19^th century industrialist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Fife.

His birthplace is now a museum:-

As the plaque on the cottage indicates, Carnegie became a noted philanthropist, endowing Dunfermline with a swinmming pool and over 3,000 towns worldwide with libraries. One of these was Dunfermline Library whose later extension I posted about yesterday.

In the museum I came across a drawing of another of these, Coldside Library in Dundee, and recognised it immediately:-

I have previously mentioned this fine building but at the time did not know it had anything to do with Carnegie, nor indeed its name.

The library is at the moment being refurbished. Its entrance is on Maygate but this view is of the St Margaret Street aspect:-

Detail:-

From south:-

Fife Council has decided to go ahead with the closure of sixteen libraries in the county. This includes three of those closest to me and which I use regularly.

(I note in the newspaper article in the first link above the occurence of the spelling calamatous. Did the author by any chance mean calamitous? Did no one in an editorial capacity notice?)

Despite the campaign against the closures and my efforts at borrowing books this year to attempt to keep the numbers up Fife councillors yesterday opted to close all 16 of the libraries that were under threat. That of course includes the two which I use most frequently.

How soon before more are shut down?