For Each Chapter | Tom & Kathleen Kling

TOM:

"Of course, we were often there with our children as they were growing up - checking out books and getting helpful resources for their schoolwork, but it was really great for us as adults as well. Over the years, we both worked in sales for various companies and had substantial territories that required lots of driving - hours of car time! Between the two of us, we covered Ohio, every state east of the Mississippi River, and even had a weekly commute to an office in Ontario! Cell phone minutes were pricey, daydreaming was dangerous, and we’d quickly run out of radio stations, so audio books from the Library became the best way to fill ‘dead time.’

To buy them was expensive, so we were so grateful that we could check them out for free. It was not unusual to go through four books a week, and it was really fun to find an enjoyable author or genre and then gobble up every single one we could find. When new ones appeared on the shelf, it was an exciting event! And eventually, audio books became a way to entertain and occupy the entire family when we’d embark on a road trip.”

KATHLEEN:
“Because I sold large reference books for Macmillan Scribner, I got to experience libraries intimately. Some of my clients were college and high school libraries, but many of these schools couldn’t afford robust reference collections, so my clients in those communities were the public libraries. I got to see firsthand just how important these resources are; when students didn’t have them at school, they’d come to their local branch to do research, write papers, and dive into an encyclopedia or almanac. Of course, there’s been a paradigm shift as reference materials have become digitized and online. It’s a completely different set of tools, but what has remained the same is how necessary libraries remain for this access. I’m very excited to see the new Main Branch being built downtown. The new layout and design will increase peoples’ access to what the Library can provide, and it’s going to be great for Canton.

These days, I take my daily walk by the Library and pop in for a variety of reasons: I love perusing all the new books, attending fantastic programs at the North Branch, checking out DVDs to watch, and even grabbing some tax forms. And we both love to attend the Speaking of Books series, where we’ve heard from some fantastic writers as they visit Stark County. Even better, it’s nice to know that our kids and grandkids are continuing this legacy of literacy across the world - in Singapore, Malaysia, and Africa - where they all read and borrow books from the public libraries where they live (and where we get to visit)!”