Friends of the Library is a non-profit organization devoted to fund raising and volunteering to assist the Library in every way. One hundred percent (100%) of funds received benefit the Library.

The #1 Friend, supporter and contributor to Libraries world wide, historically, was none other than Andrew Carnegie (Andre as he was called by his mother). As a business man he was said to have been a century ahead of his time. Once he retired from business as the richest man in the world, he too was ahead of his time as a philanthropist. His contributions were targeted at bettering mankind through reading, learning, the arts, and research.  He was driven in giving away all of his fortune to these causes, believing others would donate to other concerns and needs.

What clearly is not always understood, though, is that his grants to build m0re than 1,689 Carnegie libraries did not provide funding for books and continuous maintenance. Before a grant was approved, the requesting community had to accept the challenge of continuous maintenance through taxation. Today, in addition to the Carnegie public libraries there are public libraries not having the generosity of an Andrew Carnegie. This is the case with the your Jefferson Hills Library. The greatest portion of the funding comes from state and local taxes. But to provide all the desired services, additional funding is still needed from fund raising activities and donations.

Of course a significant portion of Carnegie's wealth that he donated to libraries came from steelworkers and coal miners working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, earning subsistence wages - many were our ancestors. Nevertheless, it is curious why such an individual would contribute so much of an accumulated fortune to books and libraries. Likewise, Thomas Jefferson dedicated much of his interests, time and resources to books and to the education of the citizens, as well as other leaders.

As a free and democratic nation, to remain competitive in the world, nothing less than this devotion to the education of the citizens is acceptable. Everyone must be encouraged to use, promote and support libraries. To quote Thomas Jefferson, "Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe." This is the hope of the future.

So, how can each of us help? There are a number of ways.