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Library Lecture Series offers a sample of CI

You don’t have to be a student to enjoy CI’s most stimulating speakers and engaging experts. Thanks to partnerships with the public libraries in Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Simi Valley, anyone can participate in thought-provoking presentations and discussions with CI faculty in a free Library Lecture Series.

First launched by Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Arts & Sciences, Karen Carey with the Thousand Oaks Library in early 2012, the monthly Lecture Series invites the public to experience the compelling research and work of CI professors in the convenient setting of their local library. During the 2013-2014 academic year, the Lecture Series featured a diverse range of fascinating, timely and regionally-relevant topics, including climate change, the biotechnology and stem cell debate, the archeological history of the Channel Islands, humpback whales, extraterrestrial life, education, group psychology, Hollywood stars, celebrity CEOs, Latin American leaders, and Latino sports icons.

To learn about upcoming dates, speakers and topics scheduled for each library, visit go.csuci.edu/librarylectureseries. For those who can’t make it to a library event, the web page also provides links to videos of many of the faculty lectures on YouTube. As the series continues, check back periodically to watch the latest lectures.

More exciting speakers and topics are being planned for the upcoming academic year. Fall 2014 lectures at Thousand Oaks’ Grant R. Brimhall Library are scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 10, Wednesday, Oct. 8, and Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m.

Ventura’s E.P. Foster Library will host a CI weekend Saturday, Sept. 27, and Sunday, Sept. 28, with student recruitment and outreach activities Saturday morning and CI English Program faculty reading from their works and discussing writing with guests in the afternoon. On Sunday, the library will host a presentation from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CI.

Upcoming lectures at Simi Valley Public Library are as follows:

Join Psychology Professor Kevin Volkan to explore behaviors and mental illnesses often found at the extreme edge of the human repertoire, including ones that might be considered normal in one culture while appearing bizarre or pathological in another.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Lindsey Trimble O’Connor offers a surprising analysis of California’s new paid family leave statute and why the workers who need it most are also the ones least likely to use it. O’Connor covers research, policy implications, and the financial, institutional, and interpersonal barriers to using paid family leave in California.

How do we find reliable information in an Internet-driven world where information is easily obtained, but not always up-to-date or trustworthy? Librarians Monica Pereira and Janet Pinkley from CI’s John Spoor Broome Library share their expertise in Information Literacy, a crucial skill that drives successful research and offers ways to find and evaluate valid information.