The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate, firstly, the availability of LGBTQ materials in public high school libraries in the U.S. state of North Carolina and, secondly, how LGBTQ students use these materials. The availability of LGBTQ materials was researched via querying schools’ remotely accessible OPACs for both checklists and relevant subject headings. Use was examined by requesting and analysing circulation data provided by willing school librarians, and by conducting an online questionnaire of young LGBTQ adults over the age of eighteen. The final sample was comprised of 55 schools, 6 sets of circulation data, and 21 survey respondents. The main findings were that 1) North Carolina’s public school libraries are still under-collecting LGBTQ materials, although there has been a sharp drop in schools that had none of these materials at all; 2) these materials had a higher than expected mean relative use factor at the schools from which circulation data were collected; 3) students look to the school library as a last resort for accessing LGBTQ materials, instead preferring to use public libraries and online sources, and 4) the main influences on students’ choice of place to obtain LGBTQ materials were selection of LGBTQ books, privacy/secrecy, and convenience
