 Early in the library's existence, it had a turnstile at the entrance to its book stacks, to count the number of book borrowers that passed through.With the arrival of World War I, the Carnegie Library became home to various community activities, such as dispensing information on the war, and also provided Red Cross and English language classes.In 1942, during World War II, one of the first African American librarians in Seattle, Lucille Smith, was assigned to the Carnegie library.