Public libraries are a ubiquitous element of American society that made knowledge and literature widely accessible to people of all incomes and locations long before the advent of the internet, but they were almost unheard of prior to the mid-1800s. Yet in 2011, 65 percent of American households reported visiting their local public library in the previous year, and in 2013 over 96 percent of Americans reported having access to public library service.

How did this public resource become ubiquitous? In 1656 the idea of public access to books first glimmered in the United States when a Boston merchant willed to the town his private collection. But it wasn’t until 1833 that Peterborough, NH, became the first US town to fund a library through taxation. Boston copied this sustainable model in 1848, and thereafter a small number of other towns and cities followed. By 1887, towns and cities in 20 states housed a total of 649 public libraries. But the high cost to construct the buildings became a barrier to more widespread growth. While many localities could furnish books and operate the libraries, they lacked the capital required for the initial construction. In the face of this challenge, five new libraries built in Baltimore in 1886 by merchant and financier Enoch Pratt offered an interesting model of public-private partnership to address this challenge: Pratt built and endowed a central library and four branches on the condition that the City of Baltimore would pay for ongoing operating expenses.

Pratt’s model inspired Andrew Carnegie, who attributed some of his success in life to his access as a child to a neighbor’s private library. As a result, Carnegie spent much of his philanthropic fortune expanding free access to libraries across the country based on this model, requiring that a city that requested he build a library also commit to support its operating expenses through public funds. To fairly serve demand, Carnegie created a formula of $2 ($51 in 2017 dollars) donated per resident of a town or city requesting a library. From 1886 to 1920, Carnegie gave $60 million ($1.6 billion in 2017 dollars) to construct 1,679 libraries in 1,406 US communities, along with another 830 abroad.

When Carnegie ceased giving in 1920, there were about 4,000 US library buildings, representing one for every 26,000 Americans. When the Great Depression hit, limited funding caused some library branches to close or limit their services. However, the Depression also brought a new wave of demand for free access to education. Harnessing this energy, the nonprofit American Library Association (ALA) became determined to mobilize the government to continue expanding access to libraries. Over the 1940s and 1950s, the ALA worked with dozens of unions and crafted countless reports until President Dwight D. Eisenhower finally signed the Library Services Act in 1956, which provided an annual appropriation of $7.5 million ($67 million in 2017 dollars) to support the expansion of libraries. Since that time, government funding has continued to help expand the geographic reach and effectiveness of libraries. Today, there are nearly 17,000 public library branches across the United States, and a local public library is seen as one of the foundational pillars of every community in the country.

Researched and written by Consultant Phil Dearing of The Bridgespan Group, based on a Bridgespan interview with Karen Muller, librarian and knowledge management specialist for the ALA Library, as well as selected sources.

​Selected Sources