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Carnegie legacy lives on |
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Carnegie legacy lives on |
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When a group of civic leaders and local worthies gathered on the steps of Erdington Library on 2 July 1907 to mark its official opening, I wonder if anyone present thought that exactly one hundred years later on 2 July 2007 the library would be symbolically re-opened by Roger Lea, who was a library assistant at the library in 1957, in the company of local users, staff and councillors.
Present day staff and users re-enact the original opening in 2007 to mark the centenary of Erdington Library. Erdington Library is one of 660 libraries in Britain and Ireland built in the late-19th/early-20th century with money from Andrew Carnegie, who made his fortune in America and supported the establishment of over 2,500 free libraries worldwide. Erdington received £5,000. I don’t know how many survive, but I do know of two others celebrating their centenaries in 2007 — one in Batley, Yorkshire and the other in Torquay, Devon. Carnegie’s legacy lives on. The libraries he helped to build are special and deserve to be cared for and treasured. We wish Erdington well for the next one hundred years and wonder who will be looking at the photographs from 1907 and 2007 in 2107?
Erdington Library, Birmingham, as impressive in 2007 as it was in 1907. Erdington Library, Orphanage Road, Birmingham B24 9HP, tel: 0121 464 0798, email: erdington.library@birmingham.gov.uk, www.birmingham.gov.uk/erdingtonlibrary. |
14 Sept 2007 A postcard of the original opening of Erdington Library, Birmingham, in 1907. |
