It’s a strange institution. Anybody can walk through a door, get a little piece of pasteboard (usually for free), & just be handed their choice of books, which can be more than $50 a pop![ul]
[li]How did the free public lending library get started?[/li]
[li]Where was the first one?[/li]
[li]Who funded it?[/li]
[li]Where was the first public library in America?[/li]
[sub]Mommy?[/sub][/ul]
I remember reading about how some lady, probably 200 years ago, had a small building in which she placed books for people in her small town to read and others started donating books. I don’t know how they kept track of who had what book, but the idea caught on. Many years later, government and state funds became available for libraries.
Up until this woman started her free library, most people had their own, if they could afford them, or certain science clubs and men’s organizations, catering to the well off and intelligent, provided one. Colleges, of course, had many of their own, along with major churches, but most of those books were not allowed out of the building.
Sorry, but this is all I can recall.
Hey, don’t be sorry.
It’s a start, after all! 
Thanks!
Welcome to the SDMB!!
Many happy posts in your future, I hope.
First non-fee public library was in Peterborough, New Hampshire, according to this site, which also addresses the other questions.
According to numerous sites, the Chetham(Manchester, UK) Library was the first free library in Europe, in the 1600’s.
For a scholarly treatment of the whys and wherefores in the 1800’s, try this site
The Peterboro one seems to be the first in US.
I seem to recall that Ben Franklin sarted the first public library in the US.
I am ALL for free public libraries – wonderful institutions, allowing even people who cannot afford books access to them. Giving a place where scholars can obtain obscure books for their work. The spread of knowledge is a GOOD thing.
henever I hear those people who say that all books will end up on the Internet in short order I cringe. As an athor, I’d like to be PAID for my work, damnit! How else do you think other works get financed? And somebody has to PAY for intenet access and site support. It’s not long before some bright spark has the idea that – “Hey! We should charge by the hour/usage! That way the people who use it the most will bear a greater burden of the cost!” This kind of thinking makes perfect sense if you’re a least moderately well off, or don’t use the commodity (or are exempted from the fees). If you’re poor or a heavy user (but not rich) then you’re screwed. Public libraries give you infinite access without user fees. Do you really want to go back to a system of public libraries and Athenaeums only? Sheesh. Read Stephen King’s “The Running Man” to see how bad it can get. (King is a big supporter of libaries, too.)
Benjamin Franklin’s library, called The Library Company, wasn’t exactly a public library in the modern sense. It was an important step in the right direction, but it still required its members to pay a subscription fee. Those fees were then used to pay for books and other costs.
I was unaware of the Peterborough, New Hampshire library. Another library often cited as the first true tax-supported library in the U.S. is the Boston Public Library, founded in 1854. Peterborough seems to have it beat by about 20 years, though.
Another important name to mention is Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate. In the early 1900s, he funded a grant program allowing literally hundreds of small communities to build public libraries which they never could have afforded on their own. You’ll still run into “Carnegie libraries” in a few towns even today.
And on other matters, let me just add, I agree with Cal.
A random anecdote: I live in a city with a Carnegie Library, it is supposedly the library that is the source for “Marion the Librarian” material in “The Music Man.” I always have to laugh when I hear the songs about how the Library belongs to the City but the books all belong to her. And now they are intending to tear it down for urban renewal. It’s a darn shame. I practically lived in that library, I read anything I could get my hands on.
Anyway, a lot of the earliest libraries were founded around trade and commercial interests, businessmen would share resources and books, and formed little societies around their libraries. It’s an interesting history.
Why has nobody mentioned the great Library of Alexandria? Ancient Greeks (c. 300BC) understood the value of a knowledge repository. Althought I don’t know if it can be considered public, as many certain ideas were considered too dangerous for laymen to even know about (the five platonic solids, if I remember correctly, was one example). It was here that Eratosthenes first calculated the circumference of the earth with a high degree of accuracy, based on the differences in measurements of noon-time shadows cast in Alexandria & Aswan.
Alexandria’s location in the southeastern Mediterranean ensured its dominance of trade, and ships from all over the ancient world made it their primary port of call. It held a complete monopoly on papyrus and this stranglehold on the most vital material for producing books was only partially overcome when parchment was developed at the rival capital of Pergamum.
Almost all of the estimated 500 thousand scrolls have been lost, and there is great disagreement as to what was even contained therein. But I think it is safe to say that a wealth of literature, reference, scientific discovery and politics were lost when the christians came to burn the place down. Cyril, the leader of that fanatical christian sect, was made a saint for having a prominent woman (Hypatia- a mathematician who’s knowledge he either feared or didn’t understand) flayed alive.
It just went downhill from there.
Tear it down for urban renewal? AAAAARGH! Eve, get in here!
God, these towns and their Carnegie libraries – so many of them are architectural jewels. My father lost all respect for his home town of Grand Forks, North Dakota when the city fathers ripped down theirs. As did Fargo, Minneapolis, and Seattle, which are all the poorer.
My college town, Northfield, MN, did a wonderful job of preserving and expanding its Carnegie, but its decision to do so may have been with the encouragement of the Carleton and St. Olaf College faculties. Two colleges in a small town means there’s a lot of support for preservation.
Here in NYC, many of the branch libraries are Carnegies. I’m especially fond of the (newly-renovated) Muhlenberg (my closest, on 23rd at 7th) and the Park Slope branch on 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.
If it doesn’t work as a library anymore (and structurally these buildings are often a challenge - very solidly built and quite inflexible), couldn’t anybody find an adaptive reuse? A senior center - a YMCA - anything?
Why in bleeding Hades not?
I am also for good, old fashioned, paper, bound, touchable, books in any form to something like Stephen Kings’ lousy E-book attempt. For one thing, I cannot sit for hours staring at the computer screen because it makes my eyes tired and printing out the pages of text just is not the same. I don’t know how well King did on that thing, but I hope he bit the big one with it.
Nothing compares to walking into the stacks of a library and seeing, smelling and touching thousands and thousands of books!
*Originally posted by OxyMoron *
I live in Ballard, one of Seattle’s neighborhoods, down the street from our old Carnegie Free Library building. It is truly an “architectural jewel.” It now houses an attorney’s office and an antique shop, since the city sold it in the '70’s to build the most boring book depository you’ve ever seen (which they will soon replace, using a little style this time). However, the Fremont and Greenwood neighborhoods are still using their Carnegie buildings. I expect there are a few others still in use.
For sheer beauty of the building and the pleasure of sitting and reading within it, the best library I’ve ever been in is the renovated Carnegie library in Hoquiam, WA. When they rebuilt and expanded it, they actually found the original molds for the plaster friezes, so that it’s hard to tell which part is new and which has been there since the '20s or whenever. Lovely.
It’s not only little towns that have Carnegie libraries - Pittsburgh has one too. It’s in a fine old building that also houses the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The guy sure wanted to make sure his name would be remembered!
Here you can dial up the public library for internet access.
Yep, Pittsburgh, I believe is the home of the Carnegie-since Carnegie’s business dealings were all in Pittsburgh. Isn’t it like, the main one? Or at least, the first one.
I LOVE going to the Carnegie! It’s huge, and there are so many books-a geek girl’s dream come true! HUGE cushy chairs…and it’s right across from all the universities. And right behind the Carnegie museums and library is Carnegie Mellon University.
I’m hoping to get a part time job at the Carnegie. It’s gorgeous.
Nashville’s got a new Main Branch Library!!!
For a virtual tour, click the link–
http://www.library.nashville.org/Newsevents/newmain.html
It was designed by an architectural firm that has past experience in creating public libraries.
It will be Neo-Classically influenced in it’s design, so it will blend in with the more historic buildings Downtown. It will have a scenic view of the State Capital building, it’s own inner courtyard, away from the noise of the streets, plenty of parking and it’s own fountain.
And they put the Children’s department next to the Hearing Impaired Services section. No, I ain’t kiddin’ 'bout that.
I’m So happy!!! 
Hope it burns to the ground! They refused to issue a card to me because I didn’t have a telephone. And I still don’t have a telephone, so there.
I should’ve been clearer - I was referring to Seattle’s main library, which IIRC was a Carnegie. It was replaced by a metal warehouse that looks like a toilet on steroids; I’ve heard is to be replaced yet again by something more interesting.