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Beginning May 23, we will be moving to a new eBook and eAudiobook platform: Libby! Here's what to expect:

Moving Week: May 23 - 27

• Download Libby and get ready for our full collection to arrive. All you need is your current Library card!
• During moving week, our eBook and eAudiobook collection will be unavailable for browsing or borrowing in Axis 360, Libby or the Web Catalog.
• Existing checkouts will still be available through their due date, only via the Axis 360 app. If you log out of Axis 360, you will no longer be able to able to log back in.

By Friday, May 27

• You will see all of our eBooks and eAudiobooks in Libby. Holds you had in Axis 360 will transfer to Libby.
• If you don't see a title you're looking for, suggest it for purchase or browse our catalog or Interlibrary Loan for a different format.

Read Frequently Asked Questions about our move to Libby, and stay up to date at jocolibrary.org and @jocolibrary on social media.

Beginning May 23, we will be moving to a new eBook and eAudiobook platform: Libby! Here's what to expect:

Moving Week: May 23 - 27

• Download Libby and get ready for our full collection to arrive. All you need is your current Library card!
• During moving week, our eBook and eAudiobook collection will be unavailable for browsing or borrowing in Axis 360, Libby or the Web Catalog.
• Existing checkouts will still be available through their due date, only via the Axis 360 app. If you log out of Axis 360, you will no longer be able to able to log back in.

By Friday, May 27

• You will see all of our eBooks and eAudiobooks in Libby. Holds you had in Axis 360 will transfer to Libby.
• If you don't see a title you're looking for, suggest it for purchase or browse our catalog or Interlibrary Loan for a different format.

Read Frequently Asked Questions about our move to Libby, and stay up to date at jocolibrary.org and @jocolibrary on social media.

This week at the Library, you can join us at:

Library OnDemand – Available anytime you like.

Your doorway into live and archived programs. Arts & Culture, Career & Finance, Community Matters, Writers and more!

Facing Your Fears: Winning Your Inner Game – Monday, May 23, 1:30 – 3 p.m.

During periods of crisis and/or transition, the experience of getting stuck, being anxious or even becoming fearful will occur! Those anxious feelings are natural. This workshop offers women an opportunity to refocus, reframe and expand their thinking (around this period of change) so they can move forward, more quickly, and with renewed confidence and hope.

Interviewing is like Dating – Tuesday, May 24, 10 a.m. – noon

When finding a new job, it is important to make sure that you are a good fit for the company AND that the company is a good fit for you. There are strategies to figuring out whether or not a new job or position is right for you. This interactive workshop will help you find a workplace culture that is a good fit.

Walk and Read at Sar-Ko-Par Park – May 28 – June 5, All day 

Johnson County Library and Lenexa Parks and Recreation invite you to visit the Walk and Read at Sar-Ko-Par Park. Two stories, “Hello Ocean” by Pam Muñoz Ryan and “Just Be Jelly” by Maddie Frost, will be posted.

And much more happening this week »

It was a long and winding path to get to this point. Carleton’s family moved to Johnson County when she was in 7th grade. She didn’t enjoy formal schooling and worked as a nanny and at other jobs. But she had always seen libraries as sanctuaries of knowledge, satisfying her curiosity as a self-taught learner. She got a job in 1993 in the Periodicals Department at Antioch Library, launching what has become a wonderful career.

“It made me feel I was doing something good for the community and myself,” Carleton says. “My co-workers loved language and learning. They were my people.”

She eventually became an Interlibrary Loan clerk at Central Resource Library while earning her associate’s degree from JCCC. She also met her husband, Will Carleton, when both worked at Central. The couple married in 2004. Their daughter Kat was born in July 2006.

Carleton accompanied Kat to Johnson County Library Storytimes for nearly five years – “It was our weekly thing, just like with my mom and me” – until Kat went off to kindergarten. After that, Carleton still craved the Storytime experience.

At Central, Carleton had become an adult information specialist in 2005. She crossed paths with Youth Services Librarians Angel Tucker and Laura Hunt, who urged her to pursue her Storytime dream.

So in March 2015 she got a job as a youth information specialist at Oak Park Library, learning from Angelica Reiff, Bradley Debrick and other early childhood literacy masters. In leading her own Storytime programs, “Miss Becky” also brings the perspective of someone who participated as a child and as a parent. She knows what works to enchant and enlighten.

Storytimes had to be re-imagined during the pandemic. The youth services staff pivoted to online programming for the past two years via Facebook Live. One upside is providing access to many families who, pre-pandemic, couldn’t attend Storytimes in person.

Recently, a family approached Carleton at the Lenexa Recreation Center. They were among her regulars, but she had never actually met them. “They had only ever seen my online Storytime,” she explained. “They were so grateful.” The mom and dad shared how their one-year-old and six-year-old kids loved the sessions, and that was wonderful feedback.

Carleton currently leads Storytime OnDemand, which families can watch anytime. The short videos feature songs, rhymes and finger plays that demonstrate the 6 By 6 Ready to Read skills. Carleton will also lead Storytime on June 4 to kick off the Summer Reading program.

Working with the Library’s youngest patrons is endlessly gratifying. “I love helping them learn to read,” Carleton said. “Once you learn how to read you can do anything, and I’m a testament to that.”

She also enjoys sharing reader advisory recommendations with adult patrons and gets great satisfaction working with teenagers.

Even though she’s been with Johnson County Library for more than 29 years, she still learns something new every day. “It’s a wonderful atmosphere of growth,” she said,  "being able to learn about anything, without judgment.”