Building many libraries to serve city neighborhoods was always part of Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic plan. Eight years before the main library that bears his name opened in Oakland, he offered $1 million to the City of Pittsburgh for a system that included branches.

Now that system is threatened by declining government revenue and rising costs. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh plans to close four of its 19 branches by February, three of them in neighborhoods where the first ones opened by 1900 -- Lawrenceville, Hazelwood and the West End.

Another early branch building on Mount Washington (1900) will be abandoned, replaced by a new facility elsewhere in the neighborhood. Two 20th-century structures in Beechview and Knoxville also will be dropped along with a converted storefront in Carrick. Those branches on Brownsville Road will merge.

The changes have angered both library users and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. The mayor, facing re-election next month, seemed stung by library director Barbara Mistick's observation that the city gives only $40,000 to the library, the same amount it contributed in 1895.

The city was the library's major supporter, with contributions rising to $5 million a year when the Allegheny Regional Asset District's funding system took over in 1994. Then the city dropped its annual contribution back to its original $40,000.

Mayor Ravenstahl called for an analysis of the library's financial prospects and the RAD board last week agreed to initiate the process.

In seeking bids from auditing firms, RAD's requests include:

• An assessment of the "reasonableness" of the library's financial projects.

• A determination of how much the library will save "by each branch closing, consolidation."

• An evaluation of "whether realistic alternatives were considered by library management/Trustees ..."

• An evaluation of the criteria "for the changes in the branch operations as well as the application of those criteria to branches impacted by the closings."

• A comparison of budgets and business practices with "similarly sized and organized libraries ..."

In turn, the library agreed to provide RAD with specifics behind the decisions to close and merge those branches. It will be the first time those details have been disclosed.

"I have been assured that once RAD receives everything the report will be available to the public," library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes said yesterday.

The shutdowns come at a time when more people are using Carnegie Library facilities, especially those in Lawrenceville and the West End (see chart at the end of this article). On my recent visits to the threatened facilities I found lots of activity, with most computer stations in use, busy librarians working with readers and callers, bulletin boards covered with neighborhood announcements and even a few protest signs. Here's my account:

It's an unlikely spot for a library, above a beer distributor and laundromat on Second Avenue. Yet this branch, opened in a new building in 2004, is bright, clean and cheery.

Hazelwood is a part of Pittsburgh distinguished by loss and the signs are everywhere -- the abandoned Gladstone High School, the former LTV Coke Works and lately, a grocery.

The library branch, used by schoolchildren from as far away as Greenfield and as close as the Head Start facility across the street, is one of the few remaining bright spots.

"Tuesday and Thursday nights, we get a ton of people in here, maybe 50 to 60," said Sara Dora, who directs services for teens including help in using the Internet for homework.

She said students come from such schools as Mifflin in Lincoln Place; Greenfield; Minadeo in Squirrel Hill; Sterrett Classical Academy in Point Breeze; and St. Rosalia in Greenfield. The library also holds reading programs for about 80 youngsters from Head Start.

"And, then, wait till you see our Halloween party," Ms. Dora added. "It's always packed."

The Carnegie Library opened the new facility in 2004, abandoning the original, dilapidated 1899 building on Monongahela Street where it still sits among the weeds.

Aide Teresa Nagy was happy to make the move to Second Avenue from the original. "It was just an old place and the summers were the worst for the heat," she said. "And there was black dust from the mill everywhere."

Hazelwood was the second Carnegie branch to open, a year after Lawrenceville. Both buildings are similar red-brick, single-story structures with an arched entrance and high windows, designed by Longfellow, Alden and Harlow, the same firm that designed the Main Library in Oakland.

The design called for brick, unlike the stone of the Main Library, in order to reflect the neighborhood, said Abigail Van Slyck, author of "Free to All: Carnegie Libraries & American Culture, 1890-1920."

The windows are placed high on the tall walls, allowing the installation of bookshelves below them while filling the space with daylight. These first branches were also distinctive because they were designed for children as well as adults. Auditoriums for public meetings are in the basement.

While Hazelwood's first building is deserted, its counterpart in Lawrenceville is a thriving concern.

Sparked by affordable housing stock and the relocation of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, this neighborhood is on the rise.

During the various public meetings on the Carnegie Library's economic situation, several residents cited its branch library as one reason they moved there.

Like Hazelwood, the building was placed on a side street, Fisk Street, rather than the main thoroughfare of Butler Street. Yet, at 11 a.m. Oct. 20, the place was busy, especially in the children's room where a dozen youngsters and their parents shared books.

The interior of the branch is showing its age, with ceiling leaks and no modern ventilation. The basement auditorium is serving as a storage room, holding furniture from the East Liberty branch, now being renovated.

Lawrenceville will lose its library when East Liberty reopens later next year.

This building and its twin on Mount Washington were also designed by Longfellow, Alden and Harlow and opened in 1900, but on a more modest scale than the Lawrenceville and Hazelwood structures.

Both are the smallest libraries, a single story with the circulation desk in the middle, separating the adult and children's rooms. There are small meeting rooms and staff facilities in the basement.

"The West End was the first to do storytime for children," said librarian Jim Carney, who divides his time with the Sheraden branch about two miles away.

The branch on Wabash Avenue is only open four days a week -- Tuesdays and Saturdays until 7 p.m. and Wednesdays and Saturdays until 4.

It was near closing time when I dropped in on a Wednesday, so the library was not very busy, but its chief champion, Mark Kohut, was still working at a computer.

Retired from his New York publishing career, he works with other volunteers to support the threatened branch. "This place is a real neighborhood treasure and it would be a serious loss for the West End," said Mr. Kohut, a Crafton Heights native who used the branch while growing up.

While Saturday will bring Halloween parties around the city, the staff at this branch on Broadway is planning Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead in recognition of the neighborhood's growing Latino population, said manager Audrey Iacone. The party starts at 5:30 p.m.

"The influx of immigrants here, along with recession has pushed our use up 10 percent this year," she said. "There are so many more people coming in to use the computers to look for jobs."

It also draws schoolchildren from three Pittsburgh Public Schools in the area and Keystone Oaks nearby.

The branch is often filled with both children and adults on Saturdays and afternoons when it's open until 7 p.m., she said. "People get off the T on their way home from work to use it."

Constructed by the city in 1967 on the site of a synagogue, the Beechview library has drawn the most vocal protests, from petitions by children to complaints by state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, and state Rep. Chelsa Wagner, a Beechview Democrat and native.

Scheduled to close and merge at another location are the Knoxville and Carrick branches, several miles apart on Brownsville Road.

The bunker school of architecture that produced such forbidding structures as Allegheny Center, reaches its highest (or lowest, depending on your attitude) point with the Knoxville branch, opened in 1965.

A concrete hulk on Brownsville Road, its front doors are guarded by steel gates after hours. Inside, the grimy narrow skylights on a peaked ceiling caused a gloomy diffuse light on a bright Indian summer afternoon.

Out front the afternoon of my visit was a sign: "Tell Luke to save our library." Inside, high schoolers were using the branch's nine computers while a handful of adults read books and newspapers.

"We always seem to be busy from the time we open at 10," said manager Charmaine Mozlack. "More older people in the day, students and children in the afternoon."

Several miles south on Brownsville Road across from a karaoke bar is the glass-block front of the cozy Carrick branch.

Inside, the front reading room is a bright, comfortable spot for reading. The narrow room beyond the circulation desk was busy with high schoolers using the 11 computers and the other half was devoted to children's books.

Opened on Grandview Avenue May 31, 1900, this building has the finest view of any library in America. Standing on its front steps, you take in the city's Downtown, rivers and hills.

Thanks to that view -- and its facilities, the branch attracts lots of tourists, said clerk Michelle Wazny. "We get a lot of requests to use our toilets, especially when there's a wedding party up here for pictures."

Plans call for a new facility to open on Virginia Avenue in the neighborhood's business district to attract more foot traffic, although the Grandview branch is very busy.

Among the smallest branches, Mount Washington's 2008 book circulation was 71,000 items, one of the highest outside the large libraries such as Squirrel Hill.

"Each day I see new faces here. We get a great mix of people from the neighborhood and a lot of support and help," Ms. Wazny said.

For example, one neighbor paid anonymously to repaint the building inside and out this year.

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