Different countries obviously have very different founding myths about this. Here in the UK it took the Public Libriaries Act to start them - https://en.wikipe

Different countries obviously have very different founding myths about this. Here in the UK it took the Public Libriaries Act to start them - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Libraries_Act_1850 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Libraries_Act_1850 - Andrew Carnagie would have been 15 years old at that point, having only recently migrated to the US with his parents, due to grinding poverty back home.