (1969); passing the hate crimes (1990), gay rights (1991) and marriage equality (2008) laws; fighting for progressive AIDS legislation (1980s-1990s); and securing transgender protections (2010s). The Archives hold many personal papers donated by people active in the community as well as records of organizations. Our students and history professors conducted oral history interviews which were also placed in the archives. They give an intimate insight into individual struggles. A wide collection of ephemera is also a part of the Archives. It includes photographs, books, buttons, T- shirts, videos, postcards, and flyers documenting campaigns and events. 

Some of the key collections are the records of such organizations as Connecticut AIDS Action Council, Connecticut Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival/Out Film, Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival, Dignity Hartford, Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective, Metropolitan Community Church, Project 100/GLBT Community Center, and the Reader’s Feast bookstore. 

Among the key leading figures of the local LGBTQ movement who have donated their papers were Richard Cardarelli, Carolyn and Lesley Gabel-Brett, Victor D’Lugin, Betty Gallo (longtime lobbyist for GLBTQ rights), George W. Henry/Canon Clinton Jones, Christine Pattee, Jerimarie Liesegang, Richard Nelson, and Donna Stimpson.  The Archives also holds the papers of John Loughery and William J. Mann, nationally known authors. 

Link to general information about the GLBTQ Archives: https://library.ccsu.edu/help/spcoll/index.php

Link to finding aids of some of the archival collections: https://archives-library.wcsu.edu/cao/

The library’s summer hours begin on Tuesday, May 31st:

• MON-THURS 8:00am – 5:45pm
• FRIDAY 8:00am – 4:45pm
• SATURDAY 9:00am – 3:45pm
• JULY 2-4 closed