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The Carnegie Center, Inc., the local group that is trying to raise funds to restore the building, scheduled the meetings hoping to generate fund-raising support and recruit volunteers to help. The group is trying to raise $400,000 in private donations toward the restoration of the building. They already have roughly $90,000, according to John Bartels, co-chairman of fund raising.

The building, completed in 1904 with a $20,000 grant from steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, has sustained some damage over the years but is otherwise structurally sound, according to a 2001 architectural study. The cost of restoring and updating the old library, including the addition of an elevator to the southeast corner of the building, is estimated to be $750,000.