Pandemic drives Portage libraries to the brink

- Carter Eugene Adams

On one of its last open days in March, Carolyn Andrews Schlemmer walked into Kent Free Library. She carried a stack of books to return, had an idea for books to check out and sported her black canvas tote bag inscribed, “I read banned books.”

Schlemmer, 77, of Rootstown, is an avid reader and patron of the library, often going two times a week where she occasionally tutors students. She described a scene of multiple people checking out of the library with multiple books in hand.

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