And this month highlights Henry's objective statewide, with the Friends & Foundations of California Libraries dubbing February Library Lovers' Month.

Yet for Henry, who's worked in the Campbell Union High School District for more than 35 years, every month is a chance to value school libraries and an opportunity to reach out to students.

Reading is more labor-intensive than other entertainment such as television, video games or the Internet, she says. "You have to bring something to it, you have to bring the images, [create] the sound in your head," she adds. "I would like kids to enjoy reading and do it in their real lives."

As an individual who has spent her entire career in the district, she has become an expert in how libraries and children's tastes have evolved.

More than 15 years ago, every high school in the district had its own librarian, and Henry called Prospect High School home. As a librarian at the high school, Henry got to know every freshman's name and reading tastes. When a student came into the library, she would hand him or her a book she knew they'd love. Over the years, Henry watched as the students grew into book lovers and skilled researchers. But Henry says that was the good old days.

In 1990, in an effort to cut costs, the district diluted the system down to one librarian for every two schools, and Henry found herself splitting time between Prospect and Westmont high schools. She also helped reestablish Branham's library when the school reopened in 1999.

Then last year, the district's other two librarians retired and Henry became the sole librarian among the five district high schools. Each week, she devotes a single day to Prospect, Westmont, Del Mar, Leigh and Branham high schools. The district chose not to hire any new librarians because of ongoing budget constraints.

Recently, Henry spent three consecutive days at Westmont to train sophomores on using the library for their first term paper. But when she dedicates the bulk of her time to one school, Henry must scramble to make up lost time at the other four high schools.

"My biggest challenge is just meeting all the student's needs," Henry says. "I don't get to see them enough. I'm here today and gone tomorrow."

This lack of time has definitely impacted the way students navigate through the library system. Many students, she says, have difficulty understanding how to retrieve information in the library. Many do not know how to use the online card catalog or magazine databases. Often, she says, students will ask her or a library aide to help locate a book rather than use the physical or online card catalog. Numerous students are more comfortable conducting their research using an Internet search engine like Google rather than researching information from books or the library database.

Henry suspects this lack of library know-how is a byproduct of budget problems that have plagued the elementary, middle and high schools during the last decades. Campbell Union High School District Superintendent Rhonda Farber says the district has always aimed to keep the cuts out of the classroom. And as a result of that effort, libraries and other programs have suffered.

Now with school administrators worrying about literacy levels and students being well prepared for college, Henry thinks the library is as important as ever.

"If you're teaching to be independent learners, I think this is the place where it should be taught," she says.

In her own life, Henry confesses she's been a "book person" since her schoolgirl days in Gooding, Idaho. By the time she entered college, her love of books inspired her to study English at the University of Idaho.

Henry followed her husband to Silicon Valley and began teaching English in 1968 at the Blackford High School, which the district has since closed. She later taught at Campbell High School, which the district also closed and made home to Campbell Community Center.

Throughout those years, the part of her job she most enjoyed was working with students and talking about books. Twelve years of teaching English evolved into her desire to become a librarian. By 1980, Henry received a master's degree in library science from San José State University and soon after began working as a librarian at Prospect High School.

Westmont High School Principal Owen Hege, who has spent 37 years in the district, says Henry has been the driving force behind the libraries' success.

"She's the real guru of libraries," he says. "She's kept it alive."

These days, Henry finds herself focusing more on outreach to students and teachers.

Henry works with teachers like Westmont history teacher Douglas Johnson. As a sophomore history teacher who is collaborating with teachers in the English department, he brings his students to the library for a presentation by Henry, who introduces students to the available research methods.

"She believes, as I do, that students should know how to use libraries," he says.

The collaboration with the English teachers and the library, he says, has worked out really well. "I've always thought, when I'm teaching the Civil War, why not read The Red Badge of Courage? When I'm teaching the '20s, why not read The Great Gatsby?"

Any effort to get students emerged in books is welcome news to Henry, who is also involved in Westmont's accelerated reading program. All freshmen participate and must, at all times, be reading one of the books on a required reading list.

The goal is to get the students into the habit of continually having a book on hand, and hopefully, these teens will spend some of their spare time reading.

To Henry, having a life filled with books is something that comes naturally. She loves all books, but frequently returns to Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak or any novel by Charles Dickens.

In fact, Henry confesses that one of the best perks of her job is simply having hundreds of books passing through her hands and the interesting tidbits of information she learns on a daily basis.

However it's the students, she says, that make it all worthwhile. "The kids make you laugh. The most fun thing is when they learn something and can do it on their own," she says.