Marshall University

Review of Little Lindy is Kidnapped by Thomas Dohert

Glende, Philip M.

Journal of 20th Century Media History 
Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 5 
2023 
Review of Doherty, Little Lindy is Kidnapped 
Philip M. Glende 
Independent Scholar, pglende@sbcglobal.net 
Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/j20thcenturymediahistory 
 Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Glende, Philip M.. "Review of Doherty, Little Lindy is Kidnapped." Journal of 20th Century Media History 1, 
1 (2023): 87-90. https://mds.marshall.edu/j20thcenturymediahistory/vol1/iss1/5 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Journal of 20th Century Media History by an authorized editor of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more 
information, please contact beachgr@marshall.edu. 
Thomas Doherty: Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the 
Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. 276 pp. $27.95 (hardcover) ISBN-13: 
978-0-231-19848-6. 
 
Reviewed by Philip M. Glende (Independent Scholar) 
 
In the early decades of the twentieth century, newspapers were the unchallenged 
leaders in providing news reports to the American public. Newspaper competition within 
cities was common and lively. But the 1930s were hard times for newspapers, too. Market 
forces propelled the industry inexorably toward concentration and consolidation. 
Newspapers also faced a threat to their role as the purveyors of daily news, as radio and 
newsreels became media competitors able to deliver sound and oral accounts and, two 
decades before television, moving pictures, from major news events. 
Thomas Doherty situates this dramatic change in the media landscape within the 
story of the sensational kidnapping and murder of the child of Charles and Anne 
Lindbergh, the famous ocean-crossing aviator and his wife, also a celebrated aviator. In 
Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century, Doherty 
documents how radio and newsreels offered competition for timely news updates and 
exclusives in the long-running story. Doherty makes no effort to examine whether Bruno 
Hauptmann committed the crime or whether he could have acted alone even if he did do 
it. Instead, Doherty focuses on how the media – newspapers, radio, and newsreels – 
covered the crime, capture, and conviction of Hauptmann, who was executed. 
 Doherty opens with a prologue reminding modern-day readers that Lindbergh’s 
solo flight of the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic in 1927 made him a national 
celebrity. He received a hero’s welcome and ticker tape parade in New York. Radio 
covered his Washington visit with a moment-by-moment account carried via a 52-station 
hookup. Newsreel cameras with sound recording equipment captured his takeoff from 
Roosevelt Field in New York and President Calvin Coolidge’s remarks on his return. 
Cameras also recorded his appearance at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The footage was 
shipped back on a fast ocean liner for distribution into movie theaters. After the initial 
hoopla, Lindbergh continued to fly, and his life was, Doherty notes, now part of the public 
domain. He married Anne Spencer Morrow in 1929 and a year later the couple had a son, 
Charles Lindbergh Jr.  
After the prologue, Doherty picks up a chronological account of the kidnapping, 
inept police response, the ransom payment, discovery of the body, capture of Hauptmann, 
his trial and conviction. Although Doherty concentrates mainly on media coverage of the 
87
Glende: Review of Doherty, Little Lindy is Kidnapped
Published by Marshall Digital Scholar, 2023
news, he provides enough detail on the crime to ground the reader unfamiliar with the 
kidnapping and the events that followed. The story begins the evening of March 1, 1932, 
when the 19-month-old baby is discovered missing from his crib. The nursery was on the 
second floor of the Lindbergh’s secluded home near Hopewell, N.J. Outside, police found 
a crude ladder. New Jersey State Police issued the bulletin at 10:46 p.m., and within 
minutes the news was flashed on wire service machines. Radio carried the news within an 
hour. Newsboys were on the streets before midnight hawking extra editions. Doherty 
notes that kidnapping, “the snatch racket,” was common in the early 1930s and that there 
was some comfort in knowing what to expect next. “Yet little about the Lindbergh case 
played out according to script,” Doherty wrote. “Cruel hoaxes, oddball characters, 
bungling investigators, red herrings and blind alleys, suspects and leeches, crime bosses 
and low-level thugs, and innocents caught in the backwash would sidetrack the linear 
trajectory before the final stop shattered all hopes for a happy ending” (21).  
For Doherty, how the story was covered was every bit as remarkable as the crime 
itself. Both radio and newsreels matured into competitive news outlets during the hunt, 
capture, and punishment. Newspapers treated the story with the same competitive zeal, 
but now they were no longer alone. As it is today, crime was a news staple. Journalists 
rushed to the scene, literally within the hour of the first report in the case of Laura Vitray, 
a reporter for the New York Evening Journal, one of the city’s 12 daily newspapers. Well-
known journalists, such as Walter Winchell, Arthur Brisbane, and Will Rogers all claimed a 
piece of the action, but, Doherty notes, the majority of day-to-day coverage provided 
throughout the nation was produced by the generally byline-free big three wire services: 
Associated Press, Scripps-Howard’s United Press, and Hearst’s International News Service. 
“Beats,” or being first with a report, even by minutes, was the stuff of celebration and 
bragging for the wire services, and the mentality fed a hunger for new details. The spirit 
of the newsroom was captured just a year earlier in the release of movie The Front Page. 
But this was a crime involving national hero Charles Lindbergh and his baby. The press 
was atypically restrained. “Frenzy in the newsroom there was, but the usual unbridled glee 
in covering a juicy story was absent,” Doherty notes. “By all accounts, the hard-boiled 
cynics were no less heartsick and gut-punched than their readers” (43). 
Radio, meanwhile, came into its own and surpassed print as the go-to medium for 
hot news. Radio technology had matured by 1932 to the point that live broadcasts were 
possible from almost anywhere. Listening sets were now commonplace in homes, with 15 
million receivers serving some 50 million listeners, making radio the sixth largest industry 
in the United States. And no amount of will, expertise, or expenditure by newspapers 
88
Journal of 20th Century Media History, Vol. 1 [2023], Iss. 1, Art. 5
https://mds.marshall.edu/j20thcenturymediahistory/vol1/iss1/5
could deliver breaking news faster than radio. “No extra edition of a newspaper – whose 
contents had to be typed on a clunky Underwood typewriter, typeset, composited, 
printed, distributed, and hawked by newsboys – could outpace the speed of electricity,” 
Doherty wrote (50). The Lindbergh case, Doherty argues, proved radio’s potential as a 
news medium and set the stage for live coverage in the years ahead. The early stars will 
be familiar to broadcast historians: Lowell Thomas on the NBC Network and H.V. 
Kaltenborn on CBS were already household names before the kidnapping. The case also 
made Boake Carter a familiar radio voice for the rest of the 1930s. 
Newsreels camera operators and sound technicians also rushed to Hopewell, as 
the Lindbergh case became the first long-running story covered independent of the 
newspapers. Newsreels were standard features during motion picture showings, with five 
companies, Fox Movietone News, Paramount Sound News, Hearst Metrotone News, RKO-
Pathe News, and Universal Newspaper Newsreel, providing eight- to ten-minute features 
updated twice a week. By the early 1930s, two New York theater houses, the Embassy 
Newsreel Theatre on Times Square, and the Trans Lux on Broadway, played newsreels 
exclusively. Newsreels offered viewers sound and pictures to tell a story, though the 
limitations imposed by the bulky equipment made it unlikely newsreel cameras would be 
at the scene of the action while news was still occurring, unless it was speech or some 
other scheduled event. The Lindbergh case provided newsreel producers the chance to 
be in on a high-interest breaking news story. A crew from Universal arrived in Hopewell 
only hours after the first bulletin. By dawn, more than 50 newsreel camera operators, 
sound technicians, and others were on the scene with more than a dozen sound trucks 
ready for first light. Newsreel producers convinced Lindbergh to hand over home movie 
footage of the boy. The footage was converted from 16 mm to 35 mm for theatrical play, 
a first, and distributed widely. 
After opening chapters on news of the crime itself, Doherty follows the news media 
-- newspapers, radio, and the newsreels -- as they covered the ransom payment, the 
discovery of the dead child not far from the Lindbergh home, the arrest of Hauptmann, 
his trial, conviction, and execution. Doherty writes with a flair that makes reading Little 
Lindy is Kidnapped a pleasurable experience. Of the intermediary John Condon, who 
called himself Jafsie: “Dr. Condon had an opinion on everything and the firm belief that 
everyone wanted to hear it” (22). On radio’s edge over newspapers on breaking news: “No 
matter how hot off the presses, the news had cooled by the time it hit the streets” (50). 
On newsreel cameras showing and staging reporters and commentators at work: “When 
news was scarce, journalists were learning to make news by reporting on themselves” (74). 
89
Glende: Review of Doherty, Little Lindy is Kidnapped
Published by Marshall Digital Scholar, 2023
Although the book is about the crime and how it was covered, Doherty also notes 
Lindbergh’s later embrace of Nazi Germany, his anti-Semitism, and his role in the America 
First Committee, which extolled nativism and isolationism even as the United States was 
being drawn into the European war.   
To this reader, Doherty might have done more to support the claim that this crime 
was a transformative event for the news media. The dust jacket, perhaps more the work 
of the publishing house than the author, suggests the Lindbergh case “set the template 
for how the media would treat breaking news ever after.” True, the news media was now 
no longer just the newspaper press, but the book demonstrates print, broadcast, and 
newsreel journalists were all chasing the same story in the same way. Still, overall Little 
Lindy is Kidnapped is informative and enjoyable. Doherty’s book could fit nicely on a 
syllabus for a class in 20th century U.S. media history. 
 
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Journal of 20th Century Media History, Vol. 1 [2023], Iss. 1, Art. 5
https://mds.marshall.edu/j20thcenturymediahistory/vol1/iss1/5


English

Review of Doherty, Little Lindy is Kidnapped

Office of Marshall University Communications

We Are ... Marshall, June 21, 2023

We Are ... Marshall, July 19, 2023

Marshall University 
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We Are ... Marshall: the Newsletter for Marshall 
University 1999-Current Marshall Publications 
7-5-2023 
We Are ... Marshall, July 5, 2023 
Office of Marshall University Communications 
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 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons 
 
 
The Newsletter for Marshall University                                 July 5, 2023 
 Faculty and Staff 
 
 
Marshall, West Liberty announce agreement for aviation 
program partnership 
JULY 5, 2023 
Marshall and West Liberty universities announced plans for an additional location of Marshall’s 
Bill Noe Flight School at West Liberty University’s campus June 29 at Wheeling-Ohio County 
Airport. 
Classes at West Liberty University are expected to begin in the fall of 2024. 
“This new location will be fully populated with the technologically advanced Marshall 
University airplanes and Marshall’s top tier flight instructor force and will further enhance 
Marshall’s mission of producing high-quality talented aviators to enter one of the most sought-
after professions available today,” said Bill Noe, Marshall’s chief aviation officer. “This is 
significantly important as we open this industry and create ‘Line of Sight’ to the opportunities 
that aviation has available to the very talented pool of professionals from West Virginia. 
“We are looking forward to collaborating with West Liberty and working towards making the 
state of West Virginia synonymous with Aviation anytime it’s mentioned and continue our deep-
rooted traditional roots in this field by creating the platform to be the premier location for 
training future aviators in the country.” 
Noe said that additional sites are in the works and will be announced in the near future. He added 
that Marshall’s aviation program already has been recognized for its emphasis on “safety first,” 
which will never be compromised for any reason, as well as state-of-the-art technology, facilities 
and capabilities. The program also promotes student development beyond certifications by 
emphasizing professionalism, service, integrity and attitude. 
“We are happy to be partnering with Marshall University and are looking forward to building 
West Virginia into the premier aviation state. This will be a great opportunity for students in our 
area to be placed in high-need careers,” said West Liberty’s interim president, Dr. Cathy 
Monteroso. 
Marshall’s aviation program officially opened in the Fall 2021 semester and will help meet the 
nation’s projected significant need for commercial pilots over the next 20 years. Its ground and 
flight courses lead to a series of FAA certifications and prepare graduates to become commercial 
pilots.  When in full operation, the Marshall University Bill Noe Flight School is expected to 
enroll more than 450 students and produce some 80 commercial pilots annually. 
Marshall’s aircraft fleet includes the highly advanced Cirrus SR20 aircraft. Marshall uses these 
single engine, state-of-the-art planes because they are ideal for preparing up-and-coming aviators 
for what they will be flying when out in the workforce. They are fully automated and have a 
variety of sophisticated avionics, including large display screens; Garmin-outfitted 
instrumentation; synthetic vision technology; all-digital Bluetooth audio, engine and fuel 
monitoring; dual alternators; and weather and traffic monitoring systems and navigation. These 
composite aircraft feature a parachute that will safely lower the plane to the ground. When 
deployed in the unlikely event of an emergency, the parachute adds a final emphasis to our 
commitment to safety. 
 
 
Governor’s Literacy Camp visits Huntington campus 
JULY 5, 2023 
Nearly 100 8th grade students from across West Virginia visited Marshall June 27.  The camp, 
led by West Virginia Secretary of Culture and Arts Randall Reid-Smith, exposes students to the 
importance of reading and writing across all professions. 
The students arrived in the early afternoon for a welcome by Chief of Staff Ginny Painter in the 
Big Green Room in Joan C. Edwards Stadium. They then moved to the Communications 
Building in Smith Hall for a tour of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass 
Communications. 
The tour was followed by a professional panel and discussion moderated by Director of 
Communications Leah Payne and including  Michael Chirico, Chief Strategy Officer, Marshall 
Health; Buffy Hammers, Chief Executive Officer, Marshall Health; Teddy Kluemper, Associate 
Athletic Director for Development, Marshall Athletics; and Susan Lavenski, Chief Executive 
Officer, Charles Ryan Associates. 
The students ended their visit with a group photo at the Memorial Fountain. 
 
 
 
 
 
Danford presenting at International Medieval Congress 
JULY 5, 2023 
Dr. Rachel Danford, an associate professor in Marshall’s School of 
Art and Design, was accepted to present her paper titled 
“Reimagining Artist Workshops in Lombard Italy” at the 
International Medieval Congress, which is taking  place July 3-6 in 
Leeds, United Kingdom. The event is Europe’s largest conference 
dedicated to medieval studies. 
Danford’s research attempts to recover the experiences of artists in 
the early medieval Lombard Kingdom, during the years 568-774 in 
northern Italy. Through the study of extant literary sources, 
examination of high-resolution photographs, and technical 
analyses, Danford reconstructs the tools and materials used by 
artisans in the process of creating works for wealthy patrons. 
“The unnamed artist is frequently discussed in the history of medieval art,” Danford said. “With 
a few notable exceptions, most makers of elite objects were low status, and their names and lives 
are not documented in the historical record. This paper explores methodological approaches that 
can provide researchers access to the lived experiences of medieval makers even when they are 
not explicitly described in the written record.” 
Danford joined Marshall in 2017 and teaches introductory courses in the visual arts, the art 
history surveys, and special topics courses on ancient and medieval art. She earned her Ph.D. in 
the history of art from Johns Hopkins University (2016) and holds a B.A. in art history, with a 
minor in archaeology, from Stanford University (2008). From 2014-2016, Danford was a 
predoctoral Samuel H. Kress Institutional Fellow at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in 
Munich, Germany. 
The College of Arts and Media, and the John Marshall University Scholars Award Program 
supported Danford’s research and presentation at IMC in Leeds. 
For more information about Marshall’s School of Art and Design, visit www.marshall.edu/art. 
 
 
Marshall names National Society of ACTA Scholars 
JULY 5, 2023 
The John Deaver Drinko Academy for American Political Institutions and Civic Culture has 
announced its Spring 2023 class of National Society of ACTA Scholars. 
The following Marshall graduates from Cabell and Putnam counties in West Virginia and 
Lawrence County, Ohio have been recognized as ACTA Scholars: 
Jordan Armstrong of Huntington, West Virginia 
E Bowen of Huntington, West Virginia 
Nathan Dossantos of Huntington, West Virginia 
Ryan Green of Huntington, West Virginia 
Reagan Heffner of Huntington, West Virginia 
Ethan Matovich of Huntington, West Virginia 
Katie Murphy of Huntington, West Virginia 
Emma Rau of Huntington, West Virginia 
Ren Roy of Huntington, West Virginia 
Sydney Adkins of Barboursville, West Virginia 
Joshua Dauber of Barboursville, West Virginia 
Britney Mankin of Milton, West Virginia 
Olivia Bird of Hurricane, West Virginia 
Gatlin Zornes of Hurricane, West Virginia 
Patrick Luikart of Winfield, West Virginia 
Stephen Manns of Chesapeake, Ohio 
“ACTA Scholars complete a set of course requirements providing advanced preparation for the 
responsibilities of informed and engaged citizenship, for effective communication and 
competition within the global marketplace, and for skilled and creative problem solving to 
address our present and future challenges,” said Drinko Academy Executive Director Dr. 
Montserrat Miller. “Three of the seven courses needed for National Society of ACTA Scholars 
eligibility are already built into Marshall’s core curriculum, and two more are included in 
College of Liberal Arts requirements. But only a few majors require students to study U.S. 
government, U.S. history, or economics. The National Society of ACTA Scholars chapter at 
Marshall encourages more students to take such courses, along with literature and foreign 
language classes.” 
The National Society of ACTA Scholars was founded in 2020 by the American Council of 
Trustees and Alumni, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit that promotes rigorous studies in the 
arts and sciences, and advocates for the study of civics at the college level. Marshall University 
was one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to establish a chapter of this 
new academic honorary society. 
The National Society of ACTA Scholars is supported by ACTA’s Fund for Academic Renewal 
and by supporters of Marshall’s John Deaver Drinko Academy. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Board approves new campus master plan 
JULY 5, 2023 
At its June 21 meeting, the Marshall 
University Board of Governors 
unanimously approved a new Master 
Plan that establishes a framework for future 
decisions affecting physical development of 
Marshall University’s campuses and 
centers. 
The State of West Virginia requires public 
colleges and universities to do a new master 
plan every 10 years, and the new plan 
replaces one from 2013 that had reached the end of its term. 
The 2023 plan closely aligns with the university’s strategic plan, “Marshall for All, Marshall 
Forever:  A Strategic Roadmap to Future Prosperity,” blending visionary and practical ideas, and 
articulating shared values. The master plan will be one of many tools used over the next decade 
as decisions are made about Marshall’s buildings and grounds. The plan represents just one set of 
possibilities and will change over time. 
In a June 22 message to the university community, President Brad D. Smith thanked everyone 
who participated in the 10-month effort to develop the plan through focus groups, workshops, 
poster sessions, online surveys and interviews. 
He also expressed appreciation to the Master Plan Steering Committee, as well as to the 
stakeholder groups and community leaders who provided input, and to Senior Vice 
President for Operations Brandi Jacobs-Jones, who oversaw the process. 
The full presentation is available here on the university’s website, and includes information 
about the master planning process, the final recommendations, and phasing and cost estimates. 
The plan’s executive summary is available here. 
Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to continue to share their thoughts and feedback about 
the plan through the online comment form. All input submitted through this form will be 
considered as campus development decisions are made in the future. 
Additional information will be added to the Master Plan website as plans progress. 
 
 
 
 
The next regular issue of We Are...Marshall will be distributed July 12, 2023. Please send items 
for consideration to WAMnewsletter@marshall.edu by 5 p.m. Monday, July 10, 2023.
 
To read the content of this newsletter online, please click on the following link: 
link: www.marshall.edu/wamnewsletter/July-5-2023.  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


We Are ... Marshall, July 5, 2023

Marshall University Board of Governors

The Minutes of the Marshall University Board of Governors Meeting, April 26, 2023

Marshall University 
Marshall Digital Scholar 
Board of Governors Minutes Board of Governors 
1-5-2023 
The Minutes of the Marshall University Board of Governors 
Meeting, January 5, 2023 
Marshall University Board of Governors 
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 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons 
  
 
 
MINUTES 
Marshall University Board of Governors 
Special Board Meeting Held Virtually 
January 5, 2023 
 
Present: Chairman Farrell, Shawn Ball, Kipp Bodnar, Isabella Griffiths, Carol Hurula, Ginny Lee, 
Chris Miller, Angel Moore, Sam Moore, Chad Pennington, Robin Riner, Geoff Sheils, Bill Smith, 
Jim Smith 
 
Absent: Kathy D’Antoni, Donnie Holcomb 
 
I. Call to Order 
 
After confirming a quorum was present, Chairman Farrell called the meeting to order.  
Chairman Farrell welcomed all in attendance and gave the purpose of the meeting was to 
consider contracts.  No names would be released.   
 
He turned the meeting over to Mr. Miller, Chair of the Athletic Committee.  Upon a motion by 
Mr. Sheils, seconded by Mrs. Hurula, a vote of aye, no opposition and motion passed to enter 
the Athletic Committee, per Mr. Stroud, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, into Executive 
Session, under the Authority of WV Code §6-9A-4.    
 
 After a brief time, the Athletic Committee rejoined the Marshall University Board of Governors 
open session and gave a Recommendation of Approval of Proposed Department of Athletics 
Personnel Contracts.  Upon a motion by Mr. Miller, seconded by Mr. Sheils, a vote of aye, no 
opposition and the Athletic Committee recommended that the personnel contracts with three 
coaches within the Department of Athletics be approved by the Board of Governors.   
 
Chairman Farrell confirmed the livestream was running and there was still a quorum to 
continue the Board Meeting. 
 
II. Committee of the Whole 
 
Chairman Farrell discussed the Action Item for the Approval of Proposed Department of 
Athletics Personnel Contracts, with Mr. Spears ready to answer any questions for the Board 
Members not on the Athletic Committee.   
 
  
 
The following resolution was considered by the Board of Governors: 
 
Resolved, That the Marshall University Board of Governors approves the University 
entering into personnel contracts with three coaches within the Department of Athletics. 
The Board further authorizes the President of the University to execute the necessary 
documents to enter into these personnel contracts. 
 
Upon a motion by Mr. Sheils, seconded by Mr. Jim Smith, no discussion, a vote of aye, with no 
opposition, the motion carried. 
 
III.  Adjournment 
 
Hearing no opposition, the meeting was adjourned.   
 
 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
 
___________________________ 
Chris Miller, Secretary 
 
 


The Minutes of the Marshall University Board of Governors Meeting, January 5, 2023

The Minutes of the Marshall University Board of Governors Meeting, August 8, 2023

These items include materials from the Office of the President at Marshall University from 1964-1969. Items were received in 2023 from former President, Stewart Smith\u27s Son (Fredrick Smith), which includes a binder of letters that was sent to his father when he was ending his presidency at Marshall, among a few other things. Also included is the series of notes taken during the donation, to include a few personal stories of Fred as a child growing up on Marshall\u27s campus. The attached inventory will give a broad overview of what is contained in the collection

President\u27s Office

Marshall University 
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3-29-2023 
20230329: President's Papers (Stewart Smith), 1964-1969 
President's Office 
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 Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons 
MARSHALL UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES 
INVENTORY 
Collection Name President Stewart Smith’s Office   
Record Group P 
Date Received March 29, 2023 
Accession # 20230329 
Processed by  Mallory Stanley, completed on June 14, 2023 
Donor   
Date Range 1964-1969 
Extent (cubic ft.) 0.5 
Processing note:  
  
Box #  
1 of 1 
Description  
 Reader’s Digest June 1964 (copy) (Includes Donation Letter) 
 Letters to Dr. Stewart H. Smith (1960s)   
 Dr. Smith Correspondence 1967-68 
 
Retirment Congratulations Presented to Dr. Smith by the WV Association of Colleges and 
Universities, 1968 Summer Conference, June 9, 1968 
 


20230329: President\u27s Papers (Stewart Smith), 1964-1969

Undated photo of Chuck Yeager. Photo is in a collection with other images from the 1970s, so it is likely from that time period.https://mds.marshall.edu/yeager/1230/thumbnail.jp

Marshall University 
Marshall Digital Scholar 
0455: Brigadier General Chuck Yeager 
Collection, 1923-1987 Digitized Manuscript Collections 
2023 
Undated Photo of Chuck Yeager 
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Undated Photo of Chuck Yeager

Hughes, Anna

EDITORIAL
Gateways to literacy: a collaborative effort
Volume 9 Issue 3
Anna Hughes, MA, MLIS1
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS 
information literacy, health information literacy, librarian, collaboration, gateway, gate-
keeper, healthcare providers, social worker
Author affiliations are 
listed at the end of this 
article. 
Corresponding Author: 
Anna Hughes, MA, MLIS
Marshall University
hughesan@marshall.edu
Literacy is multifaceted. Baseline literacy is simply the 
ability to read and write. It also includes the ability to 
understand what is read, utilize that understanding, 
and most importantly, share. Regardless of its form, 
literacy and its tutelage are a collaborative effort of 
many, no matter the circumstance or area of expertise 
of those involved. Because of this, literacy is the 
creation and formulation of gateways of information 
and outcomes that inevitably lead to new ways of 
thinking from a plethora of voices. This is especially 
true among and relevant to health care professionals, 
who are increasingly expected and needed to work 
collaboratively in a team environment to enhance 
care outcomes and further research, knowledge, and 
health literacy among patients and professionals. 
The very beginning of any librarian’s education 
initiates them as a gatekeeper of information. They 
learn the art of the reference interview to correctly 
find and direct patrons to the information that would 
benefit their pursuits. At the same time, patrons are 
taught how to correctly and sufficiently take steps 
for their future quests for information. Patrons learn 
the basics of simple information literacy, starting 
with the knowledge of the Currency, Relevance, 
Authority, Accuracy and Purpose (CRAAP) test created 
by Sarah Blakeslee in 2004.1 The CRAAP test is a now 
well-established and common knowledge concept in 
the library world shared under a Creative Commons 
BY 4.0 license.2 It is a first step in a patron’s path 
towards information literacy. Currency. Relevance. 
Authority. Accuracy. Purpose. One simple checklist 
of information is the deciding foundation for each 
patron’s resource evaluations. Is the reference 
current? In what professions is this part of the test 
truly necessary? Is the reference relevant to their 
research or does it simply have similar keywords or 
terms? What authority do the authors, publishers, 
sponsors, and affiliates have in terms of the subject 
at hand? Are they credentialed in the field? In other 
words, is the writer(s) of the reference qualified to 
have written the study, report, etc. in the first place? 
This leads to how accurate the information in the 
reference is: Is there supporting evidence for the 
argument(s) made? Is the language unbiased and 
focused? Finally, what are the writers’ intentions? 
Is the purpose of the resource to simply inform or 
perhaps further research on a topic at hand? What 
biases might be read in the language and writing of 
the piece? All these items together (though not all 
may be relevant to the resource being evaluated) 
offer the patron the ability to determine the usability 
™
MARSHALL JOURNAL OF 
MEDICINE
Expanding Knowledge to Improve Rural Health.
mds.marshall.edu/mjm 
© 2023 Marshall Journal of Medicine
Marshall Journal of Medicine 
Volume 9 Issue 3
DOI: 10.33470/2379-9536.1417
™
MARSHALL JOURNAL OF 
MEDICINE
Expanding Knowledge to Improve Rural Health.
mds.marshall.edu/mjm 
© 2023 Marshall Journal of Medicine
Marshall Journal of Medicine 
Volume 9 Issue 3
of any references possibly being used in their own 
work.1,2 Patrons learn how to evaluate, share, and ask 
new questions with this now-opened gateway. They 
become part of the collaborative team of literacy 
gatekeepers and new gateways.   
 
This step in the gateway of literacy is imperative 
when introducing health information literacy to 
the patron/patient and their collaborating team. 
This is where the necessity of collaboration in 
creating literacy gateways comes into play. The 
concept of healthcare and collaboration became 
more commonplace after the passage of the 
Affordable Care Act. One intention was to create 
a team of individuals whose goal was to treat not 
the condition or disease but the patient. Such a 
team could include physicians, residents, physician 
assistants, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, nurses, 
radiologists, mental health specialists, and even 
librarians and social workers.3 
Unfortunately, the patient was forgotten as a 
critical part of the team. If endeavors towards the 
patient’s health were to have a chance of success, 
why not include the patient, and advocates thereof, 
in addition to the collaborators listed previously? 
Each individual would have knowledge based on 
their expertise, whether it be through their field 
of study or their own body. Such a collaboration 
could only serve each gatekeeper to teach, learn, 
and discover more questions and gateways. A 
successful collaborative team of gatekeepers would 
hopefully come to understand the importance 
of effective communication among its various 
members. Coming from differing educational, 
foundational, and communicative backgrounds 
would offer new perspectives and trains of thought. 
That was the hope, at least. Perhaps with the 
addition of an outside peer review, the team (as 
both team and individuals) could gain a more 
objective understanding of the steps necessary to 
move forward and gain footing for new questions 
in creating new gateways. In other words, when 
more than one type of literacy is brought into 
play, more gateways can be opened because 
of study, understanding, simple listening, and 
communication.
Indeed, this last part of the concept of collaborative 
teams is both hopeful and speculative. It takes 
patience and a willingness to work. It is the idea of 
a new gateway waiting to be opened by a collective 
of gatekeepers who understand their individual 
limitations and strengths. The beauty of the gateway 
is that it is or would be a new learning space, a safe 
zone of insight and ideology. Each person on the 
team could teach and learn and learn and teach; 
new perspectives could be brought forward, new 
thoughts asked, new answers found, and perhaps 
patients saved.  
Becoming a gatekeeper of information can be a 
daunting endeavor, but its result could include 
the establishment of new areas of academic study 
or questions asked about present guidelines and 
policies or whatever else anyone interested in 
taking such a path can think or dream of. Becoming 
a gatekeeper opens multiple pathways that lead 
to numerous literacies, but it only does so by 
establishing collaborative efforts and many voices. 
Therein lies the challenge—mine and hopefully 
yours if you are up for it. 
AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS
1. Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia
REFERENCES
1. Blakeslee S. The CRAAP test. Loex 
Quarterly. 2004;31(3):4. https://
commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1009&context=loexquarterly
2. Blakeslee S. Evaluating Information – Applying 
the CRAAP Test. Meriam Library, California State 
University, Chico. https://library.csuchico.edu/
sites/default/files/craap-test.pdf
3. Kocher R, Emanuel EJ, DeParle NA. The 
Affordable Care Act and the future of clinical 
medicine: the opportunities and challenges. 
Ann Intern Med. Oct 19 2010;153(8):536-9. 
doi:10.7326/0003-4819-153-8-201010190-00274
