The Carnegie Library downtown was open on this day. (It was Jan. 31, 2024.)
Every once in a while, which means every few years, stories about Albany’s Carnegie Public Library downtown have appeared on this site. The time for another one has come.
Last October the Carnegie Foundation of New York made a big announcement. For the 250th year of the United States, the foundation said, it was giving each of the 1,280 Carnegie libraries in America $10,000.
I had forgotten about that until I read a Facebook post by Albany Library Director Eric Ikenouye a day or two ago. He mentioned the gift and said many people in Albany had written to the foundation with thanks.
I wondered if the grant had arrived. If so, how had it been spent?
“We have received the check and are currently considering the best use for the funds to support the Carnegie building and its collections,” Ikenouye told me by email when I asked.
The downtown library was opened in 1914. It cost about $20,000 and was built with a $12,500 grant from Andrew Carnegie’s foundation in 1912.
According to Google AI, $20,000 in 1914 is equivalent in purchasing power to approximately $659,500 to $657,000 today. That amount would not come even close if someone tried to duplicate that building today.
One of the great things about the Carnegie is that the building is almost unchanged from when it was built. And its location is convenient for people eager to avoid the traffic getting to the main library on 14th Avenue.
What’s not so great about the Carnegie is that it’s open for only 16 hours a week and closed entirely on Monday and Tuesday.
Any plans for being open longer?
Ikenouye: “At this time, we do not have plans to expand the Carnegie Library’s open hours. As part of our ongoing planning, we regularly evaluate services and staffing across both library locations to determine how best to serve the community.”
Makes sense. I guess.
For me and others who used to be regulars scouring the library shelves downtown for something to read, it’s just a matter of remembering the hours, and planning ahead. (hh)
The Carnegie Library’s children’s room, seen in October 2025.
It’s an Albany landmark and is lovingly maintained. I hope downtown residents make good use of it. I try to make a point of going in on Saturday and reading the magazines and newspapers. They still have children’s activities downstairs. It’s a comfortable, beautiful space.
I am happy to hear that nothing has changed much, except maybe the hours.
I was one of the many who wrote to the Carnegie Foundation thanking them for the gift. Albany’s library system is vital to our community’s health. I wish APL could find ways to extend the hours at this branch. Even though it’s closer to where I live I always go to the main branch to pick up my books because the hours are more convenient.
I loved that old library. It is where I went for Saturday story-time in the basement, where I read every Sci-Fi book as a kid (that I could not find in our school library) and where I went to cram for exams in high school. I was shushed endlessly by the librarian. We had our due date stamped on a ticket inside the cover. And I did not even learn about the Carnegie library project until out of college and I stumbled on a Carnegie library in Minneapolis, as comfy as our own in Albany.
I do enjoy our Carnegie Library. A couple of years ago I visited Las Vegas, New Mexico. They have a Carnegie Library still in use. Dodge City, Kansas also has one. My cousin took me there when I visited. Her husband was helping with some restoration work. The building now serves as the Dodge City Area Arts Council.
Any chance APL could sign up for Kanopy like many public libraries and universities have? It’s free for their card holders but I have no idea the cost to the library. Corvallis/Benton County has it.
Corvallis Public Library has access to Kanopy. As an Albany resident you’re entitled to have a card with them, so sign up and enjoy!
That is not wholly accurate- “To get a free library card, you need to live, own property, work, or go to school within our service district – or – you can purchase an out-of-district library card for $120 per year.” https://cbcpubliclibrary.net/get-a-library-card/
Also, residents of Benton County but within city limits of Albany are not within CBPL District because they are served by APL.
I love our library system in Albany! The work that has been taken to make the main branch what it is today is pretty awesome. If anyone remembers the conditions from the 1990’s, you will agree that the decisions made at the time were vital to keeping the library a core component of our community. Check out other systems in similar sized cities, and I think you will agree that ours is pretty great. Working to make libraries relevant in in a digital age is a pretty heavy lift. The Albany team has done as well of a job as anyone could expect. The Carnegie library in Albany, and in many other areas, has some special considerations. It would be easy to see the building (which is AMAZING) if you are looking at it from a structural and useful point of view, as an asset that would generate a MUCH greater community monetary benefit by losing the few hours it is open, transferring the collection to the main branch, and marketing the building is probably the “Best” use. There would be a frenzy of people looking to repurpose the building. It is just that good! The other side of that equation, is also what should make us as a community insure that the library keeps it’s purpose and function EXACTLY as Andrew Carnegie intended. Once that is lost, it’s just bricks and mortar that has lost all historical relevance. I am sure the library management will continue to make good decisions that we have come to expect from them with the grant.
I spent many a summer day in the cool basement, curled up with a book. Bought my first book there for a dime. I’m sad to see the limited hours though.
I would like to supplement your article about Albany’s Carnegie Library with the fact that there is a local private foundation, the Albany Public Library Foundation, that uses its funds to help finance maintenance and repair at the Carnegie and to assist with programs and acquisitions for and at both branches. The Foundation has been doing this for decades. Most recently, it has provided substantial amounts of money for acquisition of books and materials and the summer reading program when other sources dried up. On the maintenance side, last year it paid for exterior painting at the Carnegie. The Foundation is also presently putting on periodic art and history programs. Some of these activities are reported in its website – APL.foundation. The Carnegie is well loved – and well supported.
Putting the proper exterior doors back on the front of the building would be awesome.