Is it a misuse of school resources to use school accounts for non-school work?

Question

I work as a public school teacher. Due to a lack of current textbooks in my niche subject area, I am working on writing my own textbook which I hope to publish next year. In the meantime, and unrelated to this, I enrolled half-time in some college courses.

Being enrolled in the college courses means I have access to the state university's research tools, librarians, inter-library loan program, etc. I think I can get better assistance from the librarians if I am open about what exactly I am doing, however, it has no relation to the college courses I am taking. Can I be open about why I am doing the research, borrowing books and journals via inter-library loans or is this regarded as a misuse of those state-funded resources? How do university staff generally feel about assisting people with research not really related to the college?

Answer 1

In the US and some other places there will be laws (at the State level) and regulations about use of resources in general, but for the things you suggest there should be no issues.

But this is because the libraries, in particular, at universities serve as a general public resource of information. You could probably get the same services even if not enrolled just by asking for assistance.

There might be exceptions, but for most universities the mission is varied and broad. A university is more than just a place where students are taught and more than just a place where research is done.

As long as nothing you do actually interferes with any of the missions (and sometimes even if you do), the resources are open to you and, it is citizen taxes that support much of it in any case.

Feel free.

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The cases where you might run afoul of regulations would more likely be in the use of specific equipment purchased for one thing but used for something else.