LibGuides: ENG BC 3160y English Colloquim: Englightment: Welcome

Getting Started

Image:Jean Huber, Un dîner des philosophes (1772). Courtesy the Voltaire Foundation/Wikipedia

This guide pulls together some library resources and some basic suggestions about research. I hope that you will make an appointment with me to chat one-on-one and discuss your projects/using the library/any questions you may have. Just Book a Research Consultation!

Here you'll find some

Resources to research background and contextual information on your topic and the approaches you might be bringing to your research
Places to find books in print and online
Databases for locating articles, including scholarly and peer-reviewed articles
Suggested resources for finding primary sources
Additional web resources related to the themes of this course
Resources for citing your sources and writing
Guidelines for getting required course texts for free via the Library
Remote library services that are available to you
Information and additional resources from the library instruction session

In-Class Reading

Libraries and the Enlightment
From the book "Libraries and the Enlightenment" by Wayne Bivens-Tatum published by Library Juice Press (2012). Contemporary American libraries are products of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment—the intellectual and political movement that emerged in 18th century Europe—consolidated various scientific and political ideals into a worldview advocating scientific discovery and experimentation, reason as a touchstone of truth, intellectual freedom to study and publish, skepticism about received traditions, individual liberty, political
Protesters Rally Against Deletion of ‘Transgender’ on Stonewall Website
The Park Service said on Thursday that it had removed references to the transgender community to comply with an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office that was described as “restoring biological truth to the federal government,” and with a second order signed by the acting secretary of the interior last month.

In class reflection - Access to Information, politics, the Enlightenment:

Take a moment to reflect on the piece you just read and your discussions in this class about the development of radical thought and intellectual life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, along with the NYT headline above and write for a few minutes about freedom of information and access to it means or looks like to you in a society that can trace its intellectual life to the Enlightenment era. Do you see a role for libraries in fostering information access or intellectual freedom?