Govanhill Library is home to one of Glasgow's original Carnegie libraries, deftly designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by James Robert Rhind. The library is situated at the junction of Langside Road and Calder Street.

James Robert Rhind, architect, was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1854 and trained as an architect in his father's local practice.

He was successful in the architectural competition for new libraries to be constructed in Glasgow following Andrew Carnegie’s gift of £100,000 to the city in 1901. His designs were selected for 7 libraries, allowing him to demonstrate his individual interpretation of Edwardian Baroque architecture.

Rhind’s libraries were all built with locally quarried sandstone, which blended in with the existing tenement neighbourhoods. His landmark buildings were greatly enhanced by his liberal use of columns, domes and sculpted features. Many of the façades were decorated with stone and bronze statues by the noted Glasgow sculptor, William Kellock Brown.

Rhind retained his base in Inverness while he temporarily occupied offices in Glasgow city centre during the construction of the new Carnegie libraries.

Rhind's best known buildings in the north of Scotland are the Royal Golf Hotel, Dornoch and the Crown Church, Inverness.

Carnegie libraries are libraries which were built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. More than 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built, including those belonging to public and university library systems. Carnegie earned the nickname Patron Saint of Libraries.

Of the 2,509 libraries funded between 1883 and 1929, 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 156 in Canada, and others in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, and Fiji. Very few towns that requested a grant and agreed to his terms were refused. When the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them paid for by Carnegie.

Govanhill Library One of the Carnegie Libraries in Glasgow.