Now reflect-- are there any situations when you would want a book removed from a public or school library? What happens when people only have access to one perspective, one way of thinking? What happens when stories are missing from the dominant narrative?
Libraries collect both primary and secondary sources. The Library of Congress website explains, "A primary source can be an article, document, diary, manuscript, object or information written or created at the time an event actually took place. Primary sources serve as an original source of information.... A secondary source is second-hand information written or created after an event."
Take a moment and reflect: When is a storyteller's story a primary source or a secondary source? When are you creating primary source materials? When are you creating secondary source materials? How is a story different than a research paper?
About our Hostos College Library and Archives-- Communities and schools usually have libraries for everyone to use. Public libraries (like the New York Public Library) serve all the people in a community (a town, city, etc), School Libraries serve everyone at a school (usually Prek-12) and Academic Libraries serve students in higher education. Here at Hostos we have a library in the A building. Please visit the library's website (http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/library). We have a Research Guide that will help you learn about the sources at the library you can use to help find sources for a research paper or project. We also have a college archives. As described on the Archive's Website: "The Hostos Community College Archives functions as the institutional memory of the college. The archives collects unpublished materials of permanent historical value including official records, correspondence, papers and publications generated by the administration, academic departments, faculty, staff, special programs and student organizations since 1970. Through its collections the archives promotes an awareness of the diverse ethnic and cultural history of this unique bilingual institution and the surrounding South Bronx community that inspired it. The library’s archive unit also maintains a comprehensive collection of works published by and about Eugenio María de Hostos, namesake of the college."
How can you tell whether a story is true? Sometimes you can't! If there are multiple accounts of the same story, you can see how different storytellers describe the same event. Sometimes you depend on the storyteller's reputation (how authoritative they are) to decide whether to believe the story. You can use the same techniques to evaluate stories as you'd use to evaluate other sources. Read this guide on Information Literacy to learn those techniques.
Read about Logical Fallacies on the Purdue Owl Website. They describe them as "common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument." When you tell a story, you need to make sure it's logical and not misleading the reader. Some storytellers use logical fallacies to be more persuasive, but really they taking their audience on tricky, deceiving illogical journeys. Watch this Logical Fallacies Videos: 19 Logical Fallacies- YouTube Video
Week 6:
Just like the “single story,” dominant narratives are guided by power structures, shared beliefs and knowledge within a culture or community. Sometimes, dominant narratives exist within groups of a community and function as powerful tools within these groups. Similarly, the question of survival and sharing of stories can be answered by the examination of power structures and dominant actors in a society. Which values are upheld and to what purpose? Which type of impact is achieved, and how?
As discussed, the West African “grout” serves as a respected storyteller whose tales reflect values and beliefs in this specific culture. Hence, by telling stories that confirm roles and traditions in a society, they help sustain a shared belief system and hierarchical structures. This is an essential factor which contributes to a story’s survival and spread within a community. Another factor is access and technology. Who has access to stories and the technology needed for their dissemination? In other words, who are the actors and participants in the communication of stories? History knows many examples where power, access, and dissemination played a significant role in the survival of written texts. One powerful example is the protestant reformation. Martin Luther’s novel interpretation of the Bible in the 16th Century had an impact of large parts of the world for centuries. The access to the printing press made it possible for Luther to broadly share his ideas, albeit under the threat of the Vatican. After posting his ninety-four critical theses of the bible on the church door, he went on to share his thinking in print. His ideas spread fast around the country and caused great upheaval within the power structures, not only inside the church, but in society at large. With the printing press came broader access to information which helped increase the levels of literacy in the population. This in turn promoted access, participation, and power in broader strata of society.
However, do power structures, technology, access, and sharing of ideas still play a part today? The answer is yes. Despite the democratic fabric of most Western societies, the world of multimodal sharing of information has added more complex dimensions and challenges which are gaining the attention of researchers in communication, linguistics, and social theory studies. Who gets to determine what is fake news? Who represents the truth? Which power structures are in place to control the media and who is participating?
Week 7:
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