This document provides an overview of a presentation about information literacy and the Chronicling America historic newspaper database. It introduces information literacy and its importance, discusses how to evaluate information sources using the CRAP test, and demonstrates how to search Chronicling America to access digitized historical newspapers. The presentation notes how newspapers provide important historical context but also reflects the biases and perspectives of their time. It emphasizes the need to consider both the credibility and context of information sources.

1. Chronicling America & Nevada
Historic Digital Newspapers
Context! Context! Context! & Information literacy!
June 14, 2019 | Equipo Academy
(thanks for having us!)

2. Objectives for today:
• Intro to Information Literacy
• Why being information literate is important
• Some tips on evaluating information
• About Chronicling America
• Demo of the site
• Show the dark side of newspapers
• Put it all together!

3. From the American Library Association Presidential
Committee on Information Literacy:
"To be information literate, a person must be
able to recognize when information is needed
and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and
use effectively the needed information.
Producing such a citizenry will require that schools and
colleges appreciate and integrate the concept of
information literacy into their learning programs and that
they play a leadership role in equipping individuals and
institutions to take advantage of the opportunities
inherent within the information society. Ultimately,
information literate people are those who have learned how
to learn. They know how to learn because they know how
knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how
to use information in such a way that others can learn from
them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning,
because they can always find the information needed for
any task or decision at hand.“

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=114&v=ciSWknQ98o8

5. WHY is this important?
The Information Age & Information Saturation
• In the two years of 2016-2018, 90% of the data in
the world was generated!
• On average, Google processes 40,000 searches
EVERY SECOND!! 3.5 BILLION searches a day!
EVERY MINUTE of the day:
Social Media:
• 120 professionals join LinkedIn
• Users watch 4.1 BILLION videos on YouTube
• Instagram users post almost 47,000 pictures
• Facebook – 510,000 comments posted & 293,000
status updates!
Communications, every minute:
• We send 16 million text messages
• There are 990,000 Tinder swipes
• Estimated 2.9 BILLION email users as of 2019
• Every minute there are 103,447,520 spam emails sent
• 154,200 calls on Skype
• Source: Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-
blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/#9cdb52660ba9 and https://web-assets.domo.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2017/07/17_domo_data-never-sleeps-5-01.png

6. CRAP Test:
Guide to help you evaluate carefully!
Don’t spread propaganda and lies!
• California State University Chico is the pioneer of the CRAP test! They
saw the need in college students…

7. CRAP Crap – CURRENCY
• WHEN was the information published?
• Are links up to date?
• Does your topic change rapidly, like technology or pop culture?
• Know the terms!
• Auto v car
• Primary from Historic material:
• “Great War” (WWI when they did not know there was going to be a WWII)
• Know the terms of the time

8. CRAP! cRap RELEVANCE
• How relevant is this data?
• Does it fit my research
question?
• Does the author display a
bias?
• Does the source add
something new to your
knowledge of the topic?

9. CRAP! crAp Authority & Accuracy
AUTHORITY!
• Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials? Affiliation?
• Do other books or authors cite the author?
• Consider what biases the author may have? Is this a conflict?
ACCURACY
• Are there statements you know to be false?
• Are there errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar?
• Was the information reviewed by editors or subject experts before it
was published? (Peer reviewed)
• What citations or references support the author’s claims?
• What do other people have to say about the topic?
• Is the writing coherent? Understandable and make sense?

10. CRAP! craP
Purpose & Point of View
• What is the PURPOSE of this piece?
• Is this fact or opinion? Does the author list sources or cite references?
• Is it biased? Does the author seem to be trying to push an agenda or
particular side?
• Is the author’s purpose to sell, persuade, entertain, or inform?
• Is there an obvious bias or prejudice? Are alternative points of view
presented? Does the author ignore important facts or data that might
disprove the claim they are asserting?
• If it is a website, is it: .com, .gov, .org. or .edu?
What does this mean to your research?
Can it be trusted or is there an agenda?

11. Other tips…
• Backtrack url
• Who is hosting?
• Are there advertisements?
• Are there pictures?
• Chronicling America!
The Nation’s Newspapers!
• .gov
• Library of Congress
• Trusted!

12. ABOUT THE PROJECT:
Who has heard of, or used Chronicling America
site via Library of Congress?
So, what is Chronicling America?
Main goal: Digitize the Nation’s historical newspapers
You can search, save, download, print, and clip articles FREE!
https://nvdnp.wordpress.com/the-project/project-partners/

13. www.nvdnp.wordpress.com | www.chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
WHY NEWSPAPERS?
First draft of our history
• Entertainment
• Communication
• Lost items, who is in town, advertising, vital stats, world and
regional news, and more!
• What they wore, what they ate,…
• How they reacted to events and people
• The economy (mining!)
• Track trends over time
• Politics (learn where our street names come from!)
• Trends: FIRES!!! Taverns, taverns and more taverns! Baths for $0.50,
potions for illnesses
• Topics: Women's Rights and suffrage, WWI, Mexican-American War,
Conflicts with Native Americans and other European settlers
• Fashion! Shoes, hats, etc… Children, women, and men
• Children WORKED and went to school on the side
• Xenophobia
• Groups of Diversity: School taught in French
Eureka Daily Sentinel Dec 25 1873

14. Website is the GO TO!

15. Chronicling America: A quick tour
• LIVE display of how to search and retrieve

16. Newspapers: Product of it’s time & place
• Nevada politics
• North v South – Civil War and Reconstruction
• Google: Not always good!
• MLK site
• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-supremacist-site-ma_b_809755

17. Who wrote? For Who?
When? Where?
Images: Nixon The Silver State 05.27.1916; Minstrel Clarence The Silver
State 09.02.1915; Bring Japs The Daily Silver State 06.01.1907;
Whitecaps Walker Lake Bulletin 12.01.1897 ; race suicide WLB 1903;
Black Plague The Silver State 1913.12.02; Negro killed 1899.03.24 The
Silver State; opium dens Morning Appeal 05.15.1883; William in the N
Silver State 07.29.1916; Jap wants out The Daily silver state 04.27.1907;

18. Credible. BUT what about CONTEXT?
YES:
From Library of Congress, it is
credible and trustworthy
BUT: CONTEXT!

19. *image credits*
• Fake news/cosmomagazine.com
• Keyboard/thisdaylive
• Nose lie/chronicle.com
• Lies/psiloveyou
• Truth/medium.com
• Beware/throughthegrapevine
• Informationliteracy/pilgrim library
• Yesnomaybe/provincial grand lodge of mark master mason
• Mindblown / success story.com

20. https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Digital_Lens.pdf
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Employability_Lens_only_2015_0.pdf