Sarah Beth Lesko

Conway native named new children’s librarian at Benton

Sarah Beth Lesko was recently named the new children’s library for the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton. Lesko, who has spent the past seven years in California, is the fifth person in her family to be a librarian.
Sarah Beth Lesko was recently named the new children’s library for the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton. Lesko, who has spent the past seven years in California, is the fifth person in her family to be a librarian.

Growing up, Sarah Beth Lesko was not a voracious reader.

In fact, it wasn’t until she started reading Harry Potter in the fifth grade that she fully dove into books.

“It rocked my world,” Lesko said. “It is part of the reason I became a librarian. I found the book that I felt like I wanted to jump into the story.

“If the kids can find that one book, then they are willing to pick up more.”

Lesko was recently hired as the new children’s librarian at the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library in Benton.

“Maybe that’s why I love my job,” Lesko said. “Getting kids to open their minds to the world of books is really important.

“I don’t think it is ever going to go away.”

Lesko graduated from Conway High School in 2005 and from Hendrix College in December 2008. After graduating from college, she moved to San Francisco to be a live-in nanny.

“I moved out to California in March of 2009, and I was a nanny for just over two years before I started school [at San Jose State],” Lesko said. “My parents definitely did a background check on this family.

“They thought I was going to be one of these people on the news who gets sold into slavery or something.”

Lesko said she always knew she was going to return to Arkansas, but her adventurous side pushed her to move somewhere completely different first.

“San Francisco was the perfect place, although it was a little too cold for me,” Lesko said.

When she started the nanny position, she took care of three children — all under the age of 3.

“The twins were 14 months old, and their older sister was 2 1/2,” Lesko said. “It was a little exhausting, but I love them, and I still keep in touch with them.”

Lesko said she used the opportunity to save up for graduate school.

“It was a live-in position, so I just pocketed everything I made to pay for school,” Lesko said. “It was very smart, and I recommend that to anybody.”

Before starting school, she began volunteering for the library in a town close to San Francisco. It was there where she met Jessica Ryan, whom she worked with for five years.

“Every summer, Sarah Beth and I would do a dramatic reading from one of the

Elephant and Piggie books,” said Ryan, who is the senior children’s librarian at the Mill Valley

Public Library. “There would be about 50 children coming to that tea party, and Sarah Beth would make a cookie for every child and their parents.

“She would go home on her own time and make about 80 to 100 Piggie cookies so that everyone could leave with a cookie. She would go above and beyond what was expected of her.”

Ryan said she already misses Lesko.

“Sarah Beth is an absolute treasure,” Ryan said. “She was good with everyone, from small children to older adults.

“She did a lot for our programs, including leading our Story for Science program, which created science experiments for the kids.”

Lesko said one experiment she did was using the Three Little Pigs story. She said she would read the book; then the children would build houses using different supplies. Once the houses were built, she would take a blow dryer, or the big bad wolf, and see which houses would stand.

“We miss her very much, she is a lovely person and is very good at what she does,” Ryan said. “I am looking forward to what’s next for her.

“Your library is very lucky to have her; she is wonderful. I look forward to hearing about all she is doing at the library.”

Lesko, who is the fifth person in her family to be a librarian, said she has always known this is what she is meant to do.

“It is in my blood,” Lesko said. “I was raised at the Faulkner County Library. The old building that was by the courthouse, I grew up there. I was always in a library.

“It is something I believe in.”

Lesko’s mom, Anne Dayer, is the children’s librarian at the Faulkner County Library.

“I volunteered at her library, growing up,” Lesko said, “and I was a library helper at the high school.”

Lesko said the Saline County Library was one of three libraries for which she wanted to work.

“The Maumelle branch, the CALS, (the Central Arkansas Library

System) library in Little Rock and this one,” Lesko said. “And to find an open position in my field was huge.

“I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. That was at the top of my [pro/con] list. It was an open position, in my profession. I went to school for this.”

The location of the library was actually on the con side of the list, Lesko said.

“I didn’t really want to have to commute,” said Lesko, who lives in Little Rock with her husband, Josh.

“I was really interested in working for CALS in Little Rock, but I looked at this place, and my parents came for a visit while I was still in California. Some people my mom works with said this place has a good reputation, is well-funded and has a staff that love their jobs,” Lesko said.

“It just seems like a really good place so far. It was more of a feeling, and you’ve got to go with your gut. And my gut said this was a good place,” she said.

“I wasn’t expecting to find a perfect position so quickly,” Lesko said. “We literally moved back the week before I started.

“It was fortuitous, I guess.”

Lesko will primarily be in charge of the elementary and tween age groups.

“As of right now, there are not a lot of programs for that tween age group,” Lesko said. “As soon as January starts, we will hopefully be doing a tween or elementary-age program every day.

“I want to try to do a couple different book clubs for different age ranges and a different format for those book clubs.”

Lesko said she wants to do a cooking class for both home-schooled children and public-school students.

“I found out we have cooking equipment upstairs that I can use,” Lesko said. “So I would like to teach a cooking class for kids.”

Also on the agenda is a Winter

Craft Series for ages 8 to 12 that will begin in December.

“For the winter break, we are going to have a movie day where we are showing Christmas

movies all day,” Lesko said. “We are doing a couple different art days, a game and puzzle day, and a block, or LEGO, party.”

Lesko said the library is giving her free reign to be creative.

“Hopefully, they will let me do whatever I can within our budget,” she said.

For more information on the Saline County Library, visit www.salinecountylibrary.org.

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events