INCORRECT

The Chicago Public Library's first home was a circular water tank measuring 58 feet in diameter and 21 feet high above a 30-foot foundation. The water tank, which had survived the fire, stood on a lot at the southeast corner of LaSalle and Adams Streets. Shortly after the fire, a two-story brick building was quickly constructed on this lot to house municipal offices. A small third-floor room was added to the structure to serve as the reading room of the Chicago Public Library. The water tank was fitted with bookshelves, and an outer stairway connected the tank to the reading room. The founders and early leaders of the Chicago Public Library believed that the Library was an educational institution that should provide an opportunity for "mental improvement" to the citizens of Chicago. In the spirit of democracy, the Library was all-encompassing, providing books and related reading material for popular education, civic awareness and scholarly research. The Board of Directors also saw the Library as a place "where working men and the youth of the city might employ their idle time" profitably in reading instead of wasting it in "haunts of vice and folly and places of ill reputation" that characterized the Chicago of the 1870s. From the beginning, the mandate of the Chicago Public Library was clear--to serve the populace of Chicago.

The Chicago Public Library is the third largest public library in the world.