Ah plagiarism....that dirty little word. It seems we as a society are seeing more of it: the student author from Harvard whose published book plagiarized popular author Meg Cabot, the controversial Ann Coulter accused of using copied sentences in her book, Stephen Ambrose habit of continually omitting quotations in his historical books, or the multitude of academic plagiarism instances (high school and college).

Many libraries (it seems mainly academic, school, and public) have guides on how to cite properly and what plagiarism is and how not to do it. As the Internet continues to grow and each generation's ideas (right or wrong) about intellectual property, copyright, file sharing etc. evolve, the issue will unfortunately continue. I found and interesting article in Innovate, by Eleanour Snow, "Teaching Students about Plagiarism: An Internet Solution to an Internet Problem."

Snow discusses the both student's and faculty's perception of plagiarism. She also discusses methods to help solve the problem of plagiarism by using the Internet (the common tool of plagiarism) to educate and prevent further plagiarism. Snow says, "Rather than adopting online technology only to detect plagiarism, such educators may best employ such technology in a more proactive fashion to guarantee that their students fully understand what constitutes plagiarism in their work. Online tutorials in conjunction with clearly established norms and policies at the institutional level will provide a much stronger foundation for educators in this regard. Most importantly, students will learn accepted academic and ethical practice -vital knowledge for their academic and professional success and imperative for their personal development as responsible citizens of an evolving, increasingly digital, global community."

Interesting perspective. Perhaps something that could be incorporated on some library websites that already have plagiarism policies and guidelines.