The Carnegie Library.

I grew up in the Carnegie Library in Fort Smith.  Now, it's the Fort Smith Library.

I remember the wooden floors, the enormous wooden rails on the stairs leading up to the children's room, and the fact that it was so convient that the Dr. Seuss books were shelved so that I could easily reach them.  My favorite was his first book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulbury Street.  My second favorite book was his second, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.  I regarded the Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and its successors as the author lowering his sights and playing to the crowd.  My library card was pale blue with rounded corners and there was a metal tag affixed to it.   I can remember exactly how the library smelled. 

Books also give off special smells. According to a recent survey of French students, 43 percent consider smell to be one of the most important qualities of printed books—so important that they resist buying odorless electronic books. CaféScribe, a French on-line publisher, is trying to counteract that reaction by giving its customers a sticker that will give off a fusty, bookish smell when it is attached to their computers.

From The Lbrary in the New Age, The New York Review of Books, Volume 55, Number 10, June 12, 2008

The Carnegie Library in Fort Smith was one of four libraries endowed by Carnegie in Arkansas.  The four Carnegie Libraries in Arkansas pale in comparison to the the 165 Carnegie Libraries in Indiana. 

And in 1919, when the last grant was given, more than half (1,689) libraries in the U.S. were Carnegie Libraries. In all, Carnegie endowed 2,509 libraries around the world. 

Carnegie Libraries advanced the innovation of open stacks, shelved books open to the public, something we all take for granted now.  Imagine. 

Andrew Carnegie was a wicked man in many respects, but I can't help but second the person who called him the patron saint of the library.  I would not be me, if it weren't for the Carnegie Library and the Fort Smith Public Library.  It's impossible for me to calculate how many hours, days I spent there.  For my mother, it was a combination of childcare and a priceless gift that created ... me. 

In New York, the first place I lived was the Harvard Club which is, basically, a library.  It was all leather and cozy and that summer tasted like Tom Collins.  The New York Public Library had a system whereby the copy machines worked when a special token was inserted in it, a token the library sold.  I discovered, by accident, that the token was identical to a subway token in every respect except for it's price which was fifteen cents less and I arbitraged that spread to pay for my newspapers and magazines and coffee.

Now, in my wallet I only keep three cards:  My Amex, bank card, insurance card and my Library card and I keep the library card so that its covers the others and it is the first thing someone sees when I open my wallet.

In San Francisco, the metropolitan center I live next to, it took me some years before I discovered The Mechanic's Institute Library, a private library I joined about four years ago.  Professionally, I was in need of something like a office pied-a-terre, someplace quiet where I could cool my heels, perhaps do some work, and maybe even use for meetings.  Hotel lobbies are sometimes good for this and I've used many fine hotel lobbies in my time, but there's something about San Francisco hotel lobbies that don't especially strike me as welcoming or conducive to day-long sitdowns the way many NYC hotel lobbies are.  Coffee shops are far to noisy, and the rent on a chair measured in vente lattes is neither healthy for my physical or financial self.  I was familiar with the idea of private libraries and was glad of heart when I discovered The Mechanic's Institute Library as it is Very Affordable, centrally located, chock-ful of character, has requisite technological conveniences and is quite lovely to lounge around in.  I've taken the family there for some of the events hosted there and almost joined the Proust Society that meets there every month (but declined as I had finished my marathon and, frankly, needed to put that obsession behind me for a while).  The oldest chess club is affiliated with the library and meets in rooms that are consecutive from the library and the players there add even more color to the library.  I keep my library card to Mechanic's Institute Library in my back-up wallet in my bag.   Everyone  reading this who lives in  or  near San Francisco should subscribe to and support the library.   

Finally (and I almost forgot this), I've embarked on a project for my synagogue's library.  As the library is without a set of Talmud, and as Talmud is almost essential to the deep study of Torah, I've launched a fundraiser to acquire a set of the "Oral Torah" and perhaps even contract with student librarian to help our library along a bit.

And this is all true.