 In August the Public Libraries Act (Scotland) was passed, and in November Airdrie was the first Scottish town to adopt it, beating Dunfermline into second place by 13 years.A quantity of books were obtained for the sum of £40 from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Library opened in the clerks office in the Town House, now known as the Town Clock.Andrew Carnegie had promised in a letter to Mr Thomas Jeffrey of Airdrie Savings Bank an amount of money equaling £1,000 (being half of the money required to build a new library) so long as a piece of land was acquired and the other half of the money was raised locally.