Draft:Harrogate Carnegie Library

Harrogate Library (formally Harrogate Carnegie Library) is a public library located in Harrogate, England.

Previous Libraries in Harrogate

A number of institutions have served as Harrogate's library since the town's founding. This section disambiguates previous institutions from the current commonly accepted definition of Harrogate Library.

The first free library in Harrogate may have been a collection of 182 religious works given by Miss Mary Richmond of Hull to be housed and managed by Isabella Dunn of Westmoreland in 1828.

The first attempt to form a mechanics institute in Harrogate was the formation of a Mechanics and Literary Institution before 1839, though it was forced to close in the mid 1840’s, with reasons for the closure including lack of support, poor management, and an unsuitable location.

The movement for a mechanics institute in Harrogate was revived by George Linnaeus Banks, a minor poet and editor of the Harrogate Advertiser (a local publication which the library has indexed since the 1960s) who established a new institute on James’ street. The majority of Banks’ new institute’s patrons were middle- and lower-class. Most patrons paid a subscription of 6 shillings per year which entitled them to full participation in the affairs of the institute. Some were honorary members, paying a rate of 10 shillings and 6 pence, while others paid over 5 pounds for a lifetime membership. The institute offered lectures in various fields and classes in “elementary subjects” and drawing, with the purpose of the institute argued to be an attempt to provide activities in the winter and a smattering of culture for the growing population of the town. The institute was later expanded with a reading room, which provided two daily newspapers, eight weekly newspapers, and some monthly periodicals. By 1855, the library had a stock of 1400. Eventually, due to the inadequate premises and the membership fees being insufficient to finance the activities provided by the institute, the institute closed in 1857.

Following an article calling for a similar service in the Harrogate Advertiser in 1863, a new service was introduced in the form of the Working Men’s Club and Institute, which merged with the remnants of the mechanics institute, taking over its library and creating a substitute for its lecture programme in which short readings from books were accompanied by musical performances, which was well-received according to a favourable review in the Harrogate Advertiser.

In 1887, a rate-supported library was established in Harrogate following a campaign from citizens including Mr Charles Fortune, who led a discussion in the Harrogate Literary Society on whether Harrogate ought to adopt the Public Libraries Acts. After the acts were incorporated in 1886, a public reading room opened at Fern Villa in Princes Street, with a lending library added later with a collection of 2,100 volumes and 63 newspapers and periodicals, later expanding from many gifts including 132 volumes from the Harrogate Literary Society. The building soon became unable to support the demand for the services, moving through a number of places until it found its permanent home on Victoria Avenue.

Namesake

Harrogate Carnegie Library is named after its sponsor, Andrew Carnegie, who donated £7500 for the building's construction in 1904. It is one of over 600 libraries whose existence was funded by Carnegie's donations.

Site of the Carnegie Library

The construction of the building of the Carnegie library was funded by its namesake, Andrew Carnegie, who donated £7500 for the purpose of its construction in 1904.

The building was designed by Henry T Hare, originally intended to be part of a larger “municipal palace”, but only the library building was ever built. The foundation stone was laid on 17 October 1904 by Alderman Horace Milling JP, Mayor of Harrogate. Construction continued until the library was opened on 24th January 1906 by the Rt Rev GW Kennion, Bishop of Bath and Wells, as commemorated by a plaque that can be found on the site.

Early History

The lending library initially ran on an “indicator charging” system. As opposed to under today’s open-access model, this system required patrons to choose books by consulting a catalogue. The library switched over to the open access system in 1909, becoming the third library in Yorkshire to do so. Soon after, the library began working with libraries in nearby Knaresborough, Bilton, and Starbeck to provision books between each other.

The library categories books mostly using Dewey Decimal Classification, with a modification in its local history section, where class numbers are prefixed with “Y” for Yorkshire, “H” for Harrogate, and “K” (formerly “KNA”) for Knaresborough.

2010 Rennovation & 2011 Re-Opening

In 2010, the North Yorkshire County Council allocated £3.4m from the National Lottery fund to renovate the library including an expansion of over 250 square metres. As a result, the library’s collection expanded by around fifty percent to a total of 73,000 books. The library was officially re-opened by the Duke of Gloucester in 2011. The renovation was undertaken by William Birch Construction.

2019 Improvements

The library closed its doors for just over 2 weeks between March 19th and April 4th, 2022, for “much-needed improvements”. The library allowed its patrons to borrow additional books over this closure period.

Recent History

In 2010, the North Yorkshire County Council cut the library’s funding by £2m in an attempt to save £168m by 2020. In 2014, the council made a further cut of £1.6m (from £5.8m to £4.2m).

In 2022, Harrogate Carnegie Library was named the most used library in the county of North Yorkshire, with 122,409 visitors in the 2021/22 period (up from 47,809 the previous year). Patronage further rose in the 2022/23 period, with 177,629 visitors. In 2024, the library increased its overdue fees from 30p per day to 35p per day, with the council citing “increased pressure on finances” as the reason for the increase (“Fine Rise for Overdue Library Books in North Yorkshire,” 2024), to a maximum of £8, the first increase in over 10 years, while also doubling the price to print a black-and-white A4 page, going from 10p to 20p (Barrett, 2024).