Hespeler (Cambridge), Ontario, Canada

Carnegie Library release #3 was done on a rainy day, 3 April 2009. This was a really special one for me. See, Hespeler is the part of Cambridge in which I (mostly) grew up. It's also where my mother, who died when I was a little girl, grew up. I don't know tons about the history of this particular branch, but from what I can gather, Hespeler received its Carnegie grant of $14, 500 in 1923, and this is what they built with it. Minus the glass encasement... that was added a few years ago. I don't particularly like its look from the outside, but it is cool from the inside, and it was a way to preserve the old Carnegie building... I'd much rather have it this way then have had it torn down. To some cooler pictures (especially pictures of the inside of the library, which is the really cool part), check out this link.

Anyway, Hespeler is a special place to me in general because it always makes me feel somehow connected to my mother, even when I feel like I don't remember her much. The library especially does this because 1-- reading was kind of a special thing for us. We used to read together all the time, and she taught me how to do it, and those are happy memories for me; and 2-- because it was the same nice old Carnegie library when she was a little girl in the 50s as it was when I was a little girl in the 90s. Because of this, I chose a special book for this location-- When We Were Very Young, by A. A. Milne. If you'd like to see what has happened to this book since then, just click its title!

Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada

Carnegie Library release #2 was done in Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada on 27 December 2008. As I understand it, Mount Forest has had a public library since the mid-late 1800s and this Carnegie Library was opened in 1913. It is still in use as a library today, as the Mount Forest Branch of the Wellington County Public Library. This release is pretty personal for me, so here is an excerpt from the book's journal that should explain it:

I took a little trip to Mount Forest this afternoon, on a bit of a journey to discover some secrets about who I am and where I come from... specifically to see the area where my grandfather grew up (he grew up on a farm outside of Mount Forest in the first few decades of the 1900s), and find the cemetery where my people buried their dead for their first few generations in Canada. My mother died when I was a little girl, and though I was pretty close to her parents when they were alive, they're both long dead and I know very little of that side of my family... so I went to Mount Forest because I've long felt that I just needed to see for myself where my people come from (as far as Canada is concerned), and high up on my list of places to go was Mount Forest's Carnegie Library, a building with which my grandfather almost certainly quite familiar. Unfortunately, the library was closed by the time I got there, so I couldn't go in... but I left one of my favourite books there... a magical story about children who endeavour to unlock some secrets of their family's past, too. Also, it's a book about a garden, and my grandfather was quite a gardener-- one who read with me a lot when I was a little child.


The book fell from the spot where I left it, and it's hard to see in the picture, but it's on the second step from the top, at the left side of the stair. If you want to see where this book goes, you can check out its journal here.

Galt (Cambridge), Ontario, Canada.

My first Carnegie Library release was at what used to be the Galt Public Library on 6 April 2006. Galt was amalgamated with Hespeler, Preston, and some smaller communities in 1973 to form the city of Cambridge. The Galt Public Library building was built in 1903 and is no longer used as a library. It's privately owned now. I'm not sure what it is used for these days... no one seems to be, although I'm sure there's someone out there who knows. Cambridge Libraries and Galleries now has a branch just a couple of blocks away, across the river on Queen's Square.

The book is hard to see in the picture, but it's propped aganst the concrete ball on that little pillar thingy in front of the columns on the right side. If you'd like to know what's happened to this book since then, check out its journal here.

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!