 In 1877, the Nebraska State Legislature passed a bill allowing the municipal governments of any community in the state of Nebraska to form a public library system and the Lincoln City Library and Reading Room Association was subsequently incorporated as a city-owned and tax-funded organization the same year.In 1899, all but the 800 books on loan to patrons were lost to a fire which destroyed the Masonic Temple in which the library was housed.In response, prominent Lincolnites such as Mary Baird Bryan, wife of William Jennings Bryan, petitioned Andrew Carnegie to help provide a library building for the city.