If you encountered the plucky heroines of author Deanna Raybourn at The Library and devoured the entire Lady Julia Grey series, you can thank Kara Luzik Canale. When she discovered a book missing from the riveting series, she bought a gently used copy, read it, and then donated it to The Library.
“These series are too good for somebody to miss a book in the center,” she reasoned. “Books are meant to be shared.”
Canale is a passionate, lifelong fan of the Dauphin County Library System. As a child, she rifled through book bins at the Elizabethville Area Library. Interactive programs sparked her curiosity, including the time she tried on women’s clothes through history – and learned about the restrictiveness behind the fashions.
“The Library is uniquely positioned to tell stories from so many different perspectives,” she says. “When facts are told through stories, it gets in your heart and sticks with you. I came from the small town of Halifax, where there aren’t a lot of resources, but The Library was able to provide so much.”
Canale leads the membership, events, and communications teams at the chamber to produce powerful results for the Harrisburg region.
What are you reading? Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian. It’s a story of the discovery of family history and the impact today of the Armenian genocide 100 years ago. My go-to genre for several years has been historical fiction. I have been working my way through a couple of series since COVID hit.
Why those books? I heard the author of Orhan’s Inheritance say, “There are only about six to eight inches between an open book and a human being’s heart, and so much can happen in those few inches.” That’s how I’ve always felt about books. A story can wedge itself in your heart. For historical fiction, I love strong female leads, especially from the late 1700s or 1800s in England. I just love the color that can be brought through in that time period – the elegance shown beside the kind of prison that women were in.
What does The Library mean to your work in creating opportunity for people and the community? At least once a month, I personally recommend somebody to Library databases. There’s also a great, great selection of business books. There’s so much information that people can access to create their business plan, update their business strategies, and market their businesses.
The Library is an equalizer. Anyone can walk into the library and get connected to so many essential resources for business, including stable, quality internet access, which in our region is not a guarantee. In Dauphin County, we’re very lucky that everyone is treated with great respect and dignity.