Time to Teach Taíno Heritage: A Perfect Intersection of Deep Information Literacy, Native American & Indigenous Studies and OER

Abstract

In the Fall of 2023, as the librarian for both Latin American, Caribbean & Latinx Studies as well as Native American & Indigenous Studies, I taught a 1-credit Honors seminar titled “We are not extinct!’ Taíno culture and survivance in the past, present and future.” The course was partially supported by funding from the Digital Library of the Caribbean OER initiative to produce an open access syllabus. It engaged deep information literacy and offered the possibility for a future student co-authored OER. We looked at how knowledge about Taíno culture thrived but was also threatened by violence, the myth of extinction, and “paper genocide.” Three Taino speakers visited the class and the campus as part of the campus observation of Native American Heritage Month. These courses are intended to inspire a love of learning and to facilitate contact between students and faculty in a small, seminar-style setting. They also incorporate specific skills into the curriculum that will help prepare students for the Honors thesis, including writing in general, writing abstracts and literature reviews, competence in research, definition of a research question, computer literacy, presenting research results, and public speaking. This is a perfect opportunity for librarians.