North Kohala woman
named librarian of year

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Dawn Shibano is renovating a 65-year-old plantation house she just bought in the North Kohala town of Kapaau on the Big Island, a project that symbolizes her interest in preservation and her desire to be part of a community.

"It's myself," said the 40-year-old branch manager of the Bond Memorial Public Library in Kapaau.

Shibano yesterday was recognized by the Board of Education as the Hawaii Library Foundation's Public Librarian of the Year.

"Dawn has done so well in making the library a part of the community," state Librarian Virginia Lowell said.

Shibano, who started working in Kapaau in February 1998, has been dedicated to making the library a focus of community life.

She's doing that through a couple of projects.

First, she's working to preserve historical and Hawaiian documents on the weekends when she's off duty. She just completed photocopying editions of the "Kohala Midget," a newsletter that chronicled life in Kohala and other parts of the Big Island.

"I have an interest in preservation," she said. "If you put a book cover on an old book, it looks like a new book."

She also provides homework help for students on a night that the library is not normally open so that they don't have to compete with other patrons for materials.

North Kohala library users nominated her for the award. Shibano, who has been working in the library system since 1986, has been assigned to libraries across the state including the Aiea Public Library.