WALLACE — The Wallace Public Library will expand its collection and upgrade resources thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

Library Director Annette Kologi said every still-active Carnegie Library received funds from the corporation. Wallace is one of three remaining Carnegie Libraries in Idaho, along with libraries in Pocatello and Moscow. 

According to a letter from Carnegie Corporation President Dame Louise Richardson, the grant is being distributed in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

“Andrew Carnegie wrote that libraries are ‘cradles of democracy’ and it has been truly inspiring to hear accounts from across America of how the 1,350-plus surviving Carnegie Libraries are serving their communities today,” Richardson wrote. 

The grant comes with no stipulations beyond benefiting the library and the community it serves. 

Kologi said her annual budget for new materials is typically about $10,000, so receiving the grant will allow her to go “above and beyond” in purchasing new items. She plans to target key areas for upgrades, including teen nonfiction, junior materials and adult fiction. She also intends to use part of the funding to buy six new computers for patrons and staff. 

“This is really a big deal for us,” Kologi said. “We’re going to be able to do quite a bit with this money. A lot of other libraries are pretty jealous that they don’t have the Carnegie distinction.” 

The Wallace Public Library opened in 1911 and was one of more than 2,500 libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie, a Scottish-born steel magnate, believed public libraries embodied the American spirit and offered anyone the chance to educate themselves if they were determined enough. 

He later said, “It was from my early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productively as to the funding of a public library.” 

Richardson noted that the corporation’s renewed focus on libraries comes from a similar conviction. 

“At a time of unprecedented strain to our social cohesion, libraries are among the few public institutions which play a genuinely unifying role,” she wrote.  

The Wallace Public Library, located at 415 River St.,  in Wallace, is open Mondays and Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m., and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from noon to 5:30 p.m. The library is closed Saturdays and Sundays. Patrons can reach the library by phone at 208-752-4571 or by email at [email protected].