In Franklin, Massachusetts, one of the country's earliest public libraries established in 1790, when locals distributed volumes provided by Benjamin Franklin. In 1731, the Founding Father established the Library Company in Philadelphia, but it demanded a subscription fee of 40 shillings.¹⁾

Between 1886 and 1919, the rich manufacturer gave $55 million (about $1.6 billion in today's currencies) to open an astounding 2509 libraries worldwide, including 1679 in the United States.²⁾

Carnegie supported multiple libraries in New York City, and the buildings were frequently designed with flats on the top level. The goal was to provide living accommodations for the library's caretakers so that they could continue shoveling coal into furnaces at all hours of the day and night.³⁾

The technique was common in the late 1800s, when library pioneer Melvil Dewey (of the Dewey Decimal System fame) and other early collection managers thought that readable handwriting was required for card catalogs. As typewriters became more prevalent, the practice vanished.⁴⁾

The Library of Congress (LOC) is the world's largest library in terms of catalog depth, with 168 million items. That achievement follows a disaster in 1814, when the then-14-year-old collection of 3000 books was destroyed after British forces burned down the Capitol building.⁵⁾

The LOC is so committed to making information accessible to all that it pays to have popular journals reproduced in Braille. In 1985, an enraged senator from Ohio called Chalmers Wylie battled against the publication of a Braille version of Playboy. Following objections, it was reinstalled.⁶⁾

The McAllen Public Library in McAllen, Texas, is situated in a converted Walmart and may be the country's largest single-story library facility. The 123,000-square-foot facility has a computer lab, a cafe, and an auditorium with 180 seats.⁷⁾