Gardner Edgerton’s new librarian, Beth Bird, has spent a lot of time in libraries ever since she was little.

 “I would spend my recesses reshelving books and looking at the new stuff,” Bird said.

Growing up, Bird moved multiple times. She lived in different parts of Kansas and even briefly went to elementary school here in Gardner, before moving to Colorado. She now lives in Ottawa.

Before becoming a librarian Bird was a K-6 basic education and middle school Reading and ELA teacher.

“I have been teaching for almost 17 years, but I was a librarian before this,” she said. “At Blue Valley, I was an elementary school librarian for 5 years.”

Though she loved being a teacher, Bird looked at her master’s program and realized that she could also be a librarian.

“[Realizing] that really focused me in that direction,” she said.

Bird went on to say that she loves books and she thoroughly enjoys helping people find books that interest them.

“The best part of my job is helping people find a book that they connect with,” Bird said. 

Bird has things she is looking forward to this school year. 

“[I’m looking forward to] getting to know everybody in the school and kinda how my role functions,” Bird said.

According to Bird, her teaching style is pretty laid back, and she believes in maintaining respect and civility with everyone.

“I believe in mutual respect, that we treat each other the way we want to be treated,” she said.

So far in the school year, Bird mentioned her favorite thing is how kind everyone has been treating her. 

“Everybody has been incredibly warm and welcoming, and it’s been really nice to not feel like an outsider,” Bird said.