Congrats to Karen Reiber:

Rosen Publishing Ohio School Librarian of the Month February 2026!

Congratulations!  Karen Reiber, volunteer school library media specialist at Taft Elementary School (Cincinnati Public Schools), is the February Rosen Publishing Ohio School Librarian of the Month.  Karen, although retired, is still actively bringing books and literacy to Cincinnati’s children and youth.  The goal of the William Howard Taft Library - Book Access Project, “is to establish a student-centered library that teaches our student population how to use and love a library while promoting literacy.”

The program begins in September and ends in May. Each lesson is tied to a book or a genre, followed by a simple activity and then book checkouts. For example, in September, the students celebrated International Dot Day.  She read “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds.  Some grades did chalk-dot drawings outside; other grades did art with cut-out circles.  The littles used dot markers and coffee filters to make their creations. One of the indicators of success is the increasing number of book checkouts year over year.

What are Karen’s tips for replicating this program?  “Starting a library is a huge endeavor, yet I was approached earlier this year bey a group of parents who want to start a library in another Cincinnati school. Working on replicating this and making it sustainable is my hope, especially if I can find other certified librarians who also want to give back.”

Karen’s elevator pitch is “Every student deserves a school library - ensuring all students have fair access to diverse and relevant books.  The goal is to level the playing field for this inner-city Cincinnati school.”

In her nomination, Karen acknowledged that this is an unusual application.  Since her retirement in 2021, Karen has wanted to continue to give back to her community.  She still holds an active license and continues to be a member of OELMA).  Earlier in her career she taught in a more affluent school district and yet, here she finds herself in a most rewarding position - at an inner-city school building that had no library.  Her church, that has been active with adopt-a-classroom for over twenty years in this school building, asked the principal what would she wish for - Ms. Jason said a library. Karen joined the church several months after it started the adopt-a-classroom endeavor and according to Karen “it has been awesome helping those with no library background create an awesome library space for kids.”

Karen volunteers on Wednesdays when she teaches kids how to use and love libraries through lessons and activities. Since the first year, checkouts are up and kids are now choosing a variety of books (not just graphic and illustrated novels). The building has no budget (the church helps where they can) and Karen works with Queen City Book Bank getting like-new books to fill the shelves. 

The Queen City Book Bank was nominated and received the OELMA Literacy Leader Award and AASL Commendation in 2023.

Congratulations Karen!