Avoiding a Pirate TRAAP — Why You Don’t Buy a Map
from Blackbeard Joe

As presented at the PASCAL 2026 Virtual Conference, June 18, 2026.

What happens when you trust the wrong map?

Eighteen-year-old Henry Hale and newly-thirteen-year-old Eric Everson head out on a routine harbor patrol — and end up chained in a tidal cave because Everson bought his navigation materials from a fishmonger named Blackbeard Joe.

Cadet Henry Hale and Cadet Eric Everson’s Guide to Finding Reliable Sources is an illustrated narrative OER module that teaches source evaluation through a naval adventure story set in the Haleverse. Built on the CRAAP framework developed in 2004 by Sarah Blakeslee and a team of librarians at the Meriam Library, California State University, Chico, the module uses Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose as its spine — and as Henry and Everson evaluate forged letters of marque, outdated field guides, and suspiciously cheap treasure maps, students learn to ask the same questions about their own sources. Before the tide comes in.

Designed for middle school through undergraduate use. Free to download. CC BY-NC-ND licensed.

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