From the Desk of the
Chief Librarian

In 1971 Gary McGivern was convicted of murdering a deputy sheriff during an escape attempt in 1968. McGivern and another convict, Charles Culhane, were sentenced to die in the electric chair for the crime. That conviction was subsequently over-turned and at a third trial in 1974 McGivern and Culhane once again lost their case, but this time given sentences of from twenty-five years to life. From the very beginning the details surrounding the murder stirred controversy worthy of a Law and Order episode. Deals were offered and refused, polygraphs passed, and religious and political leaders became active in the case. In fact, so many people believed in Gary McGivern’s innocence that he became the object of one of the highest profile campaigns for clemency in New York State’s criminal justice history. Conservative columnist William F. Buckley came out in his support, as did folk singer Pete Seeger and poet Allen Ginsberg. Lieutenant Governor Mario Cuomo recommended clemency to Governor Hugh Carey, but Carey declined to act. Finally when Cuomo became Governor he granted clemency to McGivern, in 1985, but he was not paroled until1988. McGivern eventually returned to prison on a parole violation and died in 2001.

The Lloyd Sealy Library recently received the first installment of the papers of Gary McGivern. In this space we have often discussed the importance of primary sources and manuscript collections for criminal justice research. The McGivern Papers will prove to be one of the outstanding research collections at John Jay. McGivern saved everything over a thirty-year period in correctional institutions, a time that included thirty-three months in the death house at Green Haven. His collection is a treasure trove of information and is a veritable historical documentary of the New York prison and criminal justice system in the post-Attica era. His papers include correspon-dence with numerous public figures such as Buckley, Ginsberg, Seeger, the lawyer William Kunstler, transcripts, appeals, journals, and photo-graphs, and other material. Stay tuned as we process the collection and ready it for researchers.

Larry E. Sullivan

INFORMATION LITERACY

A few years ago when the library’s electronic classroom was new, it was not unusual to have a few students in each class wary of the computers. Mouse manipulation and similar skills were sometimes in short supply. Our students today would be amused at this scenario. Even the rare student who has not used a computer seems to inherently know how to move a cursor around the screen. Information technology skills have increased, but, as is widely reported from colleges across the country, information literacy skills have not. Computer literacy does not equate with information research skills. The Google generation of students have ready access to far more information on their internet-connected laptops than their predecessors could have imagined, but not enough of them have the skills to look for, retrieve and critically assess the myriad information resources out there. The label “information literacy” encompasses the multiple information-related skills we want our students to have.

By the time our students graduate, each should be familiar with the literature of their discipline, and how it is produced and disseminated. Each should be able to carry out a comprehensive literature review, and be able to analyze the resources found and use them to draw conclusions and develop new ideas. They should be familiar with the investigative methods in their discipline – e.g. lab. work, fieldwork, etc, and the unique information resources available – e.g. case studies, datasets. These are all information literacy skills (taken from the Checklist below), only some of which are related to library research.

Faculty curious about what exactly information literacy competencies are may be enlightened by a quick look at some of the links below. Highly recommended is the Checklist at http://www.topsy.org/ChecklistLoUp05.pdf, which is brief and informative, summarizing in two lists what is expected of upper and lower division students at California colleges. Lists of discipline specific competencies are being developed by various academic groups – some of those available are listed below.

A Checklist of Information Competencies for College Students (from California State University and California community college librarians).

ACRL Iinformation Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.

Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology.

Information Literacy in Anthropology.

ACRL Anthropology and Sociology Section (ANSS) Draft Information Literacy Standards.

CUNY Library Information Literacy Advisory Council (LILAC).

Ellen Sexton