Shelley reads to a favorite reading buddy-her grandchild.
The Wyoming State Library is delighted to feature Shelley Hunsaker in this month’s School Library Spotlight. Shelley has been a dedicated leader, and she has brought immense passion, boundless energy, and a deep love for literacy to a role that spans eight different buildings across a large rural district ecosystem. This month’s spotlight also serves as a grateful farewell, as Shelley retired at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
The Wyoming library community will miss her and wishes her the best in this new chapter! Thank you, Shelley, for all you have done for our students and Wyoming’s libraries!
Meet Shelley Hunsaker
Title: District Librarian (newly retired!)
District: Lincoln County School District #2, Afton, WY
The Path to the Library
Shelley has been a school librarian for 24 years, but her training truly began when she was just ten years old! On Saturdays, she would drag her friends to the neighborhood library, where the encouraging local librarians let her perform flannel board stories for them. That early support set her on a lifelong path. She served as the school librarian at Osmond Elementary School for 17 years while earning her K-6 library endorsement online through Black Hills State University, later expanding it to include secondary education. A past recipient of the Wyoming Librarian of the Year award, Shelley quickly credits the incredible librarians she works alongside for everything they achieve as a team.
A Fun Fact: The Ultimate Room Swap
Shelley’s husband once had a beautiful home office, complete with stunning oak finishes and large windows. Today, it has been completely converted into Shelley’s personal quilting room. Her husband had wanted to build a brand-new house, but because Shelley loved their current home so much, he agreed to let her use the office for her creative space and library!
Insights from the Library-The “Why” Behind the Work
For Shelley, the absolute best part of the profession is the literacy component and the deep connections she gets to build.
- The Reach: In her district role, she saw and interacted with over 2,000 students in the course of a single week.
- The Impact: Shelley loved watching students grow over time and getting to share the magic of stories with them every single day.
What Parents & Students Should Know
Shelley wishes everyone knew that librarians are family members who work tirelessly to support children.
Shelley has two distinct messages she wishes she could share with the community:
- To Students-Every librarian in the state works incredibly hard to create a warm, welcoming environment. The library is a place where you always belong.
- To Parents-There is a profound urgency to understand how carefully librarians vet materials. “We are parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents ourselves,” Shelley notes. “Librarians work super hard to find good materials because they know the massive, lifelong impact the right book can have on a student.”
Success in the Stacks: Building from the Ground Up
Having managed eight buildings spanning an 80-mile radius means Shelley was constantly rolling between libraries, but that didn’t stop her from creating incredible spaces:
- The Alternative High School Transformation: Three years ago, Shelley discovered the alternative high school’s “library” consisted of just one small shelf. Operating with no initial budget, she wrote a small grant. Now, four years into the project, the space has over 700 books, expanded shelving, and a dedicated teacher facilitating checkouts.
- Glow Parties & Incentives: To keep reading fun, Shelley’s libraries host vibrant reading incentive programs—including a massively successful “Glow Party” at one of the high schools!
- State Book Awards: Shelley has loved serving on the Soaring Eagle Book Award Committee for the past couple of years. It provided a wonderful transition out of her elementary comfort zone into K-12 literature. She highly recommends committee work to her peers and currently champions powerful reads like Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen and As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh.
Closing Thoughts
Emphasizing that none of this would be possible without the incredible culture of her district, Shelley said, “We have one of the most supportive administrative teams. Their structural
and emotional support directly helps every single student that walks through our library doors.”