College of San Mateo

LIBR105

Lesson Ten

Ethical Issues, Scholarly Research and the World Wide Web

Learning Objectives:

The goals for this lesson include:

• To be able to define and understand the significance of the term “plagiarism”.

• To be able to define and understand the significance of the term “copyright”.

• To understand how to avoid intentional and unintentional plagiarism while doing scholarly research.

• To understand the importance of copyright laws while conducting scholarly research.

Reading Assignments:

There are many ethical and legal questions related to the use of information and information technology. The following articles provide some good background information on these issues:

• Read the following article: “Combating Plagiarism.”

      Hansen, B. “Combating Plagiarism.” CQ Researcher, 13 September 2003. The CQ Researcher Online. 16 August 2007

      <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003091900>.

• Review the following document developed by the United States Copyright Office:  “Copyright Basics”

Copyright Basics. July 2006.  The U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress. 16 August 2007

      <http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf>

      This is a pdf file.  You will need Adobe’s Acrobat Reader to view this document.

Homework:

Complete the Lesson Ten Graded Assignment.

• E-mail it to Mark Fink at finkm@smccd.net .

• Read the LIBR105 blog entry for this assignment, which can be accessed here: http://libr105.wordpress.com/ .

• Respond to the question posed by the instructor that pertains to this assignment. 
• Add your own comment(s) and/or questions to the blog.

Return to the LIBR105 Course Syllabus or go on to the Final Project.