Equitable Access
The school library offers dependable access to current and digital resources which connects all students, including those with special needs, teachers, staff, and school leaders.
Intellectual Freedom
"Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored." - American Library Association
"Intellectual freedom is the basis for our democratic system. We expect our people to be self-governors. But to do so responsibly, our citizenry must be well-informed. Libraries provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas." - American Library Association
For more information, please visit the ALA website.
Admin. “Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A.” Advocacy, Legislation & Issues, American Library Association, 20 Oct. 2017, https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/censorship/faq.
"The right to privacy – the right to read, consider, and develop ideas and beliefs free from observation or unwanted surveillance by the government or others – is the bedrock foundation for intellectual freedom."
Click here for more information regarding student privacy on the American Library Association's page.
Copyright is the legal protection given to the creator of literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.
What can be protected by copyright?
photographs web pages choreography
software books paintings
letters poems graphics
emails articles video games
sound plays songs
recordings movies …and more
If somebody created it and you can see it or hear it or pick it up, It’s probably protected by copyright!
Copyright law grants an author or creator of a work the legal right to control how his/her work may be used, published, reproduced, sold, repackaged, or distributed.
To legally use a copyright-protected work in any way other than how the author/creator intended, you must have permission or follow the Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines.
By following the Guidelines you may be able to legally use portions of copyrighted works.
Additional Resources
Fair Use allows teachers to use videos in the classroom for face-to-face instruction. Legal copies of videos must be used to support instruction. Copying and distributing of videos must not be done in any way.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to "plagiarize" means:
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
to use (another's production) without crediting the source
to commit literary theft
to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.
All of the following are considered plagiarism:
turning in someone else's work as your own
copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)
Additional Resources
Plagiarism - http://plagiarism.org/
Plagiarism Theme Page - http://www.cln.org/themes/plagiarism.html
Web English Teacher – Avoiding Plagiarism - http://www.webenglishteacher.com/plagiarism.html
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): Avoiding Plagiarism - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
For help with citations and automatic citation generators, visit any of the following:
EasyBib
Word (has a built-in citation machine)
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
An AUP is an agreement that you signed in our student handbook at the beginning of the year. This agreement states that you will:
For more information, please refer to our handbook or the document below.
“Library Media Specialist Handbook 2022-2023 .” WCPS, 2022.
“Washington County Board of Education Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) For Telecommunication.” WCPS, 2010.