This book brings together relevant doctoral research related to the instructional effectiveness of the elementary and secondary school librarian and school library. The research is distilled from supervised research studies conducted at North American universities. In the opening section, the book describes what works, based on findings about effective programming drawn from 200 dissertations relevant to the generation of current research on effectiveness. Research findings from the dissertations are grouped under the following headings: resource center program, professional staffing, learning resources, administration, school and district leadership and support. In the second section, almost 600 doctoral dissertations, most dating from 1970 to the present, are listed, each accompanied by a one-paragraph annotation. The dissertations focus on resource centers or district support services and leadership. Generally the dissertations deal with one or more of the library media specialist's nine areas of competence: administration of the center and program; selection of learning resources; acquisition, organization, and circulation of learning resources; reading, listening, and viewing guidance; design and production of learning resources; information and reference services; promotion of the effective use of learning resources and services; cooperative program planning and teaching; and professionalism and leadership. Author, geographic, and topic indexes are provided, and information on ordering is provided. (KRN)