NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE               DATE: 08/30/06 CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATIONS ASST., (413) 545-0162   UMASS AMHERST EVALUATES TWO PLAGIARISM PREVENTION TECHNOLOGIES Amherst, MA – The UMass Amherst Libraries continues to support access to two plagiarism prevention technologies during the fall 2006 semester, Turnitin and MyDropBox. Faculty members are encouraged to try these services in their courses and provide feedback by the end of the fall term. The information will assist the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Student Plagiarism make a decision regarding subscribing to a service.  Turnitin and MyDropBox detect textual matches between student papers and other documents available in electronic form on the Internet, in subscription databases, in databases of student papers from participating schools, and in a database of UMass Amherst student papers submitted since January 2006 (and only accessible to UMass Amherst faculty for grading purposes).  These services allow a student or faculty member to submit an electronic version of a student paper for textual comparison with other sources. The faculty member can then analyze the report to determine if a conversation with the student or additional instruction is appropriate.  For more information on these services and sample syllabi paragraphs, see http://www.library.umass.edu/tools/plagiarism/.  For account information, assistance with, or comments on Turnitin, see http://www.library.umass.edu/tools/turnitin/ For questions, contact Anne C. Moore, 545-0148, annem@library.umass.edu. For account information, assistance with, or comments on MyDropBox, see http://www.library.umass.edu/tools/mydropbox/ For questions, contact Marilyn Billings, 545-6891, mbillings@library.umass.edu.