Library (LI)

In this one-credit, half-semester course students will hone their search skills in a variety of resources, selection of proper sources, and the evaluation of search results. Classes will interrogate the social, political and economic issues of information.

A critical consideration of the ways libraries simultaneously preserve, reflect, perpetuate, and challenge cultural assumptions of the diverse communities they serve. Students will examine the roles of libraries in the United States and identify ways that these institutions participate in both systems of privilege and movements toward social justice in contemporary America. Students will develop a proposal to enact one change that is "overdue" to make Skidmore's library more just and present it to a panel of Scribner Library faculty and staff.

An exploration of how societal factors such as class, race, gender, sexuality, and immigration impacted the development of libraries in the 19th and 20th centuries and their continuing influence on public libraries in the United States today. Students will investigate how contemporary libraries address societal inequities through their resources, services, and collections, and how societal forces directly impact how these libraries operate. A primary focus will be censorship including the radical shift from an acceptance and enforcement of censorship in early libraries to the staunch defense of intellectual freedom seen today. Students will conduct primary source research on cases of censorship to design Banned Books Week posters for the campus.

Preparation for a senior thesis, capstone, or honors project that requires a serious research component. Students will work one-on-one with a subject specialist in the library to prepare the groundwork for an intensive academic project within their major. Students will be instructed in the organization of information and in sophisticated search strategies for finding, evaluating, and using information.