Abstract: An evolving policy in American academic libraries is to furnish free, easy access to students to the Internet and World Wide Web. In an initial assignment for a credit course in Research Methods taught at Sims Memorial Library of Southeastern Louisiana University, students were asked to read and respond to an article about using the Internet for research. In their comments, some students reported to their instructors that it is common practice to copy and paste whole portions of websites and others' works into their research reports. These students frequently seemed unaware of the seriousness of this action. In this poster session, two instructors present their suggestions on ways to curb undergraduate plagiarism from Internet sources. Solutions include in-class discussion about the University Policy on Academic Honesty and the concepts of intellectual property and copyright, linking to informational web pages on the topic, and faculty education including methods to prevent and detect cyber-plagiarism.

Problem: University faculty and students acknowledge a problem of Internet copy-and-paste into research papers. How do academic libraries assist teaching faculty and students to prevent this misuse?

Objectives:

• Discover the breadth of the problem
• Learn what faculty are already trying
• Incorporate proper web use into instruction
• Help faculty detect and prevent Internet plagiarism

• How widespread is the problem ?
• What is current practice to prevent this ?
• What are departmental guidelines?
• How do you respond when you find plagiarism in a student paper?

• Has plagiarism been explained to them?
• Student Handbook
• General Catalogue
• Freshman Orientation
• Class discussion

• Use training methods already accepted by faculty
• Has the University or larger "system" presented any programming?
• Center for Faculty Excellence and Sims Library Presentations