Internet Censorship Survey

["Elisabeth E. Cook" <EC2923@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>]

Hi!
     As my last requirement for a MLS with School Library
Media Certification from The University at Albany (SUNY)
I am writing a thesis concerning Intellectual Freedom and
Electronic Information / Internet Access by K-12
Students.  Most of what has been written on this topic
pertains to Higher Education, so I would greatly
appreciate it if those of you in K-12 programs would take
a few minutes to fill out the enclosed survey so that I
may compile some information relevant to K-12.  I would
be happy to send a copy of the results to anyone who is
interested.  Please return to me personally (email and
snail mail addresses are at the end of the file).  I will
summarize results for the list. Thank you very much for
your help.

                              Elisabeth Cook




             K12 Intellectual Freedom/Internet Survey

1.   Name______________________________________________

2.   Position___________________________________________

3.   If you are with a school, at what level?

     ___Elementary   ___Middle   ___Secondary  ___Other

4.   When was your school connected to the Internet?

     ___Month    ____Year

5.   Do you offer a user interface such as Mosaic or
     Lynx?  ____Yes     ____No

6.   What individuals are allowed individual accounts?

     ___Librarian/Computer Teacher

     ___Other Faculty/Administrators

     ___Students

     ___Others (please describe)_______________________

7.   Are accounts identical, or do different user groups
     have differential access?_________________________
     __________________________________________________



8.   Are student accounts private?  If not, who has
     access to the accounts, and on what grounds?_______
     ___________________________________________________

9.   What services are available, and to whom?

                    Libr/CT   Fac/Admin   Students  Other

     E-mail         _____     _____       _____     _____

     FTP            _____     _____       _____     _____

     Telnet         _____     _____       _____     _____

     Usenet         _____     _____       _____     _____

     IRC            _____     _____       _____     _____

     Other          _____     _____       _____     _____

     If you offer other services, please describe________

     ____________________________________________________

10.  If you offer newsgroups, what individuals are
     responsible for deciding what Newsgroups will be
     supported, and are there written selection policies
     governing these decisions?____________________

     ___________________________________________________


11.  Do you have a written policy for "Acceptable Use" of
     an individual account? ___Yes  ___No  If yes,
     please enclose.

12.  Do you require users to sign a contract? ___Yes __No
     If yes, please enclose.

13.  Do you require parental permission for student
     Internet access?  ___Yes  ___No   If yes, please
     enclose consent form.

14.  Do you permit students to access from home via
     modem? ___Yes  ___No.

15.  If you do not permit remote access by students, are
     students closely supervised for all Internet use?
     ___Yes  ___No

16.  Have any of the following incidents occurred at your
     school?  Please check all that apply:

     ____ complaints over objectionable material obtained
          by students over the Internet

     ____ email harassment

     ____ copyright infringement involving the Internet

     _____plagiarism involving the Internet

17.  Please comment on the disposition of any such
     incidents.________________________________________

18.  In the Internet training which was provided to your
     user community, please indicate which of the
     following topics were addressed:

     Topic                    Groups Trained
                    Faculty/Ad   Students   Others

     Netiquette     _______      _______    ______

     Privacy        _______      _______    ______

     Copyright      _______      _______    ______

     Unacceptable
     Use            _______      _______    ______


19.  Please provide your personal opinions on the
     following statements, using this scale:
     1 = Strongly agree
     2 = Agree
     3 = Neutral
     4 = Disagree
     5 = Strongly disagree

1.   All users should have a reasonable expectation of
     privacy when using electronic mail________

2.   Electronic resources are analogous to print
     resources and should be selected using similar
     criteria to those which apply to print______

3.   To learn to use Internet resources, students must be
     given broad latitude to explore all available
     resources______

4.   I can't risk my  connection by supporting
     Newsgroups which nearly everyone agrees are
     inappropriate for students________



5.   Technical solutions to the problem of objectionable
     material are unworkable.  Smart kids will figure
     out how to get around them________

6.   The solution to the problem of objectionable
     material is user education_____

7.   The solution to the problem of objectionable
     material is a user contract with explicit and
     severe penalties for violations_____

8.   The solution to the problem of objectionable
     material is the creation of accounts with varying
     access depending upon the age of the student or the
     permission granted by parents_____

9.   No matter how complicated these issues are, our
     Internet connection is worth it________

10.  The training in Internet mechanics provided to the
     users at my institution was sufficient and
     appropriate________

11.  The training in Internet ethics and related issues
     provided to the users at my institution was
     sufficient and appropriate_________


     I would greatly appreciate any additional comments
you might have.  I am particularly interested in
references - print or electronic.

     Please check if you would like a copy of the:

     ___summary results

     ___the entire paper (Available in August)

     Thanks again!



Elisabeth E. Cook, Graduate Student       INTERNET: ec2923@uacsc1.albany.edu
SISP                                      BITNET: ec2923@albnyvms.bitnet
Rockefeller College
135 Western Avenue                        "So many books, so little time..."
Albany, NY 12222