Patricia Larkin-Lieffers successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on Monday August 29, 2011. Her research project, entitled "Finding Informational Books for Beginning Readers: An Ecological Study of a Middle Income Neighbourhood", included an environmental scan of how many informational titles for early readers were available and readily accessible to them in their own neighbourhood. Dr. Larkin-Lieffers established conclusively that fiction is highly privileged in both the quantity of available materials for 4-8 year olds and in how they are displayed and made accessible.
Dr. Larkin-Lieffers was co-supervised by Dr. Margaret Mackey of SLIS and Dr. Dianne Oberg of the Department of Elementary Education.