BROKEN BOW – The City of Broken Bow has announced its Librarian of the Year award for 2022: youth librarian Brenna Slagle has earned the award through her tireless commitment to improving services, pioneering programs, and helping the library flourish in and through all levels of adversity.
Slagle’s accolade is certainly well-deserved: in the past year, she’s helped facilitate programs ranging from school visits to story times for the very youngest of Broken Bow’s residents, and fostering the growth of the library’s new Makerspace.
Slagle, or Miss Brenna as she’s come to be known by library faithful, says that despite all the work she’s put in over the past year, the recognition isn’t hers alone.
“It wasn’t just me. I think that the award is something that’s shared between me and the other librarians because I could not be where I am now without all their help. I couldn’t have done this without an amazing director and assistant director to push me to do my hardest and reach for as many things as I could for the community.”
More remarkable still is how quickly Miss Brenna rose to answer the call of her community’s library; before starting at the Broken Bow Public Library, she had never worked a library job before.
In her time with the library, Miss Brenna has become indispensable to its growth and outreach. She’s helped promote library services, install a mural, and write grants for the improvement of Broken Bow’s library, and thus the community as a whole.
It hasn’t just been big-picture projects; Slagle is in the community garden every day pulling weeds and pruning flowers. She sketches a rough outline of her involvement in monthly programming. “I think I average about 20 programs a month,” which, for those counting at home, averages out to nearly one full program a day.
The award is bittersweet for Slagle, as December is expected to be her last month with the Broken Bow Public Library. Miss Brenna will soon be Mrs. Brenna, and while she is thrilled about the next chapter in her life, she admits that switching gears hasn’t been easy.
“This is the best place to work, at the library, we have just the most amazing staff, and it’s been really hard to move onto the next step in life.”
Despite her impending absence, Slagle is confident that her stellar, resilient team of librarians at the Broken Bow Public Library will keep her monthly programming chugging along.
“We’re still going to be doing all the things we’ve done in the past year. You can’t stop us, we’re just going to keep going, and we won’t slow down.”
While it may be true that 2023 will hold all bustling of its predecessor, one thing is certain: without Slagle, the Broken Bow Public Library’s patrons will certainly be putting the “miss” in “Miss Brenna.”
