I want to commend Mandy Feder for telling the story of Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Library grants. This is a fascinating story of a time of social change in this country. In Lakeport, library organizers worked seven years to start a library in borrowed space and to apply to Carnegie for a grant. Several more years passed before all financial and technical difficulties were cleared up and Lakeport”s Carnegie opened in 1918.
It is ironic that, in a story about libraries, Ms. Feder only cited online references for her work. The Lake County Library and its partner libraries in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties own books both on Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Libraries. Anyone interested in this topic can visit the library”s website at www.co.lake.ca.us/page386.aspx and click the link to the catalog. In the catalog search box, choose Subject and enter Carnegie. A list of books will pop up, and patrons with library cards in good standing can then request books of their choice.
Microfilms of the original century-old correspondence between the Carnegie Foundation and library organizers across the country is available from the Carnegie Foundation through the Lake County Library interlibrary loan department.
Jan Cook, Library Technician
Lake County Library
