IN THE STACKS

When describing the research process, I regularly refer to it as being like looking for a needle in a haystack. You know exactly what you’re looking for, but finding it is difficult, frustrating, and time consuming. In reflecting on this description, I realize that it’s all wrong! I instead defer to the description provided by Zora Neale Hurston. She describes research as, “formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose” (212). Research is not a meaningless task, where we’re left wondering what the point was at the end. Research is a thrilling process where we tap into our curiosity and excitement for a topic to drive us forward. It’s the ultimate puzzle. When we finally crack it, we get to reflect on the beauty of what we’ve created.

In building the “Case for Reparations” Reading Guide, I indulged my own curiosity and engaged in the research process. Throughout his essay, Coates weaves his argument around a wide range of sources including interviews, newspaper articles, and scholarly books. The popular, primary, and scholarly sources work in unison to uplift his argument in favor of reparations for Black Americans. These authorities ultimately grounded the reading guide.

Some were easy to locate, with full titles and author names being provided to guide me on my path. Others were extremely difficult to place, with only a newspaper title, a year, and a quote to guide my searching. These trickier sources slowed the process down to a sometimes sluggish pace, moving month-by-month through digitized archival newspapers conducting a multitude of keyword searches from my quote. In the back of my mind, I questioned whether the slow-down in progress was worth the effort to locate a single source. When you’re curious about your topic, invested and connected to it, the slow-down isn’t a roadblock that stops you in your tracks. The slow-down is just another turn in the road, taking your research in new and sometimes exciting directions. After locating all the pieces I could from Coates’ essay, I took my searches to our library subscription databases and catalog. I wanted to support those sources with other pieces on similar topics. Following Coates’ model, I looked for primary, popular, news, and scholarly sources to provide a wide range of authorial authorities. When I found a source I liked, I consulted the pieces they cited to further grow my pool of resources.

I ultimately spent 9 days researching and building the “Case for Reparations” Reading Guide. It was 9 days of intense searching, 9 days of rapid note taking, and 9 days of choosing to have the extra cup of coffee. I grew my pool of sources from 1 to 100. Even so, this is not a comprehensive guide. This is a representation of my engagement with the research process. Our English students brought their own excitement and drive to the table, which took their work in new directions I couldn’t have imagined last year. Their contributions build on global conversations, bringing their unique perspectives alongside those of Coates and others. I thank them for sharing their curiosity, their passion, and their expertise, and I cannot wait to see where their research takes them next.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1984.

In 1997, Cal Lutheran’s student newspaper, the Echo, reported on Albert Borgmann - a visiting philosophy professor - who said the flood of information soon to be available on the internet would make it difficult for most people to determine between fact and faction (Nicholson). In the past five years we have seen this prediction realized in more ways than he may have imagined!

Indeed, the contours of the information landscape is changing constantly, which makes the acquisition of information literacy more important than ever before. Academic librarians recognize that to be information literate, students are required to possess an overarching set of abilities in which they find themselves both consumers and creators of information. This framework allows students to think critically about information and participate successfully in collaborative spaces (Framework).

At the Pearson Library we seek to stimulate students to think critically, by calling upon their native curiosity and invoking their values and passions as they encounter new and sometimes troubling information. We seek to disrupt current ways of thinking, and increase those dispositions and knowledge practices that allow for the thoughtful and ethical evaluation of sources. This approach often drives them into liminal spaces as they encounter difficult concepts, such as authority and value. Our goal is for students to pass through these thresholds, and apply these growing knowledge practices and dispositions to their work at Cal Lutheran. Our hope is these new ways of thinking and acting carry them forward in their lives as current and future leaders.

"Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." American Library Association,

Feb. 2015, www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework.

Nicholson, Brian. (1997, September 24). Borgmann speaks on effects of information revolution: Professor says internet to devolve into television. The Echo, 3. https://archive.org/details/echo381997cali/page/n14/mode/1up