Francine Binnert
Doctoral Student
Doctoral Student
Biography
Francine Binnert is interested in exploring the organizational and communication strategies needed to transform passionate, solitary school librarians into a powerful professional collective capable of driving change in the policy arena. Drawing on her experience as a librarian and subject-matter expert on school library legislation in New Mexico, she hopes to examine how factors such as governance structures, centralized communication, and artificial intelligence may affect school librarian mobilization and policy outcomes.
Binnert currently serves as chair of the New Mexico School Librarians Special Interest Group, a board member of the New Mexico Library Association, and a trainer for the American Library Association’s Law for Librarians program. Additionally, she applies her expertise in equity, intellectual freedom, and artificial intelligence to state initiatives, contributing to the New Mexico Public Education Department’s Indigenous Instructional Scope 2.0 and Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness Scorecard, as well as to legislative efforts such as the “Protection of School Library Materials Act” and the 2025 HM2 “AI in Schools Working Group.”
Binnert enters doctoral study hoping to contribute useful research on advocacy practices that might better support fellow school librarians in their policy efforts.
Education
M.S., Library and Information Science, Clarion University (now PennWest Clarion)
B.A., Political Science and Psychology, University of New Mexico