What are librarians to do when they suspect a student is cheating on a research paper and want thier help to do so?

April 19, 2011 9:38 AM

What are librarians to do when students cheat on a research papers and 'want them to help them?

A few years ago I was a part time rookie librarian at a very large big city junior college. It didn't dawn on me right away but after a while I realized that students were cutting and pasting the content of their research papers by downloading articles from the internet.

It was really obvious, however, when they would come to me at the last minute and ask me for books on particular subjects in order to copy the bibliographic information, i.e. "I need to find 14 books on abortion" or whatever the typical term paper topic might be. Then they would copy out the biographical information and leave the books on the table.

I felt very weird helping them and after a while I asked one of the senior librarians about the library policy on this kind of behavior. She hemmed and hawed and wound up telling me it was the student's responsibility to do the right thing and not my business how they did their work.

I quit after a few months, even though I needed the job, as the place was just too corrupt/political.

This dilemma has always bothered me and I wonder what do other librarians do this or similar situations?

posted by Tullyogallaghan to Education (24 answers total)

Response by poster: Correcting spelling in title from "thier" to "their" - sorry.
posted by Tullyogallaghan at 9:40 AM on April 19, 2011

Not a librarian, but I am a college prof and I would totally appreciate a quick email from that librarian just letting me know of some possibly shady behaviors in terms of the bibliographies (not necessarily calling out specific students). Honestly it's hard sometimes to check up on every student for every form of academic dishonesty, so a little direction can help. In my opinion if you're part of the overall academic environment, you have a vested interest in the academic honesty of that environment.
posted by bizzyb at 9:49 AM on April 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Its none of the librarians business what people do with the information they gather from the books.
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:52 AM on April 19, 2011 [20 favorites]

I've mentioned, while helping students that appeared to be doing this, that instructors read a lot of papers, have been listening to them talk (or reading their online class postings) all semester, and Google blocks of text that look fishy all the time. I sometimes follow it up with a reference to the honor code, and by telling them that students caught plagiarizing stand to lose their aid and/or be expelled.

With email / IM instances (esp. exam questions), we generally go straight to the instructor, forwarding the unanswered question with the student's contact information.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:56 AM on April 19, 2011 [5 favorites]

IMHO, if you can't even tell the librarian something plausible - "I lost my bibliography list, and I don't remember all of the names" is better than "gimme all the books on X subject" - you deserve to be caught and treated as if you are behaving shadily.

If your institution has an honor code, you as an employee may or may not be honor-bound to report when you suspect cheating. Rather than being a nosy Nancy, which is how a lot of people would feel about it, the academic honor code of your school can (should) be your guide here.
posted by Medieval Maven at 9:58 AM on April 19, 2011

Isn't it unethical for a librarian to monitor or report on identifiable collection usage to 3rd parties (except under court order)?
posted by Consult The Oracle at 9:59 AM on April 19, 2011 [8 favorites]

Its none of the librarians business what people do with the information they gather from the books.

Wrong, in many cases - in academic libraries, there are often codes of student conduct that the employees are duty-bound to help enforce.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:59 AM on April 19, 2011

It isn't your responsibility. You can be really helpful, though.... "This is the computer catalog! Here, sit down, and I'll show you how to put in your query. OK, so here it says that there are 27 books with this topic, but it also shows associated topics. This is how you find out if a book is available. Over here you can search for other books by the same author." Kill 'em with library knowledge, at least they'll be doing some thinking.
posted by anaelith at 10:01 AM on April 19, 2011 [8 favorites]

If they were just asking you to help them find books (even if you kinda suspected impending plagarism), don't think anything about it.

If, on the other hand, it was painfully obvious that that was what they were doing, perhaps do something about it. I (personally) would consider compiling a list of students entitled 'the following students quite obviously solicited my help in plagarizing their term papers' and submitting it anonymously to the powers that be.

Its none of the librarians business what people do with the information they gather from the books.

If it makes them complicit in plagarism, it sure as hell is. Imagine a student defending his or her actions to an academic dishonesty board: "librarian x aided my efforts to do all this and so i thought it was totally fine, etc., etc." One can report such students to (a) do the right thing, (b) cover one's ass, or (c) both.
posted by matlock expressway at 10:02 AM on April 19, 2011

Isn't it unethical for a librarian to monitor or report on identifiable collection usage to 3rd parties (except under court order)?

This varies dramtically among the different types of libraries. In public libraries this is the case in most US states though many states have varyng definitions of how they interpret this from strict to loose. Academic libraries have the mission of the institution that may or may not supercede other privacy concerns, though most libraries are pretty strict about not sharing your specific reading lists, mentioning that students in geenral seem to be doing X, Y or Z is not at all against the rules.

When I've worked at a university library we'd usually do the general reference interview type things "What do you need this for? What are you working on? What level paper are you writing?" that sort of thing. And if it looked like a student was tryng to end-run doing the work I'd mention the conduct code if it was applicable, give them some ideas of how to actually complete the assignment even given the time restrictions they were up against and send them on their way.

It's the same thing I'd do if I noticed that someone seemed to be using the library photocopier to photocopy an entire textbook. At some level it's their issue, at another level its our responsibility to educate people to what the information landscape is and maybe offer them alternatives that are less problem-causing for them. And if I felt people were doing this a lot, I'd discuss [in a general way, no naming names] that this seemed to be a problem and offer to work with faculty or other people on some bibliographic instruction or curriculum development to maybe help avoid this sort of thing.
posted by jessamyn at 10:06 AM on April 19, 2011 [12 favorites]

I called out my entire class last semester, because a goodly number of the kids very obviously either just cut and pasted from the online library catalogue for their bibliography or even just listed random books and sources that looked somewhat plausible. One student even pushed back rather aggressively, thinking that what she'd done was absolutely A-OK. Having a librarian contact me about something like this would have confirmed my suspicions, but having a librarian reiterate to the students (outside of what they were hearing during class time) what real researching is supposed to be like would have been awesome.

Anaelith has it, be the awesome.
posted by LN at 10:07 AM on April 19, 2011

Mod note: few comments removed - OP is asking for what librarians do, not what you think librarians SHOULD be doing, thanks
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:07 AM on April 19, 2011

I think you do what you're asked to do as a librarian. I've been on both sides of this, and while it probably is cheating, It's probably also eyebrow-raising when shady guys check out books about doing shady things. But I don't think a librarian is supposed to be monitoring your actions and then reporting you to the proper authorities.

I had a student try to pull this on me, and I had to give that student an F. I realize some professors have hundreds of students and overworked T.A.'s, but honestly it isn't your position as a librarian to go reporting people's behaviors.

It sucks, but the professors will have to catch these things. I agree with Jessamyn that if you want to address it on an aggregate level, that is fine. I just think saying "Benny Jacobs was cheating, Professor Robinson" is kind of taking it far.
posted by cashman at 10:09 AM on April 19, 2011

Some librarians I've known will track projects/assignments that are prone to plagiarism and talk to the professor about how to work with the library to create assignments that are designed to push students into not doing this sort of thing and doing their own research, which is, after all, the intent of most assigments. I know it's a lot of work, but it is useful for the teacher to know this - sometimes people have no idea.

(Additionally, I think it's good to warn students that this type of cheating is often terribly obvious and extremely easy to catch in the age of google, and they are setting themselves up for disaster by doing this. It's amazing how many of them don't know this.)
posted by lesbiassparrow at 10:17 AM on April 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I work in a special collections library and archive in a university that is increasingly asking undergrads to incorporate archival sources into their documents (I reckon, partially due to the emphasis on undergrad research, but also because it forces students to approach paper writing in a different way that is less prone to plagiarism).

Archival research is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, and our mantra, whether its students, faculty or genealogists, is "We cannot do your research for you, but we can show you how to get the sources." Mainly this is a time issue, since virtually all archives are universally understaffed and overworked. Once our patrons have the resources they need, we consider it none of our business how they use it, as long as they're complying with our reading room and publication policies, etc.
posted by mostly vowels at 10:18 AM on April 19, 2011

It would be unethical at a public library - but at a university library?

Who hired the librarian? The School. Is the librarian supposed to be up-holding the educational mission of the school? Yes.

In a school library, isn't the librarian there to facilitate the learning experience. Would the school want students using its resources and staff members to circumvent the educational goals of the school.

A librarian at a school is duty bound to report and prevent cheating, IMO.
posted by Flood at 10:38 AM on April 19, 2011

I am an a academic librarian. I teach students how to find and evaluate resources. I teach students how to cite sources, both at the reference desk and in the one- or two-shot classes I give to them when I am invited by their professors to do so. I am much too busy to watch what students do with the sources they find and it definitely is not part of my job to try to figure out if they are plagiarizing.

I know that some faculty members will ask them to put together a preliminary/exploratory list of sources on a particular topic long before they actually write a paper.
posted by mareli at 10:51 AM on April 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

These days, for major papers college students have to submit electronically to a website that automatically checks for plagiarism. This really isn't the problem of the librarian.
posted by booknerd at 10:56 AM on April 19, 2011

These days, for major papers college students have to submit electronically to a website that automatically checks for plagiarism.

Again, varies - in any case, Turnitin is woefully (and widely acknowledged to be) flawed, and often cannot detect material plagiarized from sources outside its relatively small database of examples. Even if it was fail safe, its use wouldn't excuse professional negligence in cases where reporting of cheating / plagiarism is required or strongly recommended.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:04 AM on April 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for all the informative responses.

First of all I never intended on reporting anyone and 'was only asking in regard to my own participation in their efforts at cheating. I felt compromised and guilty afterwards while the students went merrily on their way!

This was the type of jr college that accepted anyone who applied and there were a goodly numbers of this type of student, especially day students. Many (most?) had never been in libraries before and only came there to meet their friends and play on the computers together.

I think it would be a very good idea for libraries in schools like this to teach not just a typical bibliographic instruction class but a really basic class on libraries and how to do research in same, including how to do so in an honorable way. Not so much emphasizing data bases but with actual books.

Start at square one, what is a book, how do you read one, explain fiction from non-fiction, reference books, etc. How to read for comprehension, do an outline, take notes, do basic research, simple bibliographies and the like. You can't take anything for granted.

Once I had a student aid show me his paper, bound in a nice binder, for his astronomy class. When I read it I was surprised at his vocabulary, presentation, writing skills, etc. That's when he told me where he got the information - he didn't write it at all - simply copied and pasted it together. He thought his job was the assembly of the paper, not the writing of it. He had no idea what I was talking about when I told him how it should have been prepared and he was quite sincere. He was very proud of "his" paper. Later he showed me his grade and, as I recall it was an "A" or a "B."
posted by Tullyogallaghan at 12:06 PM on April 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

These students are not using the university's library in good faith or for a valid academic purpose, and are indeed violating the policies of the institution. Ethically, you have just as much right to kick them out and report them as a public librarian would have a right to kick out and report the mentally ill gentleman who leaves dixie cups of urine in the stacks. Your institution should have had an academic misconduct process, I would have recommended having a chat with them. "False" accusation of plagiarism are libel, and thus most institutions have some amount of due process.

On preview, holy fuck!
posted by Blasdelb at 12:12 PM on April 19, 2011

All freshmen at my college, a small (1,500. FTE) four year state school in rural South Carolina, have to take English 101 and that course includes two full class sessions with me or my reference/instruction colleague. This is fairly typical as far as I know. We also give sessions in other classes tailored to the subject matter and type of research.

What really bugs me is the amount of nit-picking professors do about proper citation formats. I explain to students that it's really important to cite sources for two reasons: to give credit where it's due/don't plagiarize, and to make it easy for their readers to look at the sources themselves because they're interested.

We have free tutoring and various other forms of help. Many of our students are the first in their families to go to college- and the same is often true of students in community colleges. They work hard, they want very much to succeed, but they're also often quite terrified by it all. If you work with struggling students, help them out. If you don't, don't judge them too harshly when they make mistakes.
posted by mareli at 2:36 PM on April 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Let's be sure to distinguish actual cheating from merely possible cheating.

Copying the bibilographic information and leaving the book isn't necessarily a sign of cheating -- I often do that with perfectly honest research, e.g., find a book with a shallow treatment of a subject or a secondary source, then copy down the bibilography to go track down the primary sources/better treatments and read them. So I would do nothing in that situation, it's not your job as a librarian to question students as to why they need particular information.

By contrast, in situations like the astronomy paper I'd probably drop an e-mail to the professor.
posted by paultopia at 2:47 PM on April 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I might report in the aggregate. With your student and the astronomy paper, I'd email the prof a broad statement of concern with fudge words like "we've noticed at the Reference Desk"... Some professors will suggest it's not your "place" to report student behavior like that, and some will be very appreciative.

Honestly, you had an extreme example, and it sounds like your institution overall wasn't doing as much as it could. That library could try to reach out and give more instruction to those paper-writing classes, or all first-year writing classes, etc. That library may already be trying to give more instruction, and getting resistance.

I've worked with students who are really stressed out, who say to me "I just need a few sources for the bibliography, I've already written the paper". I then make it clear to them that they aren't doing ethical research: "You realize you're supposed to use the sources you cite, right? Otherwise you're lying?"

And then I show them how to find the books. If I tell them it's wrong, their prof tells them it's wrong, if they know it's wrong, but choose to do it anyway... that's part of being an adult. I try to arm them with the right info ("actually, that's not how to write a paper, don't be dishonest, go see the Tutoring Center", etc.) and then let them make their own decision. I can't report them for a crime they may commit.
posted by lillygog at 5:44 AM on April 20, 2011