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Of the 2,811 libraries which Andrew Carnegie magnanimously scattered
over this globe before his death in 1919, five stand in Lincoln—a
generous proportion, surely. Perhaps we would not have shared his bounty
so fully had it not been that libraries in University Place, College
View and Havelock were secured when these sections of Lincoln were still
towns in their own right.
Before Mrs. W. J. Bryan interceded to secure a Carnegie building for
Lincoln proper the library was as wandering as a poor sharecropper, and
burned out about as often. It ceased its nomadic life in 1900, beginning
in that year a dignified and permanent existence at Fourteenth and N.
We have it from the librarian, Magnus Kristoffersen, that as many as
2,000 people have been known to walk up the library steps in one day—to
take out books or to linger and read. That sounds like a great many
people and it probably doesn’t happen often. Even so, the library is
doubtless one of the city’s valuable assets. The building is richly
lined with 160,000 volumes, written by the great, the near great or the
fleetingly great authors of all time. No wonder readers come often to
draw mental and spiritual sustenance therefrom.
An attentive staff and a carefully worked system make access to books
easy at any of the library buildings. Two branches not mentioned above
are Northeast at 27th and Orchard and Bethany at 1551 No. Cotner.
Any Lincoln resident, any child attending Lincoln schools, anyone
attending college here or anyone owning property and paying taxes to the
city will be issued a borrower’s card, good at any of the city’s
libraries. In addition to regular activities, service is given the three
principal Lincoln hospitals. A still newer feature is the bookmobile,
which makes five stops in the city.