Town nearest us with a decent library is Galesburg. Tonight they held a sneak preview for donors of the new $22 million library which will open to public in a few weeks.
During opening comments they gave a brief history of Galesburg Libraries. The old one (the only one I've known), was actually meant to be a temporary library after the original Carnegie Library burned over 60 years ago.
Prompted me to look up the history of "Carnegie" libraries. I guess if I kind of realized that Andrew Carnegie gave money to open libraries, but didn't realize the scope. Over 46 years, he gave away much of his wealth to build public libraries around the world. 106 of them in Illinois and 1689 of them across the US! Don't mean to wax poetic, but can't think of another person in history that contributed more to society.
Back to "our" new library. It's been in the works for over 20 years. Back then, the state gave a grant to Galesburg to build a new library. Of course, those funds were used for something else and it took the state 15 years to actually distribute the grant. Don't have to tell you that prices increased just a little bit during that time. So Galesburg had money for a library, but was ~ $6 Million away from being able to build it. Not a lot for most cities, but Galesburg is a rural town of only ~35,000 people. Nevertheless, many stepped up, the money was raised, and we have a new library that is spectacular inside and out. Here are a couple of renderings of the library. The landscaping isn't grown yet, but the renderings are exactly what I saw tonight.
During opening comments they gave a brief history of Galesburg Libraries. The old one (the only one I've known), was actually meant to be a temporary library after the original Carnegie Library burned over 60 years ago.
Prompted me to look up the history of "Carnegie" libraries. I guess if I kind of realized that Andrew Carnegie gave money to open libraries, but didn't realize the scope. Over 46 years, he gave away much of his wealth to build public libraries around the world. 106 of them in Illinois and 1689 of them across the US! Don't mean to wax poetic, but can't think of another person in history that contributed more to society.
Back to "our" new library. It's been in the works for over 20 years. Back then, the state gave a grant to Galesburg to build a new library. Of course, those funds were used for something else and it took the state 15 years to actually distribute the grant. Don't have to tell you that prices increased just a little bit during that time. So Galesburg had money for a library, but was ~ $6 Million away from being able to build it. Not a lot for most cities, but Galesburg is a rural town of only ~35,000 people. Nevertheless, many stepped up, the money was raised, and we have a new library that is spectacular inside and out. Here are a couple of renderings of the library. The landscaping isn't grown yet, but the renderings are exactly what I saw tonight.
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