Mill Valley Middle School

Internet and School Network Systems Acceptable Use Policy

 Students MUST:  

• Use the Internet and school network systems only for educational purposes, NOT for commercial, political or personal purposes.
• Be considerate. Students will NOT send abusive or threatening messages or those which contain offensive language; destroy data through uploading or creating computer viruses; or read, copy or modify other users’ files.
• Use only the files, accounts, or passwords that are assigned to them and respect the confidentiality and privacy of others.
• Be careful. This includes not revealing their home address or personal phone number or the addresses and phone numbers of others on the Internet.
• Not hold Mill Valley Middle School or Mill Valley School District responsible for damages or inaccuracies on the systems. Students must understand that the school and district make no warranties for the services it provides and will not be responsible for any damages suffered while on the systems.
• Not access inappropriate matter and misuse the systems. Students must understand that “inappropriate” matter means that which shows or describes sexual conduct in an offensive way and which has no literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors. “Misusing the system” means sending or receiving data which is discriminatory or which promotes illegal or unethical activities.
• Understand that they will lose access to the systems if they do not follow the rules. The use of the computers and systems is a privilege, not a right. Inappropriate use may result in cancellation of this privilege.

-          Adapted from the Santa Clara County Office of Education

Internet Research

Our homepage: The Mill Valley Middle School Library Homepage is at http://mslibrary.mvschools.org. On it you will find search engines, the bibliography format, links to good research sites by topic (under Classroom Research) and the link to the SIRS online database of newspaper and magazine articles.

SIRS: To access SIRS, go to the MVMS Library Homepage and click on the SIRS icon or link. Then, if you are not at school, type in the Customer ID (CA5737H) and password (94941). Click on the first link and start your search.

Internet Searching: When using Google or another search engine to find web sites, first think about the key words you are going to use for the search. Are there any synonyms for those key words? Choose two or three key words and type they with a space between them. DON’T use words such as “the” “a” etc. Google and most other search engines will simply search each web page for your key words and return results with all of the key words in them.

 Make sure you spell your key words correctly. For example: If you spell Henry the Eighth “Heny 8,” you will only get web sites that spell his name incorrectly. That means you can’t trust the information.

 ALWAYS CHECK TO SEE IF THE INFORMATION IS TRUSTWORTHY! That can mean doing a Google search on the web site author. If they are an professional expert in your subject, the information is probably okay. If not, don’t trust it. Double-check some of the facts using the encyclopedia or another book. Use the checklist on the library homepage (under "Technology")  for other ways to determine if you have found a reliable web site or one with errors in it.