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{{Short description|Libraries donated by Andrew Carnegie}}
{{Other uses|Carnegie Library (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}}

[[Image:Andrew Carnegie in National Portrait Gallery IMG 4441.JPG|upright|thumb|''Andrew Carnegie'', {{circa|1905}}, [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]]]]
[[File:Carnegie plaque at Taunton Public Library.jpg|thumb|upright=.75|right|Plaque at the [[Taunton Public Library]] in Massachusetts]]
A '''Carnegie library''' is a [[library]] built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist [[Andrew Carnegie]]. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to [[Public library|public]] and [[university library]] systems. [[List of Carnegie libraries in the United States|1,689]] were built in the United States, [[List of Carnegie libraries in Europe|660]] in the United Kingdom and Ireland, [[List of Carnegie libraries in Canada|125]] in Canada, and 25 [[List of Carnegie libraries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Oceania|others]] in [[Australia]], [[South Africa]], [[New Zealand]], Serbia, Belgium, France, the Caribbean, Mauritius, Malaysia, and Fiji.

At first, Carnegie libraries were almost exclusively in places with which he had a personal connection—namely his birthplace in Scotland and the [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]] area, his adopted hometown. Yet, beginning in the middle of 1899, Carnegie substantially increased funding to libraries outside these areas. As Carnegie's library funding progressed, very few of the towns that requested a grant, committing to his terms for operation and maintenance, were refused. By the time the last grant was made, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them Carnegie libraries.

==History==
[[File:Carnegie Library, Dunfermline.jpg|thumb|upright|The first Carnegie library, in Dunfermline, Scotland]]
[[File:BCL 1024x768.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Carnegie Free Library of Braddock]] in [[Braddock, Pennsylvania]], built in 1888, was the first Carnegie Library in the United States to open (1889) and the first of four to be fully endowed.]]
Carnegie started erecting libraries in places with which he had personal associations.<ref name="palace">{{cite book |last1=Gangewere |first1=Robert J |title=Palace of culture: Andrew Carnegie's museums and library in Pittsburgh |date=September 2011 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |location=Pittsburgh, Pa |isbn=9780822943976}}</ref> The first of Carnegie's public libraries, [[Dunfermline Carnegie Library]], was in his birthplace, [[Dunfermline]], Scotland. It was first commissioned or granted by Carnegie in 1880 to [[James Campbell Walker]]<ref>{{cite web|title=James Campbell Walker|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200760|website=Dictionary of Scottish Architects|access-date=September 3, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916211859/http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200760|archive-date=September 16, 2016}}</ref> and would open in 1883.

The first library in the United States to be commissioned by Carnegie was in 1886 in his adopted hometown of [[Allegheny, Pennsylvania]] (now the North Side of [[Pittsburgh]]). In 1890, it became the second of his libraries to open in the US. The building also contained the first Carnegie Music Hall in the world.

The first Carnegie library to open in the United States was in [[Braddock, Pennsylvania|Braddock]], Pennsylvania, about 9 miles up the [[Monongahela River]] from Pittsburgh. In 1889, it was also the site of one of the [[Carnegie Steel Company]]'s mills. It was the second Carnegie Library in the United States to be commissioned, in 1887, and was the first of the four libraries which he fully endowed. An 1893 addition doubled the size of the building and included the third Carnegie Music Hall in the United States.

In the United States, nine of the first 13 libraries which Carnegie commissioned are all located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Braddock, [[Homestead, Pennsylvania|Homestead]], and [[Duquesne, Pennsylvania|Duquesne]] libraries were owned not by municipalities, but by Carnegie Steel, which constructed them, maintained them, and delivered coal for their heating systems.<ref name="palace" /> {{blockquote|"To this day, Carnegie's free-to-the-people libraries remain Pittsburgh's most significant cultural export, a gift that has shaped the minds and lives of millions."|author=Architectural critic Patricia Lowry <ref name="old.post-gazette.com">{{cite web|url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302carnegie2.asp|title=Carnegie's Library Legacy|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509112640/http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20030302carnegie2.asp|archive-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref>}}

In 1897, Carnegie hired [[James Bertram (Carnegie secretary)|James Bertram]] as his personal assistant. Bertram was responsible for fielding requests from municipalities for funds and overseeing the dispensing of grants for libraries. When Bertram received a letter requesting a library, he sent the applicant a questionnaire inquiring about the town's population, whether it had any other libraries, how large its book collection was, and what its circulation figures were. If initial requirements were met, Bertram asked the amount the town was willing to pledge for the library's annual maintenance, whether a site was being provided, and the amount of money already available.<ref name="palace" />

Until 1898, only one library was commissioned in the United States outside [[Pittsburgh metropolitan area|Southwestern Pennsylvania]]: a library in [[Fairfield, Iowa]], commissioned in 1892. It was the first project in which Carnegie had funded a library to which he had no personal ties. The Fairfield project was part of a new funding model to be used by Carnegie (through Bertram) for thousands of additional libraries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fairfieldculturaldistrict.org/museum.htm |title=Carnegie Historical Museum – Fairfield Cultural District |work=fairfieldculturaldistrict.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140406015722/http://www.fairfieldculturaldistrict.org/museum.htm |archive-date=April 6, 2014 |access-date=April 3, 2014 }}</ref>

[[File:Huntington Jr College 2014.jpg|thumb|[[Carnegie Public Library (Huntington, West Virginia)|Carnegie Public Library]] built in 1902, located in [[Huntington, West Virginia]]]]

Beginning in 1899, Carnegie's foundation funded a dramatic increase in the number of libraries. This coincided with the rise of [[women's club]]s in the post-Civil War period. They primarily took the lead in organizing local efforts to establish libraries, including long-term fundraising and lobbying within their communities to support operations and collections.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Paula D. |last=Watson |title=Founding Mothers: The Contribution of Women's Organizations to Public Library Development in the United States |journal=Library Quarterly |volume=64 |issue=3 |year=1994 |page=236 |doi=10.1086/602699 |s2cid=142094870 }}</ref>  They led the establishment of 75–80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country.<ref>Teva Scheer, "The "Praxis" Side of the Equation: Club Women and American Public Administration", ''Administrative Theory & Praxis'', Vol. 24, Issue 3, 2002, p. 525</ref>

Carnegie believed in giving to the "industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others."<ref>Andrew Carnegie, [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0149-83 "The Best Fields for Philanthropy"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030113062124/http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0149-83 |date=January 13, 2003 }}, ''The North American Review'', Volume 149, Issue 397, December 1889 from the [[Cornell University Library]] website</ref> Under segregation, Black people were generally denied access to public libraries in the [[Southern United States]]. Rather than insisting on his libraries being racially integrated, Carnegie funded separate libraries for African Americans in the South. For example, in [[Houston]] he funded a separate Colored Carnegie Library.<ref>This library has been discussed in Cheryl Knott Malone's essay, "Houston's Colored Carnegie Library, 1907–1922." While still in manuscript, it was awarded the [[Justin Winsor Prize (library)|Justin Winsor Prize]] in 1997.  Accessed on-line August 2008 in a [http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/fulltext/LandC_34_2_Malone.pdf revised version] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080909235220/http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/fulltext/LandC_34_2_Malone.pdf |date=September 9, 2008 }}</ref> The Carnegie Library in [[Savannah, Georgia]], opened in 1914 to serve Black residents, who had been excluded from the segregated White public library. The privately organized Colored Library Association of Savannah had raised money and collected books to establish a small [[East Henry Street Carnegie Library|Library for Colored Citizens]]. Having demonstrated their willingness to support a library, the group petitioned for and received funds from Carnegie.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liveoakpl.org/about/library-history.php |title=Library History |website=Live Oak Public Libraries |access-date=March 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819083719/http://www.liveoakpl.org/about/library-history.php |archive-date=August 19, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.liveoakpl.org/upload/CarnegieLibrary100th.pdf |title=Carnegie Library, Savannah, Georgia |website=Live Oak Public Library |access-date=March 12, 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320010810/http://www.liveoakpl.org/upload/CarnegieLibrary100th.pdf |archive-date=March 20, 2015}}</ref> [[U.S. Supreme Court]] Justice [[Clarence Thomas]] wrote in his 2008 memoirs that he frequently used that library as a boy, before the public library system was desegregated.<ref>Clarence Thomas, ''[https://archive.org/details/mygrandfathersso00thom My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir]'', HarperCollins, 2008, pp. 17, 29, 30, Google Books</ref>

The library buildings were constructed in a number of styles, including [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]], [[Renaissance architecture|Italian Renaissance]], [[Baroque architecture|Baroque]], [[Neoclassical architecture|Classical Revival]], and [[Spanish Colonial style|Spanish Colonial]], to enhance their appearance as public buildings. [[Scottish baronial style|Scottish Baronial]] was one of the styles used for libraries in Carnegie's native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community. As the years went by [[James Bertram (Carnegie secretary)|James Bertram]], Carnegie's secretary, became less tolerant of approving designs that were not to his taste.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/50carnegie/50facts3.htm|title=Carnegie Libraries – Reading 2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502001235/http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/50carnegie/50facts3.htm|archive-date=May 2, 2014}}</ref> [[Edward Lippincott Tilton]], a friend often recommended by Bertram, designed many of the buildings.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Mausolf |first1=Lisa B. |first2=Elizabeth Durfee |last2=Hengen |title=Edward Lippincott Tilton: A Monograph on His Architectural Practice |year=2007 |url=http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/Tiltonmonograph.pdf |access-date=September 28, 2011 |quote=Many of these were Carnegie Libraries, public libraries built between 1886 and 1917 with funds provided by Andrew Carnegie or the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In all, Carnegie funding was provided for 1,681 public library buildings in 1,412 U.S. communities, with additional libraries abroad. Increasingly after 1908, Carnegie library commissions tended to be in the hands of a relatively small number of firms that specialized in library design. Tilton benefited from a friendship with James Bertram, who was responsible for reviewing plans for Carnegie-financed library buildings.  Although the Carnegie program left the hiring of an architect to local officials, Bertram's personal letters of introduction gave Tilton a distinct advantage. As a result,  Tilton won a large number of comparatively modest Carnegie library commissions, primarily in the northeast. Typically, Tilton furnished all plans, working drawings, details and specifications and associated with a local architect, who would supervise construction and receive 5% of Tilton's commission. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927051548/http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/Tiltonmonograph.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2011  }}</ref>

The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase from the ground level.  The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, most libraries had a lamp post or lantern installed near the entrance, meant as a symbol of [[American Enlightenment|enlightenment]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/607884927|title=Studying transcultural literary history|date=2006|others=Gunilla Lindberg-Wada|isbn=978-3-11-092055-0|location=Berlin|oclc=607884927}}</ref>

Carnegie's grants were very large for the era, and his library philanthropy was one of the most costly philanthropic activities, by value, in history. Carnegie continued funding new libraries until shortly before his death in 1919. Libraries were given to towns and cities in [[Great Britain]] and much of the English-speaking world: Almost $56.2 million went for construction of 2,509 libraries worldwide. Of that, $40 million was given for construction of 1,670 public library buildings in 1,412 American communities.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Murray|first=Stuart|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|publisher=Skyhorse Chicago: ALA Editions|year=2009|location=New York|pages=174–91}}</ref> Small towns received grants of $10,000 that enabled them to build large libraries that immediately were among the most significant town amenities in hundreds of communities.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/econ/55/ |title=Public Libraries and Political Particippation, 1870–1940 |last1=Kevane |first1=Michael J |last2=Sundstrom |first2=William A |date=2016 |journal=Economics |access-date=March 12, 2022}}</ref>

== Background ==
[[File:Stained-glass window of Andrew Carnegie at the former Carnegie Library, Victoria Street, St Albans, June 2023.jpg|thumb|right|Stained-glass window of Andrew Carnegie at the former Carnegie Library, St Albans, Hertfordshire]]
Books and libraries were important to Carnegie, from his early childhood in Scotland and his teen years in Allegheny and Pittsburgh. There he listened to readings and discussions of books from the Tradesman's Subscription Library, which his father had helped create.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart|title=The library : an illustrated history|date=2009|publisher=[[Skyhorse Pub.]]|location=New York|isbn=978-1-60239-706-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr}}</ref> Later in Pennsylvania, while working for the local telegraph company in Pittsburgh, Carnegie borrowed books from the personal library of Colonel James Anderson (1785-1861).<ref>Koch, Theodore Wesley (1907) ''A Portfolio of Carnegie Libraries,'' preface (work is unpaginated)</ref> He opened his collection to his workers every Saturday. Anderson, like Carnegie, resided in Allegheny.

In his autobiography, Carnegie credited Anderson with providing an opportunity for "working boys" (that some people said should not be "entitled to books") to acquire the knowledge to improve themselves.<ref>[http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/anderson.html "Andrew Carnegie: A Tribute: Colonel James Anderson"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040211095856/http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/anderson.html |date=February 11, 2004 }}, Exhibit, ''Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh''</ref>
Carnegie's personal experience as an immigrant, who with help from others worked his way and became wealthy, reinforced his belief in a society based on merit, where anyone who worked hard could become successful. This conviction was a major element of his philosophy of giving in general.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|last=Murray|first=Stuart|date=2009|publisher=Skyhorse Pub.|isbn=978-0838909911|location=New York|oclc=277203534|url-access=registration}}</ref> His libraries were the best-known expression of this philanthropic goal.  In 1900, Carnegie granted funds to build the Anderson Memorial Library, in memory of Colonel [[John Byers Anderson]], at the [[College of Emporia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://skyways.lib.ks.us/carnegie/updates/esu.html|last=Gardiner|first=Allen|title=Anderson Memorial Library|work=The Carnegie Legacy in Kansas|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805114129/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/carnegie/updates/esu.html|archivedate=5 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An inside look at Anderson Memorial Library |url=http://www.emporiagazette.com/latest_news_and_features/article_be0babcb-fea4-5fe6-a917-a760fc36e4f6.html |publisher=Emporia Gazette |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221044839/http://www.emporiagazette.com/latest_news_and_features/article_be0babcb-fea4-5fe6-a917-a760fc36e4f6.html |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |date=July 31, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Carnegie formula==
[[File:Foundation stone of Waterford Free Library.jpg|thumb|Carnegie laying the foundation stone of the [[Waterford City Library]] (1903)]]
Nearly all of Carnegie's libraries were built according to "the Carnegie formula", which required financial commitments for maintenance and operation from the town that received the donation. Carnegie required public support rather than making endowments because, as he wrote:
{{quote|an endowed institution is liable to become the prey of a clique. The public ceases to take interest in it, or, rather, never acquires interest in it. The rule has been violated which requires the recipients to help themselves. Everything has been done for the community instead of its being only helped to help itself.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Carnegie |first=Andrew |title=The Best Fields for Philanthropy |journal=North American Review |date=December 1889 |volume=149 |pages=688–691}}</ref>}}

Carnegie required the elected officials—the local government—to:
* demonstrate the need for a public library;
* provide the building site;
* pay staff and maintain the library;
* draw from public funds to run the library—not use only private donations;
* annually provide ten percent of the cost of the library's construction to support its operation; and,
* provide free service to all.

Carnegie assigned the decisions to his assistant [[James Bertram (Carnegie secretary)|James Bertram]]. He created a "Schedule of Questions". The schedule included: Name, status and population of town, Does it have a library?  Where is it located and is it public or private?  How many books?  Is a town-owned site available? Estimation of the community's population at this stage was done by local officials, and Bertram later commented that if the population counts he received were accurate, "the nation's population had mysteriously doubled".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eOIhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JGMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5747%2C1437834 |title=Thanks, but no thanks |work=The Pittsburgh Press |date=July 17, 1983 |access-date=May 26, 2015 |author=Gigler, Rich |pages=12}}</ref>

The effects of Carnegie's library philanthropy coincided with a peak in new town development and library expansion in the US.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kevane|first1=Michael|last2=Sundstrom|first2=William A.|date=April 30, 2014|title=The Development of Public Libraries in the United States, 1870–1930: A Quantitative Assessment|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/543837|journal=Information & Culture: A Journal of History|volume=49|issue=2|pages=117–144|doi=10.1353/lac.2014.0009|issn=2166-3033|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202015258/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/543837|archive-date=February 2, 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref> By 1890, many states had begun to take an active role in organizing public libraries, and the new buildings filled a tremendous need. It was also a time of rapid development of institutions of higher learning. Interest in libraries was also heightened at a crucial time in their early development by Carnegie's high profile and his genuine belief in their importance.<ref>Bobinski, p. 191.</ref>

In Canada in 1901, Carnegie offered more than $2.5&nbsp;million to build 125 libraries. Most cities at first turned him down, then eventually took the money.<ref>Susan Goldenberg, "Dubious Donations," ''Beaver'' (2008) 88#2</ref>

In 1902, Carnegie offered funds to build a library in Dunedin in [[New Zealand]].  Between 1908 and 1916, 18 Carnegie libraries were opened across New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/carnegie-free-libraries |title=Carnegie free libraries |website=New Zealand History |access-date=March 12, 2022}}</ref>

==Design==
The [[Lawrenceville Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh]] signaled a break from the Richardsonian style of libraries which was popularized in the mid 1800s. The ALA discouraged Richardsonian characteristics such as alcoved book halls with high shelves requiring a ladder, as well as sheltered galleries and niches, reminiscent of sixteenth-century Europe, largely because modern librarians could not supervise such spaces efficiently.<ref name="palace" />

[[James Bertram (Carnegie secretary)|Bertram]]'s architectural criteria included a lecture room, reading rooms for adults and children, a staff room, a centrally located librarian's desk, twelve-to-fifteen-foot ceilings, and large windows six to seven feet above the floor. No architectural style was recommended for the exterior, nor was it necessary to put Andrew Carnegie's name on the building. In the interests of efficiency, fireplaces were discouraged, since that wall space could be used to house more books.<ref name="palace" />

There were no strict requirements about furniture, but most of it came from the [[Library Bureau]], established by [[Melvil Dewey]] in 1888. It sold standardized chairs, tables, catalogs, and bookshelves.<ref name="palace" />

==Self-service stacks==
[[File:Carnegie Library Pittsburgh SSide branch early days.jpg|thumb|left|One of the first open shelf libraries: Pittsburgh's South Side branch, about the time it opened in 1910 and had a massive front desk]]

[[File:SouthSide Library front desk.jpg|thumb|left|Original service desk at South Side branch in 1999. Originally designed to be imposing, it was replaced in 2011 by a side desk using original wood.]]

The first five Carnegie libraries followed a closed stacks policy, the method of operation common to libraries at that time. Patrons requested a book from a library staffer, who would fetch the book from closed stacks off limits to the public, and bring it to a delivery desk.

To reduce operating costs, Carnegie created a revolutionary open-shelf or self-service policy, beginning with the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches that opened after the main branch. This streamlined process allowed patrons to have open access to shelves. Carnegie's architects designed the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches so that one librarian could oversee each entire operation.

[[Library theft|Theft of books]] and other items was a major concern. This concern resulted in the placement of the library's circulation desk—which replaced the delivery desk used in traditional closed stacks libraries—just inside the front door. Bigger and more daunting than those used in modern libraries, these desks spanned almost the width of the lobby and acted as a physical and psychological barrier between the front entrance and the book room.

The first of these "open stack" branches was in Lawrenceville, the sixth Carnegie library to open in America. The next was in the West End branch, the eighth Carnegie library in the US. Patricia Lowry describes

<blockquote>located just beyond the lobby, the circulation desk—no longer a delivery desk—took center stage in Lawrenceville, flanked by turnstiles that admitted readers to the open stacks one at a time, under the librarian's watchful eye. To thwart thievery, the stacks were arranged in a radial pattern. On each side of the lobby were a general reading room and, for the first time in a library anywhere, a room for children.... The reading rooms were separated by walls that became glass partitions above waist level—the better to see you with, my dear.<ref name="old.post-gazette.com"/></blockquote>

Walter E. Langsam, an architectural historian and teacher at the [[University of Cincinnati]], wrote "The Carnegie libraries were important because they had open stacks which encouraged people to browse .... People could choose for themselves what books they wanted to read."<ref>[http://www.cincypost.com/news/1999/carn101199.html Al Andry, "New Life for Historic Libraries"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201650/http://www.cincypost.com/news/1999/carn101199.html |date=September 30, 2007 }}, ''The Cincinnati Post'', October 11, 1999</ref> This open stacks policy was later adopted by the libraries that previously had operated with closed stacks.

==Criticisms==
The first secretary of the Iowa Library Commission, Alice S. Taylor, criticized the use of Carnegie funding for extravagant buildings rather than providing quality library services.<ref>Stuart Shana L. (2013). "My Duty and My Pleasure": Alice S. Tyler's Reluctant Oversight of Carnegie Library Philanthropy in Iowa. ''Information & Culture, 48''(1), 91–111, p. 93.</ref> Carnegie's funds covered only the library buildings themselves, and Carnegie gave library buildings to cities on the condition that the cities stocked and maintained them.<ref>Murray, S. (2009). ''The library: An illustrated history''. Skyhorse Publishing, p. 184.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mickelson |first=P. |year=1975 |title=American society and the public library in the thought of Andrew Carnegie |journal=Journal of Library History |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=117–138 [p. 123] |jstor=25540622 }}</ref> As a result, small communities often struggled with maintenance costs associated with Carnegie libraries; towns were often happy to accept funding for  new library buildings, but often unwilling to allocate taxes for upkeep.<ref>Murray, 2009, p. 186.</ref> In fact, this was the most frequent complaint about Carnegie libraries in hindsight: gifting libraries to towns too small to support them actually slowed the development of cooperative regional libraries that those communities now rely on.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mickelson|1975|p=133}}.</ref>

Some critics also saw his massive donations as insulting to communities that would be content to fund their own public works.<ref>Murray, 2009, p. 185.</ref> Others saw his push for public libraries as merely an attempt at social control.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mickelson|1975|p=131}}.</ref> [[Mark Twain]], a supporter of Carnegie, claimed that Carnegie used philanthropy as a tool to buy fame.<ref name=":0">{{Harvnb|Mickelson|1975|p=128}}.</ref> [[William Jewett Tucker]] criticized Carnegie's philanthropy from a religious viewpoint, arguing that it did not offset his "immoral" accumulation of wealth, and that his contributions did not justify the "evils" Tucker claimed existed in capitalism itself.<ref name=":0" /> Carnegie's own steel workers echoed this sentiment, arguing that his wealth would be better spent on improving working conditions for his own employees, rather than on library buildings across the country.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last=Stamberg |first=Susan |date=August 1, 2013 |title=How Andrew Carnegie turned his fortune into a library legacy |website=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/08/01/207272849/how-andrew-carnegie-turned-his-fortune-into-a-library-legacy?sc=tw&cc=share |access-date=March 12, 2022}}</ref> Carnegie's response to those criticisms and the ensuing [[Homestead Steel Strike]] was telling of what he thought of his workers' concerns: "If I had raised your wages, you would have spent that money by buying a better cut of meat or more drink for your dinner. But what you needed, though you didn't know it, was my libraries and concert halls."<ref name=":1" />

Carnegie's critics can be most efficiently summed up in the words of [[Finley Peter Dunne]]'s parody of Carnegie himself: "Th' way to abolish poverty an' bust crime is to put up a brown-stone buildin' in ivry town in th' counthry."<ref>{{Harvnb|Mickelson|1975|p=129}}.</ref> The idea that a building would be the panacea to cure all of society's ills, they argued, was simply not sustainable.

A further issue was the impact on pre-existing religious libraries that had promoted learning through free libraries for many years. A typical example is the United Presbyterian Library of Edinburgh, under [[Robert James Drummond]] which was affected following the opening of the Carnegie Library in the city centre.<ref>The History of the Lothian Road United Free Church (Turnbull & Spears) p.69</ref>

In addition to the criticisms of his philanthropic interests and motivations, the construction of libraries in the American South was a highly contentious topic. State and local racial segregations laws across the South sought to bar African Americans access to public facilities, including libraries and when funding the construction of the Carnegie library in Atlanta in 1902, the proposed library, a segregated one, was fought by numerous activists of the period, including [[W.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;B. Du Bois]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Segregated Libraries |url=https://dp.la/exhibitions/history-us-public-libraries/segregated-libraries |access-date=2022-03-25 |website=Digital Public Library of America |language=en}}</ref> In the years following, as the [[American Library Association]] continued to ignore the systematic implementation of [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] in the South, the Carnegie Corporation also continued to acquiesce to the social norms of the day and even required communities seeking grants to base their appropriations "only upon the White population of the towns."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wiegand |first=Wayne A. |date=2017-03-01 |title="Any Ideas?": The American Library Association and the Desegregation of Public Libraries in the American South |url=https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.1.1.0001 |journal=Libraries: Culture, History, and Society |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.5325/libraries.1.1.0001 |issn=2473-0343|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Continuing legacy==
[[File:2008-0601-DC-CityMuseumCarnegieLibrary.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Historical Society of Washington, D.C.]] is located in a former Carnegie library and is on the U.S. [[National Register of Historic Places]].]]
Carnegie established charitable trusts which have continued his philanthropic work.  But they had reduced their investment in libraries even before his death. There has continued to be support for library projects, for example in [[South Africa]].<ref>[http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/archive/fulltext/LandC_34_1_Rochester.pdf The Carnegie Corporation and South Africa:  Non-European Library Services] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828132624/http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/archive/fulltext/LandC_34_1_Rochester.pdf |date=August 28, 2008 }} ''Libraries & Culture'', [http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/archive/landc-toc-v34-no1.php Volume 34, No. 1] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612174149/http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/archive/landc-toc-v34-no1.php |date=June 12, 2010 }} (Winter 1999), from the [[University of Texas at Austin]]</ref>

In 1992, the ''[[New York Times]]'' reported that, according to a survey conducted by George Bobinski, dean of the School of Information and Library Studies at the [[State University at Buffalo]], 1,554 of the 1,681 original Carnegie library buildings in the United States still existed, and 911 were still used as libraries. He found that 276 were unchanged, 286 had been expanded, 175 had been remodeled, 243 had been demolished, and others had been converted to other uses.<ref name=journal>{{Citation |last=Strum |first=Charles |title=Belleville Journal; Restoring Heritage and Raising Hopes for Future |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 2, 1992 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/02/nyregion/belleville-journal-restoring-heritage-and-raising-hopes-for-future.html?src=pm |access-date=September 29, 2011 |quote=Dr. George Bobinksi, dean of the School of Information and Library Studies at the State University at Buffalo, says 1,681 libraries were built with Carnegie money, mostly between 1898 and 1917.In a survey, he found that at least 1,554 of the buildings still exist, with only 911 of these still in use as public libraries. At least 276 of the survivors are unchanged, while 243 have been demolished, 286 have been expanded and 175 have been remodeled. Others have been turned into condominiums, community centers or shops. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114082153/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/02/nyregion/belleville-journal-restoring-heritage-and-raising-hopes-for-future.html?src=pm |archive-date=November 14, 2013  }}</ref>

While hundreds of the library buildings have been adapted for use as museums, community centers, office buildings, residences, or other uses, more than half of those in the United States still serve their communities as libraries over a century after their construction.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Carnegie libraries by state |publisher=American Volksporting Association |year=1996 |url=http://www.ava.org/clubs/holyfamilywalkers/list_of_carnegie_libraries.pdf |access-date=October 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414202910/http://www.ava.org/clubs/holyfamilywalkers/list_of_carnegie_libraries.pdf |archive-date=April 14, 2012 }}</ref> Many are located in what are now middle- to low-income neighborhoods. For example, Carnegie libraries still form the nucleus of the [[New York Public Library]] system in [[New York, New York|New York City]], with 31 of the original 39 buildings still in operation; Carnegie Libraries operate in all 5 Boroughs of New York City across its three library systems. Also, the main library and eighteen branches of the [[Pittsburgh]] public library system are Carnegie libraries. The public library system there is named the [[Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.carnegielibrary.org/|title=Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh|website=Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh|access-date=April 29, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102115802/https://www.carnegielibrary.org/|archive-date=January 2, 2018}}</ref>

In the late 1940s, the [[Carnegie Corporation of New York]] arranged for microfilming of the correspondence files relating to Andrew Carnegie's gifts and grants to communities for the public libraries and church organs. They discarded the original materials. The microfilms are open for research as part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Records collection, residing at [[Columbia University]] Rare Book and Manuscript Library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/rbml/collections/carnegie/index.html|title=Rare Book & Manuscript Library|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114092250/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/rbml/collections/carnegie/index.html|archive-date=January 14, 2009}}</ref> Archivists did not microfilm photographs and blueprints of the Carnegie Libraries. The number and nature of documents within the correspondence files varies widely. Such documents may include correspondence, completed applications and questionnaires, newspaper clippings, illustrations, and building dedication programs.

UK correspondence files relating to individual libraries have been preserved in [[Edinburgh]] (see the article [[List of Carnegie libraries in Europe]]).

Beginning in the 1930s during the Great Depression, some libraries were meticulously measured, documented and photographed under the [[Historic American Buildings Survey]] (HABS) program of the [[National Park Service]]. This was part of an effort to record and preserve significant buildings.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/ Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516223912/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer |date=May 16, 2008 }}, Permanent Collection, ''American Memory'' from the Library of Congress</ref> Other documentation has been collected by local historical societies. In 1935, the centennial of Carnegie's birth, a copy of the portrait of him originally painted by [[F. Luis Mora]] was given to libraries which he had helped fund.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belmar Public Library |work=Wall, New Jersey |publisher=American towns |url=http://www.americantowns.com/nj/wall/venues/belmar-public-library |access-date=October 3, 2011}}</ref> Many of the Carnegie libraries in the United States, whatever their current uses, have been recognized by listing on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. The first, the Carnegie Library in [[Carnegie Free Library of Braddock|Braddock, Pennsylvania]], was designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]] in March 2012.

== Gallery ==
<!-- Please do not include your library here. Add it to Wikimedia Commons at Category:Carnegie libraries -->
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Carnegie-Library-9724.jpg|[[Carnegie Library (Guthrie, Oklahoma)|Carnegie Library]], built in 1901 in [[Guthrie, Oklahoma]]
File:Akron Public Library (Akron, Ohio).jpg|[[Akron Public Library|Carnegie Library]], built in 1904 in [[Akron, Ohio]]
File:Tyler carnegie library.jpg|[[Carnegie Public Library (Tyler, Texas)|Carnegie Public Library]], built in 1904 in [[Tyler, Texas]]
File:Hokitika Museum 248.JPG|Carnegie Library, built in 1908 in [[Hokitika]], New Zealand
File:Kilkenny Carnegie library.jpg|Kilkenny Carnegie Library, built in 1910 in [[Kilkenny]], [[Ireland]]
File:West Tampa Free Public Library.jpg|[[West Tampa Free Public Library]], built in 1914 in [[Tampa]], Florida
File:Beaumont Library District, Beaumont, CA, bld2.jpg|[[Beaumont Library District|Beaumont Library]] built in 1914 in [[Beaumont, California]]
File:St. Pete Mirror Lake Library02.jpg|[[St. Petersburg Public Library]], built in 1915 in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]]
File:Bayliss Carnegie Library (April 2023)-3563.jpg|Bayliss Library, built in 1917 in [[Glenn County, California|Glenn County]], California
File:Univerzitetska biblioteka, Beograd 05.jpg|[[Belgrade University Library|Carnegie Library]], built in 1921 in [[Belgrade]], [[Serbia]]
</gallery>

== Lists of Carnegie libraries ==
{{See also|Carnegie Library (disambiguation)}}
* [[List of Carnegie libraries in Africa]]
* [[List of Carnegie libraries in the Caribbean]]
* [[List of Carnegie libraries in Oceania]]
* [[List of Carnegie libraries in Canada]]
* [[List of Carnegie libraries in Europe]]
* [[List of Carnegie libraries in the United States]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* Anderson, Florence (1963). ''Carnegie Corporation Library Program, 1911–1961...'' (Carnegie Corporation of New York)
* Black, A., & Prizeman, O. (2021). "A Reassessment of the Design of Carnegie Public Library Buildings with a View to Their Future Use: The Case of Evanston Public Library, Illinois" (1908). ''IFLA Journal'' 47, no. 4: 444–452.
* Bobinski, George S. (1968). "Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development." ''ALA Bulletin'' 62, no. 11 (December 1968): 1361–1367. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25698025 in JSTOR]
* Ditzion, Sidney. (1947). ''Arsenals of a Democratic Culture: A Social History of the American Public Library Movement in New England and the Middle States from 1850 to 1900'' (American Library Association).
* Fultz, Michael (2006). "Black Public Libraries in the South in the Era of ''de jure'' Segregation" ''Libraries & the Cultural Record'' 41, no. 3: 337–359.
* Garrison, Dee (1979). ''Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876–1920'' (New York: Free Press).
* Grimes, Brendan.  (1998). ''Irish Carnegie Libraries: A Catalogue and Architectural History.'' (Irish Academic Press). {{ISBN|0-7165-2618-2}}
* Harris, Michael (1974). "The Purpose of the American Public Library, A Revisionist Interpretation of History" ''Library Journal'' 98: 2509–2514.
* Jones, Theodore (1997). ''Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy'', John Wiley & Sons. {{ISBN|0-471-14422-3}}
* Kevane, M.J. and W.A. Sundstrom, [https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/econ/55/ Public Libraries and Political Participation, 1870–1940] ''Santa Clara University Scholar Commons'' (2016); uses advanced statistics to find a new library had no effect on voter turnout
* Kevane, Michael, & Sundstrom, William A. (2014). "The Development of Public Libraries in the United States, 1870–1930: A Quantitative Assessment" ''Information and Culture,'' 49, no. 2, 117–144.
* Lorenzen, Michael (1999). [https://web.archive.org/web/20060518124835/http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1999/il990275.html "Deconstructing the Carnegie Libraries: The Sociological Reasons Behind Carnegie's Millions to Public Libraries"], ''Illinois Libraries''. 81, no. 2: 75–78.
* Martin, Robert Sidney. (1993) ''Carnegie Denied: Communities rejecting Carnegie Library Construction Grants, 1898–1925'' (Greenwood Press)
* Miner, Curtis (1990) "The 'Deserted Parthenon': Class, Culture and the Carnegie Library of Homestead, 1898–1937." ''Pennsylvania History'' 52, no. 2 (April 1990): 107–135. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27773366 in JSTOR]
* [[David Nasaw|Nasaw, David]] (2006). ''Andrew Carnegie.'' New York: Penguin Press.
* Pollak, Oliver B. (2005). ''A State of Readers, Nebraska's Carnegie Libraries,'' (Lincoln: J. & L. Lee Publishers).
* Prizeman, Oriel (2013). ''Philanthropy and Light: Carnegie Libraries and the Advent of Transatlantic Standards for Public Space'' (Ashgate).
* Swetman, Susan H. (1991). "Pro-Carnegie library arguments and contemporary Concerns in the Intermountain West." ''Journal of the West'' 30, no. 3, 63–68.
* Van Slyke, Abigail A. (1995). ''Free to All: Carnegie Libraries & American Culture, 1890–1920.'' (University of Chicago Press)
* Watson, Paula D. (1996). "Carnegie Ladies, Lady Carnegies : Women and the Building of Libraries." ''Libraries & Culture'' 31, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 159–196.
* Watson, Paula D. (1994). "Founding Mothers: The Contribution of Women's Organizations to Public Library Development in the United States" ''Library Quarterly'' 64, no. 3 (July 1994): 233–270.
* Wiegand, Wayne A. (2011). ''Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876–1956'' (University of Iowa Press).
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Carnegie libraries}}
{{wiktionary|Carnegie library}}
* Skeen, Molly. (March 5, 2004) [https://web.archive.org/web/20040506070816/http://www.nationaltrust.org/Magazine/archives/arch_story/030504.htm "How America's Carnegie Libraries Adapt to Survive"], ''Preservation Online''.
* [http://www.gerryblaikie.com/carnegie/ Carnegie Libraries of Scotland – Landmarks of Literacy]

{{Carnegie libraries}}
{{Libraries and library science}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Carnegie libraries| ]]
[[Category:Andrew Carnegie|Library]]
[[Category:Academic libraries]]
[[Category:Philanthropy]]
[[Category:Library buildings]]