The Carnegie Legacy Will Be Lost In 4 Neighborhoods
Sure, Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron who built the formidable business empire that became U.S. Steel. But most Americans probably know him as the guy who went from town to town, scattering public libraries the way Johnny Appleseed planted trees.
His fortune, which was valued at $400 million when he died in 1919, paid for more than 2,500 branches. Carnegie was a staunch believer in meritocracy. He was convinced that anyone, no matter how poor, could be lifted up by knowledge, and he insisted that his libraries express that in their architecture.
If you're not met at the entrance by an impressive staircase and a mighty portal of classical columns, chances are the building isn't a Carnegie. In many neighborhoods, his libraries are still the most dignified buildings residents ever encounter. Walking through those heavy doors is the first step in the hard passage to a middle-class life.
Philadelphia, which created the nation's first public-library system, had the good fortune to receive 25 of Carnegie's libraries. But if Mayor Nutter goes through with his crisis plan to shrink the library system by 11 branches, the city will lose four representatives of its original Carnegie legacy.
What will happen to Carnegie's four temples of knowledge is anyone's guess. Some might be used for other city purposes. Some might be sold, assuming the Carnegie deed permits the transfer. But others could be left to sit vacant, transformed into temples of gloom, monuments to opportunities lost.
Statistics are the language of bureaucrats, not the language of real life. So while it is undeniable that Philadelphia supports more than its statistical share of branches, it is also true that it has a larger proportion of poor families than most big cities. Many of their kids go to public schools that have no libraries [and limited access to the internet].
Join the Friends of the Free Library's campaign to raise privately the $8 million needed to keep the 11 branches open. The effort echoes the Carnegie creed: He demanded that residents buy the land to qualify for one of his libraries. Of course, the Friends' effort is an Internet campaign -
(www.libraryfriends.info).
You would think the mayor would welcome such citizen initiative. But a city spokesman told me that the Nutter administration intends to refuse the money. "We think a smaller city library system will be a stronger system," he explained.
Instead of finding fault in Philadelphia's large collection of neighborhood branches, the administration ought be crowing about being at the top of this particular statistical heap. You can bet Andrew Carnegie would be.
excerpt from
Cuts weren't in Carnegie's library plans by Inga Saffron
published Friday, November 21, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page E1
More:
Fishtowners March To Save Their Library