Libraries

Carnegie Corporation of New York has been one of the largest philanthropic funders of libraries, from the early construction of community buildings to helping establish the endowment of the American Library Association, funding the nation’s first graduate library school, and digitizing collections around the world.

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Find a Carnegie Library near you through our mapping project. Discover why Andrew Carnegie was determined to create access to free public libraries. Learn how these trusted public institutions are evolving to serve the needs of communities nationwide. Meet the honorees of the I Love My Librarian Award. Scroll through our libraries timeline. Have you visited a Carnegie Library? Send us your photos and stories!

Carnegie Libraries Across America

Carnegie Libraries hold a special place in American history and in the hearts of generations of Americans. Building them was the mission of Scottish immigrant, American steel magnate, and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) and later his foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Andrew Carnegie's Library Philanthropy

Andrew Carnegie’s formal schooling ended when he was 12 years old. When he became a wealthy benefactor later in life, his first major philanthropy was libraries, having benefited personally from borrowing books as a working boy in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Carnegie’s great interest was not in library buildings but in the opportunities that libraries offered to everyone for knowledge and understanding. He saw them as "ladders provided upon which the aspiring may climb."

Andrew Carnegie, age 16, with his younger brother, Thomas

Andrew Carnegie believed that libraries serve as essential resources for a community, especially for immigrants like him.

Having immigrated to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, from Scotland, Andrew Carnegie often recalled the life-changing experience of having access, as a 12-year-old working as a bobbin boy in a textile mill, to the private library of a Colonel Anderson, who offered to lend books to workers every Saturday. “He only had about 400 volumes in his library, but they were valuable books, and I shall never forget the enjoyment and the instruction I gained from them when I was too poor to buy books myself,” Carnegie told the New York Times in 1899. “Is it any wonder that I decided then and there that if ever I had any surplus wealth I would use it in lending books to others?”

The best gift that could be given to a community was a free library, according to Carnegie.

Public library philanthropy in the United States began in 1886 with Andrew Carnegie’s $250,000 gift to build a free public library in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on the condition that it would be maintained by the city afterward. Often referred to as the “Patron Saint of Libraries” in his lifetime, Carnegie made hundreds of libraries and books available to millions of people and helped accelerate the public library movement. Starting in 1881 with a gift of a library to his birthplace of Dunfermline, Scotland, Carnegie — and later his foundation — gave some $56 million to build 2,509 public libraries. Of these Carnegie Libraries, 1,681 were built in the United States.

Carnegie's Support for Libraries Today

Carnegie Corporation of New York today supports libraries as trusted public institutions that support social cohesion in our communities and help reduce political polarization. They do so by providing access to knowledge and fact-based information and helping people of all ages and backgrounds obtain the skills needed for greater socioeconomic mobility.

Carnegie Returns to Its Roots with Millions in Grants to Public Libraries
The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Alex Daniels reports on Carnegie Corporation of New York's awarding of $4 million to public libraries as one way to mend today’s societal fractures
Virtual Trinity Library: The Book of Kells Is Only the Beginning
With the philanthropic support of Carnegie Corporation of New York, thousands of newly digitized, high-quality images of medieval manuscripts are now freely available
Democratizing and Preserving Knowledge
Learn more about how Carnegie Corporation of New York is helping libraries navigate the digitization of their collections

I Love My Librarian Award

Carnegie Corporation of New York has sponsored the American Library Association's I Love My Librarian Award since it was established in 2008 to recognize and celebrate exceptional librarians. Meet some of the honorees and explore their unexpected stories and contributions as civic leaders who improve lives and bring communities together.

Curt Witcher

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Allen County Public Library is home to one of the largest genealogy centers in the nation. Curt Witcher, the center’s manager, helps visitors from around the world search through vast archives to find their own story.

Diana Haneski
During the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, librarian Diana Haneski protected 50 students and five faculty from harm within a barricaded equipment room at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Since that day, Haneski has transformed the library into a sanctuary where mental health takes center stage.
Gladys E. López-Soto
As a librarian at one of Puerto Rico’s two patent and trademark resource centers, Gladys E. López-Soto helps inventors navigate the complex patent application process, transforming their dreams into a reality.