Congratulations to Laura Mitchell, who on Friday, September 4, 2026, successfully defended her dissertation.
The title of Laura's dissertation is, "PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL LIBRARIANS NAVIGATING BOOK CHALLENGES: A QUALITATIVE STUDY."
The abstract of this study follows:
Overview of Problem: Since 2021, a surge of book challenges and bans has thrust school librarians into the center of public scrutiny as they navigate growing pressures to remove or restrict materials that reflect diverse experiences and identities. Librarians are caught between their professional obligation to uphold intellectual freedom and external pressures to remove or restrict materials, leading them to make decisions that carry significant ethical, legal, and personal consequences.
Research Purpose: Guided by critical librarianship, this study sought to understand how certified public middle school librarians across the United States experienced, navigated, and responded to book challenges and how professional values and systems of power shaped their decisions.
Research Design: A critical qualitative design examined librarians’ experiences within contexts of power, policy, and ideology.
Sample: The sample included 11 certified middle school librarians from U.S. public schools serving students in grades 6-8. Participants held a Master of Library Science (MLS) or equivalent certification and had experienced one or more book challenges, removals, or restrictions since 2020.
Data Collection: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted via Zoom; audio was transcribed. Data were analyzed using Yin’s (2014) five-step analytic process.
Findings: Theme 1, Vulnerability, revealed how the legislative and political climate created a sense of professional vulnerability that reshaped participants’ daily professional practice. Theme 2, Policy Paradox, captured tensions between established reconsideration policies and experiences with administrative authority, procedural bypass, and quiet censorship. Theme 3, Doing the Work, illustrated how participants enacted professional values through relationships, alternative pathways to access, and the preservation of representation. Across the themes, professional values remained central to how participants exercised professional agency within increasingly restrictive environments.
Conclusions/Implications: Despite increasing censorship efforts and professional vulnerability, participants continued to enact their professional values and exercise professional agency in service of students. This study demonstrated how vulnerability, policy implementation, advocacy, and resistance became embedded in everyday professional practice within systems of power. Ultimately, restrictive conditions changed the circumstances under which participants practiced, but not their understanding of what librarianship should be—creating opportunities for students to read, explore ideas, discover new perspectives, and develop a lifelong love of reading.
Dissertation Committee Chair:
Dr. Susan V. Iverson
Dissertation Committee Members:
Dr. Mary Coakley-Fields
Dr. Vikki Terrile
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