Because I wasn’t on earlier 
People might wish to note that Alexandria has a brand spankin’ new Library that is attempting to re-capture some of the legend. It looks gorgeous, and I’m definitely paying a visit when I’m in Egypt next year.
I live in Alexandria, and the main library is pretty large, but I haven’t seen any scrolls written in Greek around, although they do have good selection of King and Grisham.
[Emily Litella voice]
Ohhhh, you mean the library of Alexandria, Egypt, not Virginia. That’s very different. Never mind.
[/Emily Litella voice]
In my nice little town of Bloomington, Indiana, we still have our Carnegie Library. However, it is now the county historical society’s museum and genealogy centre. Our recently-renovated and expanded public library is right next to it and takes up an entire city block and three stories! Not bad for a town of 150,000 people.
Of course, the Indiana University main library is 11 stories high and doesn’t even have all of the books as several other schools have their own libraries… but us townies try!
I dunno, but all I can say is that it’s wonderful that these institutions still exist. Every time I walk into one in the 21st Century, in the back of my mind, there is always some little amazement that they haven’t been privatised, corporatised, rationalised, downsized, converted to “user pays”, etc.
Long live the public library!!
So how do you know if it is a Carnegie library or just a regular library building?
And in one of Life’s Little Coincidences, I am currently serving a three year term on that very same Library Board and I can assure you, Oxy, that it’s in very good hands. We all love and appreciate the Library, it’s not going anywhere. (As a matter of fact, we just completed renovations to the lower-level check-out and children’s section. You should see it now!)
It’ll be cold day in hell when we willingly leave our perch, overlooking Division (Main) St.
Ours actually has something like “This building was donated by the Andrew J. Carnegie Foundation” or something like that carved into the stone it was built from.
I also remembered last night that while I was going to school in Chillicothe, OH, I made frequent use of their beautiful little public library, also a Carnegie library. Chillicothe and many of the surrounding towns all still have their old Vaudeville theatres! If you’re ever in Southern Ohio, stop in some of these little towns. It’s like taking a trip back to the 1930s.
While I am grateful that Carnegie donated the money to start all those libraries, I’m only sad that he forgot to give money to start a Carnegie Deli in many small towns around the country. How about it, Uke? 
(and now comes the annoying “recognition” hijack) Well ain’t that grand? I’m glad to hear it’s doing well. Are you affiliated with either College? FWIW, I’m Carleton '90…