
KANOPY COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY FULL
With cost of construction exceeding initial estimates, Carnegie agreed to fund an additional $50,000, bringing his full donation to $200,000. Carnegie's secretary composed a letter stating that, “not more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars would be spent upon the main building,” on the condition that the city fund the library for, “at least twenty thousand dollars a year.” The City Council approved the offer and used the initial funds to purchase the $40,000 estate of Thomas Ewing Miller at 96 S. Library director John Pugh traveled to New York City and secured Carnegie's $150,000 donation after bonding over their similar heritage Carnegie was Scottish and Pugh was Welsh. Columbus was initially passed over by Carnegie for funds to build a large main library, as it was against his preference for smaller branches accessible to local working class residents. It was constructed from 1903 to 1906 primarily using funds donated by Andrew Carnegie. The system's Main Library was built to replace the reading rooms. The Carnegie Public Library as originally built, c. Grover served as the first director of the library, for a period of six years beginning in 1872. In 1906, the reading room moved to a separate building across from the Ohio Statehouse. These included 1,200 from the Columbus Athenaeum (1853-1872), 358 from Columbus's high school library, and 33 from its horticultural society. The Columbus Public Library and Reading Room was opened on March 4, 1873, in the reading room on the first floor of City Hall, with a collection of 1,500 books. Janney introduced an ordinance to the Columbus City Council which would allocate public funds for the construction of a library. While several attempts were made with private funds, such as the 1835 Columbus Reading Room and Institute and the 1853 Columbus Athenium, these were all short-lived. History Early history Ĭolumbus City Hall (1872–1921), location of the city's first public libraryįollowing the founding of Columbus in 1812, the people of the city struggled to establish a public library. Columbus Metropolitan Library is a member of the Central Library Consortium, which enables its 17-member library systems to share a catalog. CML also jointly operates the Northwest Library in cooperation with Worthington Libraries.


The branches are Canal Winchester, Driving Park, Dublin, Franklinton, Gahanna, Hilliard, Hilltop, Karl Road, Linden, Livingston, Marion-Franklin, Martin Luther King, New Albany, Northern Lights, Northside, Parsons, Reynoldsburg, Shepard, South High, Southeast, Whetstone, and Whitehall. The library consists of the Main Library and 22 branches located in neighborhoods throughout Franklin County. The library serves an area of 872,000 residents, has a collection of 1,483,433 volumes, and circulates 17,262,267 items per year. The Columbus Metropolitan Library ( CML) is a public library system in Franklin County, Ohio, in the Columbus metropolitan area.
