By Kenneth Schlesinger and Scott White, Library

In response to what we perceive as a growing problem at LaGuardia, the Library has negotiated a free trial to turnitin.com -innovative plagiarism detection software - through December 31, 2001. Faculty members may contact Scott White at x5441 or _ HYPERLINK “mailto:swhite@lagcc.cuny.edu” _swhite@lagcc.cuny.edu_ to open an account.
While the free Internet has brought a wealth of information to our fingertips, it has also facilitated copying and pasting with just a few mouse clicks. Moreover, students have become accustomed to unlawful copying.

Although the best defense against plagiarism still remains in the classroom by instructing students in proper methods of “staging” a term paper, turnitin.com has proven to be an effective tool in electronically evaluating suspect essays. Basically, the electronic text is checked against major Internet search engines and commercial databases. A color coded report is generated, matching portions based on amount and extent of overlapping sources, with hyperlinks to these disputed passages.

The Library first became aware of plagiarism on campus when it was reported that some LaGuardia faculty were reluctant to assign library-based research assignments due to high incidence of student copying. Further, Library faculty on the Reference Desk had been approached by a number of students with “ready-made” bibliographies, trying to check mostly out-of-date sources not found in LaGuardia Library. We believe - that these are “paper mill” essays.

The Library offered a workshop on plagiarism at Opening Sessions 2001. We recommended measures for faculty to partner with librarians to promote information literacy, as well as explored notorious paper mill sites and demonstrated turnitin.com.
We invite you to establish a free faculty trial account of turnitin.com. We’ll determine whether there is sufficient interest to warrant introducing this resource to LaGuardia.