Access Denied: How Internet Filters Impact Student Learning in H ...

Chapter Two

Framing The Question: A Review of The Relevant Literature

The focus of this research is the application of intellectual freedom in the school setting. Specifically, I will examine and describe the experiences of students who conduct term paper research with filtered Internet access in a suburban high school media center. To provide a framework for such a study, literature in three different areas of inquiry must be examined: Internet use in schools, filtering technology, and intellectual freedom in libraries.

Further, it is important to recognize that the nature of the literature in these three areas often takes more of a prescriptive and experiential, rather than research-based approach. Two researchers doing work in the area of Internet use in school libraries (Flowers, 1998; Gardner, 2001a) have both observed that the number of research studies in the field is small, compared with informational and opinion pieces. Gardner further notes that much of the extant literature, policy-making, and legislation, are aimed at public libraries.