'My Students Are My Purpose’: JCEA Member Wins Statewide Award

It’s tough to know when Heidi Robbins sleeps.  

On any given day, the Jefferson County Education Association member and school librarian might be writing grants for books, helping to manage her school’s graduation, chaperoning students to a book convention or presiding over a meeting of the school arm wrestling club (she’s the faculty advisor). 

And that’s just work. She has a husband and five kids at home.  

“I am a very Type A personality,” she laughs. “I am very driven. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it well, and I don’t want to do it halfway.”  

That drive has shone through during her time as an Idaho Education Association member, too. In just a few years, she has become involved with Lobby Day, Delegate Assembly, and formed IEA’s statewide Library Committee to improve solidarity and share resources among school librarians.  

But her main focus, always, is her students — and her work has not gone unnoticed by her field. Robbins recently received the School Librarian of the Year award from the Idaho Library Association.  

“In my role supporting school librarians across Idaho, I work with many outstanding professionals,” said Jeannie Standal, school library consultant for the Idaho Commission for Libraries. “Heidi Robbins stands out for her initiative, innovation, and deep commitment to both students and the profession. I can think of no one more deserving of the 2025 School Librarian of the Year Award.” 

'Every Single Student Should Feel Safe’ 

Robbins grew up in Parker, which is close to Rexburg in Eastern Idaho. She warmly remembers her school libraries and the librarians who welcomed her into them. Mr. Crow, her middle school librarian, was an “old, grumpy librarian guy who was also hilarious” and had been there when her parents were in school. Her high school librarian became her mentor teacher years later.  

Robbins had long wanted to be an educator. She graduated college while pregnant with her oldest child and began subbing, but parenthood and several moves across the country kept her busy outside of the classroom. But she never fully left. While living in Washington and substitute teaching, Robbins met a school librarian named Benita Brown who inspired the next phase of her career.  

“She was teaching third- and fourth-graders to use the Dewey Decimal System,” she said. “And I thought, That’s insane! And they’re having fun with it! Who is this woman?” 

On Brown’s suggestion, Robbins began pursuing a library certification through Central Washington University. She wanted a library that felt like Brown’s — busy and full of life, not the sort of place where a stern librarian shushed students from behind a desk.  

By the time Robbins and her husband moved the family back to Idaho several years ago, she was ready to test her dream. She worked for a year as a librarian at South Fremont Junior High, then taught English at Rigby High, finally settling into the library job.  

She quickly set about making the library as useful and welcoming as possible. “You’ll find kids sitting between the shelves, reading, eating lunch, hanging out with friends, whatever,” she said. “But I also have an area that’s just tables with kids sitting around, reading, chatting with friends, playing games. I have a bunch of games that are out all the time. I’ve got fidgets and other things. I have a giant Connect Four that is very popular and super loud and just a lot of fun.”  

Once a week, the arm wrestling club sets up “right outside the computer lab, and there’s a whole host of boys just arm wrestling away every Thursday.”  

“My students are my purpose,” she said. “I feel so deeply that every single student should feel safe in my library.” 

No matter their interest, no matter their clique, Robbins is there to provide a safe space. “I love that it’s this diverse group of kids, because that’s not how it was when I was in school,” she said. “I felt like just the readers and the nerdy kids wanted to go to the library. But the library is for information and it’s for books, and my goal is to help everybody find something that they will like.” 

A Knack for Making Magic Out of Thin Air 

Finding something for everyone can be challenging, though. Robbins, like other school librarians, “weeds” her library periodically for outdated books. Replacing them gets tricky because Robbins’s library budget is $0 — and she is the only staff, with no aides to help her.  

But she does have grant writing skills. She has won more than $40,000 in grants over three years, putting them to work buying books “as cheap as I can find them at the quality that I need.”  

She has more ambitious plans in the works, too. After taking 60 students to the StoryCon convention in Salt Lake City, Robbins got the idea of creating her own, complete with workshops and vendors and special guests. In October, she welcomed authors Cynthia Hand and Jeff Wheeler as the keynote speakers to the first-ever Idaho Storytellers Summit, where they spoke to students from her school and neighboring school districts.  

“I’m hoping to make it an annual thing to help fund my library,” she said.  

She has done something similar for her union. On her first Lobby Day in 2024, Robbins testified against the library bill that would require schools to create a policy for challenging books. A book challenge policy is best practice for all libraries, Robbins said, but the Legislature’s insistence on a blanket approach that removed local control irked her. So did the assumption that she keeps inappropriate books in her library. 

On her way to the committee room, Robbins passed a photo of her grandfather, who served in the Idaho House of Representatives. “I just remember being like, OK, I have a voice. He’d be so proud of me,” she said.  

The bill passed, but Robbins has not remained silent. Having a voice, and having the backing of other union members to use that voice, is what drove Robbins to join IEA.  

“I thought, I can’t be a librarian unless I’m a union member,” she said. “It’s too scary in the political climate we’re in. I need that support, because I am by myself, and I know that I have backup now. I have people that will fight for me but I can also have a voice.” 

Encouraging other members to speak is part of what drove her formation of the library committee, which she proposed through a new business item at her first Delegate Assembly. It passed without a hitch.  

Often, librarians work alone, Robbins said. The only people who truly understand the challenges they face are other librarians. Through the IEA Library Committee, librarians can connect with other librarian members and non-members (membership is not a requirement to join).  

She hopes to take the committee to the next level in 2026, with more members and a solid leadership structure within the committee. Ideally, she would like to include school librarians from each IEA region — a way to create yet another welcoming space for others.  

“I feel like our regions are so vastly different, especially with libraries, and I just would love to have representation,” she said.  

But that’s not her only goal. She also teaches college students who might one day follow in her footsteps — and she passes her philosophy onto them.  

“I always tell kids at the end of every class, Go make a difference,” she said. “We talk about how you have the power to change the life of somebody in the hallway as soon as you leave this classroom, every single day. That’s my goal. I’m hoping I’m making a really small difference in somebody’s life at some point.”