My aimless curiosity owes a lot to Andrew Carnegie, the great philanthropist.
He gave extraordinary amounts of money in his day--$350 million, to be exact—for libraries, church organs, and organizations such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
All of these are close to my heart, but none more so than the Carnegie Library pictured above.
With $10,000 of the Carnegie wealth, this became my town’s library in 1913, one of only 11 Carnegie libraries in Mississippi. Today, it houses the local economic development agency.
In my day, it housed magic.
During the unforgiving Southern summers, this was our Terabithia, an adventure into the yet-to-be-known. Up the steps through the double doors we raced, into the book smells, swimming into the high-ceilinged, calm stillness stirred with hands that fluttered against interesting, colorful spines and titles. Into the mystery of books.
We came home with treasures and hours of entertainment. We came to return our books with knowledge and a thirst for more books.
Our futures in many ways were formed in that library, which outgrew the Carnegie structure about the time many of us moved into bellbottoms and tie-dyed skirts.
In 1978, thanks to the generosity of a local benefactor, the library moved into a new structure.
With the move came computer workstations, a children’s reading room, membership in a regional library consortium with access to university resources, and a vital community space for lectures, exhibits, meetings, recitals, and other events.
And with it came the need for resources to maintain, expand, and continue to provide service for about 30,000 patron visits a year. Sadly, it’s struggling.
Despite community fundraisers, declines in state funding have meant a series of cuts. Staff has been reduced by about half. Hours of operation have been reduced—no more Saturdays poring over the latest acquisitions. The library no longer opens then. Local book-lovers are alarmed.
Andrew Carnegie believed the rich are trustees of their wealth and have an obligation to use it for the benefit of others. More than 2,500 communities received tangible evidence of his generosity and were better for it.
How I wish for an Andrew Carnegie today.
I live in the "Carnegie Hill" neighborhood in NYC. I've visited the mansion many times [it's now the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum of the Smithsonian, but still, you're walking through someone's former home]. I've had the same feeling: how great wealth can purchase leisure, but *absurd* wealth must be given back to the thousands who bestowed it. You see echoes in Gates, Buffett, etc. What you *don't* want to see is, say, Steve Jobs saying, "Nobody reads any more." There *are* more pressing global problems than U.S. literacy, and Bill Gates seems to be becoming a good man in his impending dotage. What *you* seem to want, Maridith, is a Carnegie for reading. I too wish for Carnegie today. But would his priorities be the same? Discuss.
ReplyDeleteTom: Good question. If you were Andrew Carnegie in 2010, what would your priorities be? There's a book in there somewhere. I live in language every day, and I live in a state in which books still are not plentiful in homes, despite Amazon and Kindle and now, the iPad. I fear for the future of language, reading, critical thinking, and reasoned debate. Literacy is empowering across many cultural, economic, and social strata; in fact, our local Rotary Club has made literacy one of its keystone projects. We've also made water in Kenya one of our projects. I could argue equally passionately for many other concerns. I support Habitat for Humanity, Heifer International, the outreach work of the Presbyterian church, as well as cultural programming here at Mississippi State. How would you spend $350 million?
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