{"product_id":"2940015847208","title":"Andrew Carnegie As An Educator Carnegie Institute Carnegie Libraries","description":"Nook version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1900.  Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 110 years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRead excerpt -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe public library is at once the most popular and as well the most valuable factor in the education of the great mass of the American people, and no man has done more to foster the growth of the free-library system than has the Scotch steel magnate, while his plan of philanthropy is such that, while lending every aid to the establishment of these libraries, he insures their self-support by exacting the promise that the municipality benefited shall continue the work he has begun.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn only a very few instances has he assumed the burden of supporting the institutions he has founded. Instead it has been his aim to make them to an extent self-supporting, in the sense that the cost of maintenance is borne by the taxpayers of the city in which the library is located. The exceptions noted are in the case of the libraries which are principally patronized by the employees of Mr. Carnegie. These are supported out of his own purse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe start of the library idea was small enough in itself. Half a century ago, when Andrew Carnegie was a bob¬bin boy in an Allegheny mill, Colonel James Anderson, one of the leading men in the iron industry of that day, threw open his small library of four hundred books to the youths of the city. It was a private beneficence, but several men who have since figured largely in American literary and social life got their first taste for learning from Colonel Anderson's library.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt that time Mr. Carnegie, who was in the receipt of one dollar and twenty cents a week, had little idea that he would someday attain a position in the steel industry far in advance of his librarian; but the lad had ambitions, and he made the mental resolve that, should opportunity ever offer, he would extend the same benefits to others he was then enjoying.","brand":"history-bytes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47184459890928,"sku":"2940015847208","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015847208_p0.jpg?v=1763625382","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015847208","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}