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Corporation News
Carnegie
Commemorative Grants to Urban Public Libraries
AWARDS
TO TWENTY-FIVE PUBLIC LIBRARIES, JUNE 10, 1999
1.
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System $500,000
Multicultural
literacy project. Andrew Carnegie’s gift to establish
the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library was made in 1899, with the
building completed in 1902. Today, with 35 facilities (the downtown
Central Library, the Research Library on African-American Culture,
and 33 branches) and two bookmobiles, it serves more than 3.5
million people in Fulton County and beyond. The grant is helping
the entire library system build three core circulating collections
to meet the needs of its burgeoning constituency of young and
adult non-English speakers and those with low levels of literacy
or English-language learning. A multicultural literacy resource
committee will be formed to manage the project, and widespread
efforts will be made to let the public know about these resources.
E.
Paulette Smith-Epps, Assistant Director of Public Services,
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, 1 Margaret Mitchell Square,
Atlanta 30303-1089 (404) 730-1972. www.af.public.lib.ga.us
2.
Biblioteca Carnegie $500,000
Young
adult collection and outreach programs for young adults.
The Biblioteca Carnegie was created with Andrew Carnegie’s
gift in 1916. Partly devastated during Hurricane Hugo in 1989,
it has been refurbished and reopened in 1995. Rather than branches,
it has bookmobiles that circulate throughout the metropolitan
area. The library will develop a young adult collection as part
of the library’s outreach to adolescents in an effort to
improve high school retention rates. To encourage reading and
learning, the bookmobiles will visit high schools twice a month
for two hours in the afternoons. Talks and programs will be
presented on topics of interest to young people, and students
will be encouraged to use the main library’s computers
to research topics on the Internet.
Josefina
G¬mez de Hillyer, Director, Biblioteca Carnegie, N¿mero 7, Avenue
Ponce de Le¬n, San Juan, PR 00901-2010. (718) 722-4739.
3.
The Boston Public Library $500,000
Create
neighborhood history centers and expand literacy services.
Founded in 1848, the Boston Public Library is the oldest municipally
funded library in the U.S., with 25 branches. The library will
create neighborhood history centers in seven of its branches
drawing on local historical collections that these branches
already own. Materials will undergo preservation treatments
to make them suitable for public display. There are in the Boston
area nearly 1 million adults and their children who are in need
of assistance in mastering basic literacy skills. A second project,
therefore, is to expand the literacy services throughout all
branches, by enhancing the two existing literacy centers in
the system. In addition, family literacy programs will be launched,
to include support for new mothers to help their children with
reading fundamentals.
Bernard
A. Margolis, President, The Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston
Street, Boston, MA 02116. (617) 536-5400. www.bpl.org
4.
Brooklyn Public Library $1,000,000
Reading
program for children and core collections for English for speakers
of other languages (ESOL). Andrew Carnegie provided funds
in 1901 to build 21 branches of the Brooklyn Public Library.
These were completed by 1923. The library system now has 58
branches, 19 of them original Carnegie buildings. Forty percent
of New York City’s newcomers representing 157 different
ethnic groups and 90 languages settle in Brooklyn each year.
The grant will enhance several systemwide initiatives to encourage
reading skills and lifelong reading among children up to age
12 and to improve reading, writing, and conversational skills
in English among Brooklyn’s large and growing immigrant
population. With this grant, the library will extend its Ready
to Read program from 10 to all branches and also build up its
core ESOL collections in all branches. The recent low performance
of Brooklyn’s children on state reading tests underscores
the importance of this project.
Mart¸n
G¬mez, Executive Director, Brooklyn Public Library, Grand Army
Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238. (718) 230-2403. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org
5.
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh $500,000
Systemwide
preservation and access project. Andrew Carnegie’s
offer in 1881 to give a library building to the city of Pittsburgh
was at first refused, but the gifts were finally made beginning
in 1890. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will use this grant
to implement phase one of a three-phase project to preserve
and conserve materials, including more than 80,000 photographic
prints and negatives, about Carnegie’s life and about the
history of industrialism in southwestern Pennsylvania. The 8
original Carnegie branch libraries also have rich stores of
historical documents, including reports filed by librarians
documenting the impact of the branches on their neighborhoods.
Herbert
Elish, Director, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 4400 Forbes
Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080. (412) 622-3100. www.clpgh.org.
6.
Chicago Public Library $500,000 one year
Teen
reading project. There are at least 500,000 adolescents
in the city of Chicago who are underserved by their neighborhood
libraries. Many of these young people lose interest in reading
after the sixth grade. Chicago Public Library, which celebrated
its 125th anniversary in 1998, will build a collection
of books and expand library services for young adults in each
of its 78 branches, using Corporation support. The aim is to
encourage a habit of reading and an interest in lifelong learning.
Book titles will cover fiction and nonfiction written specifically
for teenagers. Free public programs such as author readings,
reading programs, and teen book discussions will be featured
throughout the year. The library is in the midst of a citywide
neighborhood library capital construction program, and it is
expected that in 2001 about 70 percent of its buildings will
be fully renovated or replaced, with expanded collections.
Mary
A. Dempsey, Commissioner, Chicago Public Library, 400 S. State
Street, Chicago, IL 60605. (312) 747-4999. www.chipublib.org
7.
Cleveland Public Library $500,000
Literacy
project for young children. Between 1903 and 1914, Andrew
Carnegie gave funds to Cleveland for the construction of 15
branch libraries; there are now 28. Despite such resources,
the literacy level of children in Cleveland is among the lowest
in the nation; the poverty level – 43 percent according
to the 1990 U.S. Census – is among the highest. Cleveland
Municipal Schools estimate that 30 percent of the city’s
children enter the first grade deficient in language development.
The Cleveland Public Library is determined to make a difference
for these children. The library will establish early childhood
learning environments in all its branches, involving small-group
programs for children from infancy up to age 5 and their adult
caregivers; links between all the branches and area child care
centers will be forged and training institutes conducted on
early childhood issues for all children’s librarians and
support staff and for neighborhood parents, local educators,
and child care providers.
Andrew
Venable, Jr., Director, Cleveland Public Library, 325 Superior
Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44114-1271. (216) 623-2800. www.cpl.org
8.
The Denver Public Library $500,000
Special
acquisitions for foreign-language collections; enhance services
to children; refresh core collections. The first Denver
Public Library was established in 1889. Andrew Carnegie’s
grant in 1903 paid for a new main library building, which was
completed in 1910. Additional grants from the Corporation between
1913 and 1918 built 8 branches, now expanded to 22. The population
of Denver is changing fast. The acquisition of new bilingual
materials in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian,
and English is crucial in ensuring that the library keeps pace
with public demand. The grant will be used to purchase these
materials and also to support reading programs for children
and their parents in low-income neighborhoods. Additionally,
the funds will help refresh nonfiction collections in the branches.
Rick
J. Ashton, City Librarian, The Denver Public Library, 10 West
Fourteenth Avenue Parkway, Denver CO 80204-2731. (303) 640-6128.
www.denver.lib.co.us
9.
Detroit Public Library $500,000
Project
for young adolescents. Andrew’s Carnegie gift established
the Detroit Public Library in 1901. In recent decades, the city’s
young adolescents have been disproportionately affected by the
downturn in the city’s economy, as have the library’s
24 branches and bookmobile services. With this grant, the library
will rebuild and update its materials for adolescents ages 10
to 14, supplying each branch with a complete set of high-interest
fiction, recorded books, and curriculum support materials. The
library will also work with the YES Foundation, a community-based
membership organization offering educational enrichment to youths,
in developing a monthly youth-oriented program at each branch.
Maurice
B. Wheeler, Director, Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward
Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202. (313) 833-3997. www.detroit.lib.mi.us
10.
District of Columbia Public Library $500,000
Expand
literacy services and services to adolescents; upgrade community
languages collections; develop special resources on the Harlem
Renaissance. Andrew Carnegie’s gift established the
central library and 3 branches in 1898. In 1997, the
district experienced a public school dropout rate of 44.5 percent
with roughly half of the students leaving by the eighth grade.
About 50 percent of its welfare recipients cannot read at the
eighth-grade level. There are growing numbers of Hispanics,
Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese desperately needing literacy
services. The library is establishing a computer-assisted literacy
instruction center in the Southwest Branch, developing a literacy
web site, enhancing outreach to students in junior high and
middle schools, developing resources on the Harlem Renaissance
in the district, and acquiring materials in community languages
and new media.
Mary
E. Raphael, Director, District of Columbia Public Library, 901
G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001-4599. (202) 727-1101. www.dclibrary.org
11.
Enoch Pratt Free Library $500,000
Expand
services to youth, parents, and caregivers and upgrade foreign-language
collections. Andrew Carnegie gave $500,000 in 1906 to Enoch
Pratt Free Library to construct 15 branch libraries; these have
now grown to 26. Designated the State Library Resource Center,
the Pratt Library has been the principal provider of extensive
references and material resources for citizens and library systems
throughout the state. With these funds the library will extend
the Family Place Project, a national initiative to support family-centered
services, to more branches; it will purchase electronic access
to resources and educational videos in Spanish as well as English
and upgrade collections for African Americans (who comprise
60 percent of the surrounding population) and for non-English
speakers of Russian, Greek, Italian, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific
Island descent.
Carla
D. Hayden, Director, Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral
Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-4484. (410) 396-5395. www.pratt.lib.md.us
12.
The Free Library of Philadelphia $500,000
Enhance
and expand Project LEAP (Learn, Enjoy, and Play). The Free
Library of Philadelphia and its 52 branch and regional libraries
serve more than 1.5 million citizens, circulating in excess
of 6 million books and other materials annually. When Andrew
Carnegie funded the library’s 25 branches in 1903, he wrote,
"the Branch Libraries are the most popular institution
of all, and, I think, the most useful. A great Central Library
is, of course, needed, but even before it in usefulness I place
the local libraries, which reach the masses of people."
Project LEAP, initially funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, other
foundations, and corporations, provides after-school homework
help, computer-assisted learning, and educational enrichment
to more than 57,000 students through grade eight at 35 branch
libraries. The library has recently completed a $60 million
campaign for renovation, technology collections, and outreach
programs to all branches.
Elliot L. Shelkrot, President and Director, The Free Library
of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street, Suite 400, Philadelphia,
PA 19103. (215) 686-5300. www.phila.gov
13.
Houston Public Library 500,000
Library
programs for Hispanic users.The Houston Public Library,
which received a substantial grant from Andrew Carnegie in 1899,
will create a series of programs under the title De Colores:
Programas de la Biblioteca (A Multitude of Colors: Library Programs)
to attract Hispanic children and their families to its 35 branch
libraries. Surveys indicate that less than 25 percent of all
library customers in the city are of Hispanic background, yet
Hispanics make up 29 percent of the city’s population.
The funds will permit the library to enhance current services
to adolescents and youth, such as its summer reading program
and theme month events, and launch a strong outreach effort
to bring in new users. Coupled with the enhanced programming
is a plan to develop related book, music, and video collections
in the branches.
Barbara
A. B. Gubbin, Director, Houston Public Library, 500 McKinney
Avenue, Houston, TX 77002-2534. (713) 247-2700. www.hpl.lib.tx.us
14.
Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library $500,000
Enhance
and expand foreign-language collections. Indianapolis is
responding to its growing Hispanic, Asian, Russian, Serbian,
Croatian, and Albanian populations by purchasing additional
print and nonprint materials in these languages and training
library staff and translators to create associated brochures
and library cards. The number of Hispanic residents in the city
has mushroomed from 8,000 in 1990 to as high as 80,000 today.
The library will make special efforts to reach these residents
through Spanish-language videos, audiocassettes, CDs, and magazines,
while also working to improve their English-language skills.
To promote reading within the home, the library is developing
a small paperback basic home library for distribution in the
branches. Approximately 4,000 sets will contain a dictionary,
family medical guide, an almanac, family read-aloud guide, and
paperbacks geared to the age levels of the children.
Edward
Szynaka, Director of Public Libraries, Indianapolis-Marion County
Public Library, P.O. Box 211, Indianapolis, IN 46206 (317) 269-1722.
www.imcpl.lib.in.us
15.
Kansas City Public Library $500,000
Expand
Books to Better Our Lives collection. With this grant,
the library will expand its Books to Better Our Lives collection
to each of the system’s 9 branches. The core collection
contains books on personal finance, cooking, religion and spirtuality,
resume writing and job hunting, parenting, health and wellness,
educational advancement, and government test books for young
adults. The library will also purchase easy reader and audio
versions of books in Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, and the languages
of 25 other countries. The library’s collection specialist
will work with the library staff and other agencies to create
culturally appropriate programs for each branch.
Daniel
J. Bradbury, Executive Director, Kansas City Public Library,
311 East 12th Street, Kansas City, MO 64106. (816) 701-3410.
www.kcpl.lib.mo.us
16.
Los Angeles Public Library $500,000
Expand
after-school reading club for children. The Los Angeles
Public Library, a beneficiary of Andrew Carnegie’s gift
in 1912 to build 10 library branches, now has 67 branches and
4 bookmobiles serving the largest population of any library
system in the U.S. Eighty percent of the children from kindergarten
through grade 3 in the Los Angeles Unified School District are
not reading at grade level. The city has one of the highest
illiteracy rates in the country. With Corporation funds, the
library will expand its 2000 Reasons to Read after-school and
summer reading enrichment program for children from preschool
through age 11, complementing literacy programs for other age
groups. The library expects to reach 50,000 children through
the neighborhood and main libraries. Books will be purchased
in English and other languages.
Susan
Kent, City Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library, 630 West Fifth
Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071. (213) 228-7515. www.lapl.org
17.
Miami-Dade Public Library System $500,000
Acquire
foreign-language materials for immigrant populations. Sixty-four
percent of Miami-Dade County’s population of 1.7 million
people is foreign born. The Cuban immigration beginning in the
1960s, followed by the Haitian and Central American in more
recent decades, has changed the area’s character, with
an estimated 250,000 adults functionally illiterate in English.
While the library system has always provided foreign-language
materials, the collection is inadequate to meet demand. This
grant will be used to purchase language instruction books, audiocassettes,
videos, and reading materials in English, Spanish, French, and
Creole. Citizenship classes in the branches will be supplied
with books on citizenship and the immigration process. Books
will also be purchased on a range of other practical subjects,
along with bilingual materials to foster family literacy and
cross-cultural understanding.
Raymond
Santiago, Director of Libraries, Miami-Dade Public Library System,
Metro-Dade Cultural Center, 101 West Flager Street, Miami, FL
33130-1523. (305) 375-5026. www.mdpls.org
18.
Minneapolis Public Library $500,000
Services
for immigrant families and students. The Carnegie Gateway
Project is a plan to revitalize and expand successful library
services and programs for new immigrants, aimed particularly
at supporting Southeast Asian, Hispanic, and East African immigrant
families in their transition to life in Minneapolis. Over 20
percent of the students in the city’s public schools have
a first language other than English; one-fourth of new mothers
in 1997 came from another country. Seven branches located in
the central city will enhance their parent education and outreach
services to immigrant families with young children and expand
their provision of drop-in tutorial assistance for students
at all grade levels. The grant will also enable the library
to reach more adults in need of literacy instruction in English
and citizenship education at the Franklin Learning Center, located
within one of the city’s 3 Carnegie libraries. Associated
collections and computer equipment will be augmented with the
grant.
Mary
Lawson, Director, Minneapolis Public Library, 300 Nicollet Mall,
Minneapolis, MN 55401-1992. (612) 630-6200. www.mpls.lib.mn.us
19.
The Newark Public Library $500,000
Citywide
branch revitalization project. Founded in 1888, the Newark
Public Library maintains 10 neighborhood branches in all corners
of the city. These branches serve a university and commuter
population of 120,000 and an urban population of more than 250,000
ethnically diverse residents, the majority of whom are African
American or Hispanic. Branch 2000 is a plan to upgrade collections
and services at all branch libraries in the system. The grant
will permit the library to enhance existing projects. The idea
is to target Newark’s 86,000 children and youth, ages 5
to 19, through two programs in collaboration with the public
schools: the Community Health Information Project and the All-Branch
Collection Development Project. The former program is a significant
source of vital health information for the city’s 80,000
adolescents and will be expanded from 4 to 10 branches.
Alex
Boyd, Director, The Newark Public Library, 5 Washington Street,
P.O. Box 630, Newark, NJ 07101. (973) 773-7780. www.npl.org
20.
New Orleans Public Library $500,000 fifteen months
Enhance
and expand collections for young children, adolescents, and
teenage parents.
Financing
for the New Orleans Public Library has declined over the past
decade as the tax base has eroded and costs have increased.
A high proportion of the student population in Orleans Parish
is poor, and many young people are deficient in basic literacy
and numeracy skills. The grant will be used to build up the
library’s collection of books and other materials for young
children, adolescents, and teenage parents and expand reading
and literacy programs for these groups.
Gertiana
C. Williams, Acting City Librarian, New Orleans Public Library,
219 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112-2044. (504) 596-2600.
www.gnofn.org/~nopl/
21.
The New York Public Library $2,000,000
Adult
literacy projects, special acquisitions to strengthen core collection,
and preservation of materials at the Schomburg Center for Research
in Black Culture. In 1901, Andrew Carnegie provided a $5.2
million grant to New York City to establish 65 branch libraries
in the five boroughs. Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island
are part of the New York Public Library, founded in 1895. The
libraries of Queens and Brooklyn have their own systems. Currently
the New York Public Library has 85 branches and 4 research libraries,
including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Corporation funds will be used to upgrade and expand the system’s
adult literacy programs to benefit non-English speakers; preserve
90 rare and unique films in the Donnell Media Center of the
Donnell Branch Library; and augment collections of music, art,
and literature giving special attention to materials of interest
to recent immigrants. In 1925 a Corporation grant enabled the
library to purchase Arturo Schomburg’s personal library
and papers, from which the Schomberg Center was built. The new
grant will help the center preserve rare newspapers, monographs
and serials, and sound recordings.
Paul
LeClerc, President and Chief Executive Officer, The New York
Public Library, 476 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018. (212)
930-1736. www.nypl.org
22.
The Queens Borough Public Library $1,000,000
Enhance
special collections in the social sciences and math and science;
and on diversity. Part of Andrew Carnegie’s $5.2 million
grant in 1901 to build branch libraries in New York City benefitted
The Queens Borough Public Library. The busiest of any library
system in the U.S., it circulated 16 million items in 1998.
Its 62 branches and Central Library serve a very ethnically
diverse population, and materials are purchased in over 50 languages
each year. The funds will enhance research-level collections
on the countries and languages of Eastern Europe and Africa
in the Flushing Library’s International Resource Center,
a state-of-the-art facility situated on the site of the original
Flushing Branch Library, which was funded by Mr. Carnegie. In
1998, more than 110,000 children participated in after-school
programs offered by the library system at half its branches.
Under the grant, the library will make available to children
new materials on other cultures and languages as well as on
math and science, for all branches and the central library.
Gary
E. Strong, Director, The Queens Borough Public Library, 89-11
Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica, NY 11432. (718) 990-0794. www.queenslibrary.org
23.
San Antonio Public Library $500,000
Enhance
library services to children. In 1903, when Andrew Carnegie
gave money to build its public library, San Antonio was a frontier
town of 30,000. Today it is the 10th largest city
in the U.S., with 1.4 million people. A majority are from minority
backgrounds, primarily Mexican American, of whom 70 percent
live in poverty. More than one-third of all ninth graders will
not graduate from high school. Even so, nearly 500,000 people
have library cards and are avid users. To meet rising demand
for materials for the city’s children and foster a love
of reading and learning, the library will use the grant to purchase
1,300 new books, tapes, and videos for each of its 18 branches
and pay for multi-media workstations and interactive CD-ROM
programs, together with promotional materials, for children
from preschool through the sixth grade. The library has launched
a campaign to raise $8 million for its 100th anniversary
by the year 2003.
Nancy
Gandara, Acting Director, San Antonio Public Library, 600 Soledad,
San Antonio, TX 78205. (210) 207-2632. www.sat.lib.tx.us
24.
San Francisco Public Library $500,000 one year
Improve
academic and job information to adolescents. A Carnegie
grant promised in 1901 but not actually appropriated until 1912
built the San Francisco Public Library and 5 branches; these
have grown to 26. High School and Beyond was created by the
library to assist adolescents in making informed choices about
their future. Through its collections and a series of workshops,
it provides information and referrals to both college and non-college-bound
youth about secondary schools and about colleges, careers, and
programs in the Bay Area. Teens get help with SAT preparation,
applications for scholarships, college and university selections,
apprenticeships, vocational training, job preparedness, and
job opportunities. Plans are to have a teen librarian in each
of the system’s 6 resource branches as well as in the main
library. The grant is augmenting these services.
Susan
Hildreth, Deputy City Librarian, San Francisco Public Library, Civic
Center, San Francisco, CA 94102. (415) 557-4236. sfpl.lib.ca.us
25.
Seattle Public Library $500,000
Enhance
and expand special collections of music and film for branch
libraries. Andrew Carnegie’s grant in 1901 built the
Seattle Public Library. The library now proposes to revitalize
its 22 branches by providing each with a core collection of
videos, current classic cinema, and compact discs of basic collections
of music in all fields – clasical, pop, country, jazz,
rhythm & blues, and others. Currently the neighborhood collections
are small and wearing out. Each branch’s collection will
be reflective of the tastes, background, and interests of its
neighborhood and will be used to bridge cultural divides.
Deborah
L. Jacobs, City Librarian, Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth
Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104-1193. (206) 386-4130. www.spl.lib.wa.us
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