Dawn Kelly, of Fairway, signed up for HomeConnect several years ago, even before the COVID pandemic. HomeConnect is a Johnson County Library service giving patrons access to Library resources in their homes. She has come to appreciate the service all the more as the pandemic has made getting out in public more risky. She says it’s been a link to brilliant Johnson County Librarians, and she’s been amazed at the “smashing” books, CDs, DVDs and other materials they’ve uncovered for her.
“I have found so many obscure items through Interlibrary Loan,” she said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous the things the Librarians have worked with me to find.”
She’s received behind-the-scenes information about movies she’s watched, and even got a rare Frank Zappa vinyl record.
“That’s the type of treasure that the Library has,” Dawn said. “You just have to be willing to seek it out. You have to be curious and aware.”
Patrons interested in HomeConnect fill out an application and can then request items by calling 913-826-4600. All sorts of Library materials can be mailed directly to them. Dawn marvels at this convenience that brings the world to her home, with “no traveling except for walking out to my mailbox.”
Dawn has had a lifelong love of Libraries, since she was six years old in 1966 and a Library bookmobile showed up regularly in her Louisville, Kentucky neighborhood.
“That’s where the early seeds were planted,” she says. “If you borrowed, you were very motivated to get that done so the next week you could gather up some more.”
She lived with a sister in Fairway for a time and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School.
She got a fine arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, with a concentration in multimedia. She met the love of her life, who was also an artist.
The couple moved to the Kansas City area, where Dawn’s parents had relocated. She bought a house in Fairway, and also got a Johnson County Library card in 1987.
She worked for many years in the family businesses, which included The Good Earth, a natural grocery store, in Prairie Village. Her significant other passed away in 1997 and she retired a few years ago.
Over the years, Dawn was a regular at Corinth. “A big thing for me was when books were put on audio. I was doing a lot of driving. I had show dogs, and was driving to all types of remote areas,” she recalled. “I could put an audio tape on and learn all about something or someone.”
In 1993 she kept track of everything she read or listened to that year; it came to 165 books.
Later she began frequenting Cedar Roe, where she also got to know the Librarians well. One Valentine’s Day, she even made a huge poster to display outside Cedar Roe, sharing her appreciation with the message “Remember to (Heart) Your Librarian.”
It was the Cedar Roe Librarians who alerted her to HomeConnect.
“It’s very ingenious. It’s a zipper pouch,” she said, describing how items are sent postage paid, with the Library return address also provided postage paid. She looks with great anticipation into the pouch “to see the goodies and what they’ve scored for me.”
Dawn has found a particularly meaningful way to give back and pay forward all the enrichment and wonderful relationships she’s enjoyed. She has arranged for half her estate to go to Johnson County Library.
“I think that is to say how extensive I feel about the Library,” she said, “and how much I revere the people working there.”