It started 25 years ago, when she has having lunch with a colleague who expressed the need for a list of novels in the JCCC collection relating to political science. A short time later, a sociology professor asked for a bibliography of novels relating to African social issues. Kempf was happy to oblige.

Today, more than a thousand books later, Kempf's love of reading and sharing books with others through 42 online bibliographies in the JCCC library database remains unabated. And that impressive book count is just part of Kempf's work. She has compiled another 40 unpublished bibliographies and reviews about 10 books a year for the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle and 10-12 books for the Library Journal. She has been reviewing books for the Library Journal since 1975; the journal named her Fiction Book Reviewer of 2000. In her spare time, Kempf reads for fun. 

"If I have a focus for my bibliographies it is international and multicultural fiction," Kempf said. "My bibliographies respond to the needs of JCCC curriculum, questions people ask me and, every once in a while, to my own particular interest."

Kempf, who has a bachelor's degree in literature from Brandeis University, a master of arts in teaching degree in literature from Johns Hopkins University, and a master's degree in library science from Simmons College, has a missionary's zeal about the need to read fiction in order to understand the world.

"I believe if you read a novel carefully, and you read around the plot to the ‘back stories,' you understand a country's culture and people in a visceral way - a way you can't get by reading a newspaper or a textbook," she said.

Her bibliographies include library-catalog information, descriptive one- to two-sentence annotations and a rating of reading difficulty.

While Kempf reads almost constantly, she admits to going through periods when nothing interests her. That's when she turns to re-reading her favorite romance novels.

She never watches television. She does read The Kansas City Star and The New York Times every day and the Sun once a week. She owns about 3,000 books in her personal collection.

Last year, Kempf's family bought her a Kindle wireless reading device so she wouldn't have to pack 14 books for a vacation. The Kindle is okay with Kempf, but the technology makes it harder to indulge in a little secret: She flips to the back of a book and reads the ending first.