[WEB4LIB] RE: Question about Turnitin.com

[Dan Lester]

Friday, November 30, 2001, 2:58:19 PM, you wrote:

ST> Also, our library has some concerns about violating student's intellectual
ST> property rights by submitting papers to Turnitin.com, since these papers are
ST> stored in a public database.  I was wondering if anyone has tackled this
ST> issue.  

This is just one of many reasons I'd try to keep the library out of
this business.  Why is this a library business?  Why isn't it the job
of some academic support office, a learning lab, whoever runs your
Blackboard or similar service, the IT shop, or almost anyone else?

If you get into this you'll be dealing with all sorts of issues on
logins, passwords, teaching people how to submit their papers, dealing
with the complaints when they don't submit right, hearing someone
whine when the system suggests they plagiarized, and so forth.
Doesn't sound like our job in the library.

Yes, we've always been involved with helping a prof track down
citations that are suspect, dealing with the student who not only
plagiarized, but also cut the articles out of the volume, and so
forth. But this seems very far afield to me, and like a field that is
full of all sorts of booby traps and land mines.

Happy holidays

dan


-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!