Educating adolescents about sexual health in schools has been a controversial issue for the past 40-plus years. Multiple studies conducted by academic scholars, government agencies, and private organizations have concluded that adolescents receiving sexual education in schools typically make healthier decisions than adolescents not receiving a formal sexual health education, and adolescents participating in comprehensive programs make healthier choices than adolescents participating in abstinence programs. Texas school districts are not required to teach sexual education, but if they choose to do so, adolescents receive abstinence education. Texas adolescents also consistently report making more unhealthy sexual decisions than adolescents in other states. According to the social constructivist epistemology, learning occurs through social interactions with people, symbols, and tools. Interactions with various people, institutions, and information formats construct adolescents’ knowledge about sexual health. High school librarians who teach information literacy skills, who provide sexual health information resources in their collections, and who promote intellectual freedom improve adolescents’ knowledge about sexual health. The more informed adolescents are, the more likely they are to practice healthier sexual behaviors. Myriad factors encourage and discourage high school librarians from playing the role of sexual health information provider. This study explores the role high school librarians play as sexual health information providers within the framework of Role Theory. According to Role Theory, individuals exhibit predictable behaviors within a specific context based on socially constructed expectations. Multiple factors, both internal and external, may inhibit individuals from playing roles. District level library coordinators and high school principals share their perspectives about high school librarians playing this role and the factors influencing librarians’ willingness to do so. Data was collected through three rounds using the Delphi technique. Library coordinators and principals disagree about the role librarians play. Together participants identified fifteen motivators and five barriers to information provision. / text

The school library resource centre and the collection of trade books that classroom teachers gather in their classrooms were the focus of an exploratory, descriptive study designed around the first stages of an action research model. Little research had been done on how effective classroom teachers have been at acquiring trade books for their classroom collections, and on how teacher-librarians, working in partially or fully integrated school library resource centre programs, helped make trade books accessible to elementary teachers and students. One instrument, The Survey of Elementary Classroom Collections. was designed to examine four descriptive areas: the contents and size of classroom collections, the source of trade books for these collection, the organization and management of classroom collections, and the use classroom teachers make of these trade books. The 205 elementary English language classroom teachers in one school district were sent a Survey and 80% responded. The series of interviews that followed were conducted with a stratified random sample of 30 classroom teachers, nine principals and seven teacher-librarians. The stratification was organized by Phases 1, 2 or 3 of school library program development, which were determined by the score on a second instrument. The Profile of School Library Resource Centre Programs. and from information on staffing, resources and teacher-librarian experience. Results were analyzed under the four areas explored in the Survey, by grade level and by Phase. A detailed description of the classroom collections led to the development of the Independent, Interactive and Integrated models for classroom collections. Each reflected a different concept of the classroom collection, its role in the literacy program and its relationship with the school library resource centre program. Indications were that a collaborative approach to trade book provisioning emerged in schools where the school library resource centre program was more fully integrated into the school curriculum. Details on a school-based/district-wide strategy to build a collaborative approach were given, as well as suggestions for a plan of action for individual schools and for further research to explore questions raised by this study.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on February 4, 2008. Dissertation Committee: Dent Rhodes (chair), Tom Crumpler, Cheri Toledo, Bobb Darnell. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-113) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (A.M.L.S.)--University of Michigan, 1955. Cf. Library literature, 1955-1957, p. 275. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [62-63]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Union Institute, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-93).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Union Institute, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-93).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1995. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-316).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Texas A & M University, 1994. / Includes vita and abstract. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84).

Thesis (A.M.L.S.)--University of Michigan, 1955. Cf. Library literature, 1955-1957, p. 275. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [62-63]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama, 1994. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-116).