Humphrey Public Schools librarian Kim Bender was pleasantly surprised recently when, during an unscheduled all-school assembly, she was honored by Nebraska School Library Association President Joy Harvey and President Elect Emily Jacobs with the Nebraska School Librarian of the Year award.
Bender, a Johnson native and Johnson- Brock Alumni, graduated from Peru State College in 1985 with a degree in English Language Arts. She then taught in St. Paul, Pawnee City and Oakland before she and her husband Gary moved to Humphrey. She spent two years traveling back to Oakland to teach before a position opened at Humphrey Public Schools. In that time she began her provisional and was eventually offered a position as the Librarian.
“I still teach some English classes, but I have been the librarian for nineteen or twenty years,” Bender explained, “and I’ve been teaching for forty years now.” In her many years as the HPS Librarian, Bender has found that helping students find books they love is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. “In the mornings, too, the elementary students pass through the library and tell me all about the books they’ve been reading,” Bender said, “that is one of the best parts of the job, I would say.” Being a librarian isn’t without its challenges, though, and Bender explained that she has been working to secure grants and find other funding to keep up with the rising costs of books. Another challenge is catering to the wide range of tastes that students have, and finding the perfect books for each of them can prove difficult at times.
