Carnegie-Stout Public Library — Attraction in Dubuque

Please be aware that the outside drop box may be leaking. I dropped a book off at the outside drop box on a rainy Wednesday. On Saturday I get a call from the library saying that a book I returned was water damaged. I was told it would cost $54 to replace the book. I was also told that the book was still in perfectly readable condition, and that if I paid the fine I could take the book home to keep. I'm still not sure what happened to the book between Wednesday and Saturday to cause the water damage, my guess is a leaky outside drop box. I'm also not sure why I need to pay for a book that's still in perfectly readable condition. I was homeschooled, am homeschooling my own children, and am a lifetime library patron from Platteville with a squeaky clean library record. My family loves the library, and we respect the books we borrow. I discovered Carnegie this spring and was taking my children there a few times a week, and just a few months later we are already hit with this mysterious situation. I have been in touch with the library, I've been very respectful trying to get to the bottom of this, but they stopped returning my emails. I reached out to the community on Facebook to ask if this is an ongoing problem with the outside drop box. Instead I heard three stories of people being arrested or having warrants issued for their arrest due to overdue library books from this library. Several others having fines reported on their credit, sometimes fines from years ago that they didn't even realize they had. One woman was in a horrible car accident with her library books in the trunk that were destroyed in the accident. She was charged several hundred dollars to replace the books and was given no leniency at all. This has really turned me off to visiting this library. I will pay the fine and...

5/9/24 @ 5 pm - This is probably one of my favorite libraries I've visited in the U.S. Not only is the architecture and decor strikingly beautiful and well-thought out, the activities, variety of leases, and engaging events are likely a catch for everyone (small kids to senior citizens)! They have kids' room, teens' room, so many different rooms, help desks, sitting areas, donation boxes, restrooms, art displays, games, etc. I could write about this library in numerous paragraphs and still not cover all it has to offer and see. I particularly loved the daily bake off (see photos), electronics charging station, baking dish rentals, self-defense classes, modern computer game for up to four kids to play at once. Visit if you're in the area or not too far. This would be a regular destination for me if I lived here. My camera was blurry on this rainy day, but hopefully pics help someone make an...

My fiancé is being charged by this library because of apparently unreturned dvds 3 that I can buy out Walmart for under $20 each. The dvds were not returned over 4 years ago and we had no idea but the library keeps going back and forth on saying I can just replace the dvds and don’t have to pay the fees but the next time I call they say no I can’t do that. Why are you refusing me to replace what was lost your saying he stole them when he didn’t. We never received any notices of the movies but you want to charge us for every certified letter they sent out even though they were never received and I assume sent back to them on top of the “value” of the dvds. To me this is just plain ridiculous putting theft on someone’s background for dvds you value at less than $100 for all of them together. Especially it has been years ago and the value of those dvds have...