BookCrossing at the Carnegie Libraries

Hi, I'm Jessica, and I'm a BookCrosser.

A number of years ago, I was walking downtown in my city of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada and I saw that the side of our old Public Library building said "Carnegie" on it. I jokingly said to my father, "That building seems to have been built by a guy named Carnegie, I wonder if it's the same guy who built Carnegie Hall!" My dad said something along the lines of "Of course it was! Jessica, do you not know about Andrew Carnegie?!" My dad proceeded to educate me, and thus a new interest was born, and I had a new person to whom I could look up.

How does this relate to BookCrossing, you ask? Well, first, you have to know a bit about bookcrossing (I suggest you go here), and a bit about Andrew Carnegie (check this out). See the connection?

Carnegie felt that it was people's duty (when they had the means) to help others gain access to literature, to education, etc. He used a lot of his time and money living his philosophy, and part of that was building over 2500 libraries around the world. 125 of those were in my home country of Canada. 111 of those were in my home province of Ontario. My grandfather studied in one when he was young (1920/30s). My mother studied in another when she was young (1950/60s). I studied in the same one as my mother when I was a kid (1990/2000s). Carnegie's contribution has effected three generations of my family... and I'm sure I'm just one of many who could say that, and (since my mom was almost 40 when I was born and many people don't wait that long to have kids) there are probably people whose families have been benefiting from Carnegie's generosity for more than 3 generations, too.


At bookcrossing, we strive to "make the whole world a library." Books are a lot more accessible now than they once were, which gives more people the means to help promote literacy and learning. To me, bookcrossing fits in really well with Carnegie's ideals.

Combining my hobby (bookcrossing) and another strong interest (Carnegie's libraries), I've given myself a lifetime bookcrossing goal: to visit as many of these old libraries as I can, and to leave a book at each of them. This blog will keep track of the ones I've made it to so far... and probably include some photos, some information, and some ranting :) We'll see where it takes us. I hope anyone who is reading this (though I imagine there won't be many, as this seems like sort of a niche interest) enjoys it!