Congratulations to Melissa Anne Iamonico who on Monday, September 8, 2025, successfully defended her dissertation. The title of Melissa’s dissertation is, "GATEKEEPER AND CHANGE AGENT: HOW SCHOOL LIBRARIANS’ VALUES AND ETHICS IMPACT COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT IN A TIME OF CENSORSHIP."
Overview of Problem: Since January of 2021, there has been an increase in book challenges and bans. School librarians are at the forefront of these challenges, and yet there have been no qualitative studies that explore school librarian’s ethics, values, and motivations when it comes to collection development examining how those ethics, values, and motivations present themselves in both a collection analysis and then in circulation data.
Research Purpose: Guided by Fullan’s Change Agent Theory and Lewin’s Gatekeeper Theory, this sequential exploratory mixed methods study is to examine the role of the school librarian as both a change agent and a gatekeeper as they purchase, promote, and use diverse literature.
Research Design: A sequential exploratory mixed methods design was chosen for this study because of the lack of qualitative research done on school librarian collection development. The quantitative component of circulation and collection analysis allowed the use of quantitative data to triangulate the qualitative findings.
Sample: The sample was comprised of 13 school librarians from throughout New York State who met the following criteria: (a) served as a school librarian in New York State, with or without Library Media Specialist Certification, (b) work with students in grades 5-8, (c) responsible for collection development in their building.
Data Collection and Analysis: This sequential exploratory mixed methods study utilized semi-structured individual interviews, focus groups, and document analysis as qualitative sources, and circulation and collection analysis as quantitative sources. Yin’s (2015) five step analytic process was used for data analysis.
Findings/Results: Participants reported strong commitments to the Core Values and Code of Ethics of the American Library Association, especially diversity, access and service. Findings include a clear lack of understanding among the participants about curation versus self-censorship.
Conclusions/Implications: Confusion between curation and self-censorship could provide insight into much of the previous research that has been quantitative in nature and reported high levels of self-censorship among school librarians. In addition, participants reported strong feelings of isolation and a lack of administrative support. The importance of collaborative networks became apparent, as did the need for further professional development and training in the difference between collection development and self-censorship.
Dissertation Committee Chair(s):
Dr. Kenneth Mitchell
Dissertation Committee Member(s):
Dr. Nora C.R. Broege
Dr. LaKeshia Darden
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