Historical information

In Iowa, 105 communities applied for Carnegie grant funding, but ultimately, five of those communities decided not accept the monies to build a library.  Details regarding the situations for Guthrie Center and Oelwein are included in Martin’s Carnegie Denied (1993).  There were 225 communities across the country that received an offer for library funding and then chose not to accept it.¹

All of Iowa’s neighboring states also received more offers than what were accepted: Illinois communities declined 8 grants, Wisconsin communities declined 6, Minnesota communities declined 5, Nebraska communities declined 3, and Missouri communities declined 13.  Indiana, which received the highest number of grants in the US, had 9 communities decide not to accept their grants.  Iowa, as the fourth highest recipient of grants, needs a more specific study of the communities that chose not to build libraries with the proffered Carnegie funds.

                                                                                                                                                                                Text by SLS