History of Carnegie Libraries

An interesting article on the many, many libraries that Andrew Carnegie founded around the world: Deconstructing the Philanthropic Library. It’s a brief discussion of why Carnegie chose to found libraries in particular; a large part is his own history of self-education and a belief in a meritocracy. I find the background image odd given the content – it gives an unsubtle message that the article is really about the money. I thought the Carnegie libraries I frequented growing up were quite good, though the main branch attached to The Carnegie Institute was intimidating. [via BookPeople]