PHOTO BY MICHAEL D. DAVIS - The Louise and Lucile Hink/Tama Public Library recently received a $10,000 gift from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation.

Some called him the “Patron Saint of Libraries,” but most knew him as Andrew Carnegie. An immigrant whose formal education ended in his adolescence, Carnegie became an autodidact who valued the resource of a lended book. The richest man alive, at one point, Carnegie funded and built thousands of libraries in the United States, and more than 100 years after his death, Carnegie is still giving to local libraries.

The 1893 construction of the Carnegie Library in Fairfield, Iowa, kicked off the golden age of the American Library. In the following 30 years, Carnegie paid for over 1,600 libraries to be built across the country, the Tama Public Library being just one.

The Carnegie Foundation is making sure the libraries that their founder funded are thriving in this day and age. Tama Library Director Kris Collins talked about this.

“The Tama Public Library is recently honored to have received a $10,000 gift from the Carnegie Foundation. All Carnegie libraries throughout the US are receiving this same gift in 2026, in honor of the USAs 250th Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, on July 4,” she said. “The Louise and Lucile Hink Tama Public Library is honored to be one of the original Carnegie Libraries of the early 20th century.”

There is already a plan in mind for how to use the money, but the Carnegie Foundation gift won’t quite cover the cost.

“The Tama Library is making plans to place an outdoor electronic message board in the front of the library. It will be used to promote library programs and events, as well as, city events, or programs for non-profit organizations in the city or county. While the cost of this large project is large, and will need more than the Carnegie gift alone, we will also use library trust monies and library foundation funds, both of which are very limited. We invite local donations, memorial gifts and potential partnership with other city departments to save up for the total amount required for the project,” Collins said.

The project of the electric sign is for the benefit of all of Tama’s citizens, not just the regular patrons of the library. Collins spoke about how the sign would affect the town.

“The electronic message board would create an opportunity for a permanent enhancement to the facility, and a means for community activities, events, and information to be promoted and shared in an easy to see format for citizens of Tama and Tama County as they drive through the downtown to the library and near the Tama City Hall and Civic Center. With limited options for small town public and non-profit groups to have promotional budgets, advertising is limited for the library, the city, and for many local public service agencies. We have some amazing resources, programs and experts in our local community who host very high-quality FREE learning and social opportunities, but no one knows about them,” Collins said. “Not everyone has Facebook, or access to social media, and posters around town can get lost in the mix of area bulletin boards or pinboards. Our goal with this project will be to create access for our community members, especially library patrons, to engage with these things more easily by knowing what is “going on around town” that is free and open to everyone. Most people drive by the library and the civic center on their way to local businesses or appointments downtown. Reading our message board will allow people to be more in the know about great things happening in Tama and Tama County with an electronic sign.”

A part of the community for over a century, thanks to the help of Andrew Carnegie, the Tama Library still stands as one of the city’s greatest resources. Director Collins talked about this.

“I love history, and that the community of Tama preserves a space for a public library. It feels like the Tama Public Library is a special part of history because it was an original Carnegie library. Opened in 1907, on the corner of 9th and McClellan St. in Tama, it was a new idea, a library open to the public, vs. private library collections. We still have the original meeting notes for the planning of that library that are handwritten of course, and it is special to read through them,” she said. “During the month of March, we recognize Women in History. It is exciting to read about the formation of the library by the Tama Women’s Club in 1903, and the persistence of this group of local women who advocated and brought this idea to community leadership of the time. It is inspiring to me as a history fan, to learn Andrew Carnegie’s story, an American story, of a Scottish born immigrant to the United States, and a rags to riches life. He understood the power of “paying it forward” and creating libraries that were not exclusive to people with the financial means for acquiring books, which he certainly could have done with his wealth. But that he instead created a way to establish libraries for everyone, to gain access to books, which also meant, to literacy, to learning, and to personal betterment in a free society. Something uncommon in that time period of history, and during the golden age of the Industrial Revolution, when wealth was becoming attainable to the common man, and not just the colonial, aristocratic families of the day. So it is very meaningful and important to know about a community’s history, like this and what good things have come before us. It motivates me to want to be this way in my community and give back or help my community progress forward.”

One hundred and twenty-three years ago Andrew Carnegie said, “Free libraries maintained by the people are cradles of democracy, and their spread can never fail to extend and strengthen the democratic idea, the equality of the citizen, and the royalty of man. They are emphatically fruits of the true American ideal.”

Director Collins continues to maintain our own Carnegie library. With this gift from the foundation, and hopefully some donations, the Tama Library will get an electric sign. This is just another way the library continues to help and improve its city.