<P> Butte, Montana was perhaps the largest, richest and rowdiest mining camp in the American West . City boosters opened a public library in 1893 . Ring argues that the library was originally a mechanism of social control, "an antidote to the miners' proclivity for drinking, whoring, and gambling ." It was also designed to promote middle - class values and to convince Easterners that Butte was a cultivated city . Quite apart from the Wild West, civic boosters hailed the opening of a public library as a landmark in their upward march of civilization and civility . </P> <P> As VanSlyck (1989) shows, the last years of the 19th century saw acceptance of the idea that libraries should be available to the American public free of charge . However the design of the idealized free library was at the center of a prolonged and heated debate . On one hand, wealthy philanthropists favored grandiose monuments that reinforced the paternalistic metaphor and enhanced civic pride . They wanted a grandiose showcase that created a grand vista through a double - height, alcoved bookhall with domestically - scaled reading rooms, perhaps dominated by the donor's portrait over the fireplace . Typical examples were the New York Public Library and the Chicago Public Library . Librarians considered that grand design inefficient, and too expensive to maintain . The Brumback Library in Van Wert, Ohio claims to be the first county library in US . </P> <P> Melvil Dewey instituted a traveling library system for upstate New York in 1892 . The idea spread rapidly in the North . By 1898 there were over a hundred traveling libraries in Wisconsin alone, 534 in New York . </P> <P> Andrew Carnegie, born to poverty taught himself and became a leading industrialist and philanthropist . Among his many philanthropies was the public library--he built and furnished a library if the city agreed to maintain and staff it . He gave over $60 million, which was a vast fortune in 20th - century dollars . Carnegie envisioned that libraries would "bring books and information to all people ." </P>

When was the first library established in america