A student sent me this e-mail recently:<\/p>\n
Dr. McGrath,<\/p>\n
Sorry about the multiple emails. I\u2019m not sure if we went over this or not but I was wondering what your thoughts were on\u00a0about how far back we should go when deciding which articles to use? I have all mine set, but one is from the nineties and I didn\u2019t know if that was too old or not. If you can just let me know whenever you get the chance that\u2019d be great. Thanks!<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\nThe student is expressing concern about something emphasized in information literacy \u2013 the \u201cC\u201d in the \u201cCRAP Test\u201d which indicates\u00a0currency<\/em>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIt reminds me of the scene in the movie \u201cFrantic\u201d when Harrison Ford\u2019s character is asked what kind of music he likes, and he says \u201cold music.\u201d He is then asked whether he likes what is on the radio, as that is a few years old.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nI don\u2019t blame the student for this. What is meant by \u201cold\u201d or \u201crecent\u201d depends on the subject and the frame of reference. World War II is both recent history and a long time ago.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nScholarship moves slowly, and in searching for information, one should not go back more than around 50 years to get a sense of the current state of the field, but neither is looking at the latest\u00a0monograph proposing something new the best approach if that is what you are interested in. A recent textbook will probably be the best place to look for the current consensus.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBe that as it may, having studied in the 1990s, I found the question of whether scholarship from the 90s is \u201ctoo old\u201d made\u00a0me feel old<\/em>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nStudents today are too young for us to be able to presume that they\u2019ve seen\u00a0The Matrix<\/em>. But a lot of them have seen\u00a0Friends<\/em>. And many of us are too old to realize just how young most of our students are,\u00a0are and how many things that we take for granted they do not \u2013 and vice versa.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat do you consider old scholarship, music, movies, history? What do you consider recent? And what different perspective someone else had made you feel old?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n