[Publib] Remember Andrew Carnegie today, his birthday

[Fred Beisser]

Today, November 25, is the 173rd anniversary of Andrew Carnegie, the 
philanthropist who funded more than 2,500 Carnegie libraries, including 
those belonging to public and university library systems. Carnegie 
earned the nickname "Patron Saint of Libraries."

Of the 2,509 libraries funded between 1883 and 1929, 1,689 were built in 
the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 156 in Canada, and others 
in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, and Fiji. Very few 
towns that requested a grant and agreed to his terms were refused. When 
the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the 
United States, nearly half of them paid for by Carnegie.

"The Carnegie Formula" required a form of matching from each town that 
received a donation. It must:

    * demonstrate the need for a public library;
    * provide the building site; and
    * annually provide ten percent of the cost of the library's 
construction to support its operation.

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_carnegie
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library
and also http://tinyurl.com/6dvw8y


Fred Beisser
Trustee
www.elbertcountylibrary.org
(Colorado)