School Library Policy and the Legal Opinions of Texas Public-School

Abstract

This study involved a survey of Texas public-school principals and certified librarians’ attitudes, perceptions and experiences with regard to school library policy for media selection and procedures for responding to complaints against library media. Analysis of the data included a methodology of mixed-methods explanatory design. Selection of the principals and certified librarians was proportionate and stratified according to the state’s 20 Education Service Center regions. Of the 1,036 Independent School Districts that employed the state population of 10,014 principals and certified librarians, 275 Independent School Districts (26.5 percent) allowed participation in the survey. Though random sampling of the state population had not been possible, the demographic and employment characteristics of the study sample were comparable to those of the state population. Two key findings were (a) that the legal opinions of principals and certified librarians were useful predictors of their opinions of library media selection policy and complaint procedures and (b) that the principals’ appreciation of selection policy and complaint procedures sometimes differed from the librarians’ because of the principals’ different legal perspective of library selection policy and complaint procedures.