Some days it’s hard to tell: are there any truly new ideas out there? It’s the end of the academic year, and plagiarism—a key issue in information literacy—has been making the news. In the past few weeks,The Boston Globe has had numerous front page articles about a Harvard student and a Raytheon executive who used others’ words and ideas improperly.
Sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan’s first novel had many similar phrasings to two works by Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.[1] Although the author said the duplication was unintentional, Viswanathan’s publisher actually recalled the book from bookstores.[2]
Experienced CEO William H. Swanson has been giving away a book of management maxims, many of which were duplicated from UCLA Professor W.J. King’s The Unwritten Rules of Engineering, published in 1944.[3] Swanson said he “. . . did not properly check the source and did not confirm the appropriate attribution of the material. . .” when staff members put together a presentation that eventually led to the book.[4] His company board of directors reduced his salary and compensation by $1million.[5]
Other Boston Globe articles mention famous authors and psychological research on unconscious plagiarism, and the new phenomenon of blog plagiarism.
So how do faculty and students recognize and avoid plagiarism? Babson Library’s page called avoiding plagiarism 101 is a good place to start. Another tool is SearchPath, section 6, on citing sources. Librarians can also work with faculty to create assignments on this (or any) topic. For a simple example, consider assigning a group of students to read each of these articles, and respond to a series of questions via a discussion board in Manhattan. See your faculty liaison for details.
Edee Edwards, Reference Librarian and Information Literacy Coordinator
[1]
Mehegan, D. (2006, April 25). After duplicated words, words of apology: Harvard writer says she ‘internalized’ an earlier novel.” The Boston Globe, pp. A1, A6.[2]
Mehegan, D. (2006, April 28). “Student novelist’s book to be recalled: Many similarities to another’s work.” Friday, April 28, 2006. The Boston Globe, pp. A1, A15. [3]
Weisman, R. (2006, April 25). “Raytheon chief admits owing credit for adages.” The Boston Globe, pp. A1, A7.[4]
Weisman, R. (2006, May 4). “CEO gets $1m slap for misuse of maxims.” The Boston Globe pp. A1, A6.)
In 2005, the College Curriculum Committee revised the General Education Requirements at Springfield College. These are the requirements that all students must fulfill in order to graduate. Information literacy has been included as one of these requirements. This is new territory for Springfield College and Babson Library. You can view the revised General Education Requirements by clicking here: General Education Requirements [PDF file].
Babson Library recently subscribed to a citation management software program called RefWorks. RefWorks allows you to collect and organize citations from various sources (such as library databases) and insert them into a paper according to various style guides, such as APA. RefWorks will also automatically generate a bibliography for the paper. Of course, RefWorks isn’t perfect. Students still have to monitor the information that goes into their paper and how RefWorks formats their citations. To do this, students need to understand the different parts of a citation. Teaching students how to use RefWorks is a good way to demonstrate what is needed for a proper citation and how accurate citations are formed. This helps meet Information Literacy Standard 5.4 - “Students will be able to select an appropriate documentation style and uses it consistently to cite sources.”
RefWorks can be used to foster other literacy standards. For example, when students add citations to their RefWorks account, what they are actually doing is creating a small database of resources. Like any database, students can search through their RefWorks citations by running general keyword searches, but they can also search in specific fields and look for specific subject headings. They can even create their own unique subject headings and search those as well. This database can be managed by creating separate folders for different topics (assignments) and they can be used throughout a student’s career — helping students build their own database library of important resources.
By building their own databases and exploring how database searching works, students can gain a greater understanding of how library databases work. This, in turn, can help improve their ability to search other databases for information. When used in this context, RefWorks supports Information Literacy Standards 2.2 - “Student will be able to describe the organizational structure of library databases, and the difference between a keyword search and a fielded search,” and 2.3 “students will demonstrate an understanding of what a controlled vocabulary is and why it is used.”
Gary Atwood
Reference Librarian
