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Gorbals Library

Glasgow City Archives, Libraries Department

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Gorbals Library

The interior of the general reading room of Gorbals District Library in Main Street in 1907. The library occupied the two floors (over the shops) of the front portion of the Corporation Baths Building.

The Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc) Act, 1899, finally gave the city powers to provide a public library service supported from the rates. Plans to build an initial eight libraries, at a cost of £100,000, were boosted by a gift of that amount from Andrew Carnegie, fifty-two years after his family had set sail from the Broomielaw to the USA, where he made his fortune. A further seven libraries were planned as a result.

Gorbals Library was the first public lending library to be opened in the city, on 11 November 1901. The rented accommodation had its limitations, and it was replaced by a new Gorbals Library in Norfolk Street in 1933.

Reference: D-LB

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning

Keywords:
baths, Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc) Act, 1899, Gorbals District Library, librarians, libraries, newspapers, reading rooms, women



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