Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Copyrights and Plagiarism

Stephanie Gold's article about copyright law includes some really useful ways to help schools teach their students and staff how to understand copyright laws and how not to infringe upon them. I liked the ideas which included proactive rules for schools, meaning rather than waiting for someone to break a rule and then punishing them for it, it makes a lot more sense to try and educate the school community on how to get needed information without plagiarizing. I think that school librarians, if they want to play a postive role in helping their school communities become educated about copyright laws, need to take the position that being proactive(and patient!) is the best path to take.
I liked reading about Ivy Run and the way it encourages teachers to find assignments for students which discourage plagiarism and the idea they promote of copyright policy being one that changes quickly and constantly, rather than simply a set of rules which need to be memorized.
School librarians are going to have to show a lot of patience and guidance in the area of copyright and plagiarism. There is so much information available and such easy access to it that helping people become educated about what constitutes plagiarism and how not to do it is and will continue to be a big job for school librarians.

1 comment:

Linda Braun said...

And, don't forget that talking honestly with teachers and students about copyright will make it easier for them to relate. You can say the system isn't perfect but it's the system at present.