Library War Service
[1] The Library War Service also provided books in Braille to soldiers that were blinded in battle.
Shortly after its formation, the ALA's committee was invited by the Department of War's Commission on Training Camp Activities to provide library services to soldiers.
[1] Joining the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the Salvation Army, the Jewish Welfare Board, the Knights of Columbus and the War Camp Community Service, the American Library Association became one of the "Seven Sisters" providing social, health and welfare services to soldiers in camps under the auspices of the Commission on Training Camp Activities.
[5] At the height of the Library War Service, even this large collection was unable to meet all of the military's needs.
The libraries were designed by architect Edward L. Tilton, and provided space for 10,000 volumes and around 200 readers, in buildings that were only between 90 and 120 feet long.
National campaigns provided books to the training camps, hospitals, Red Cross Houses, and small military encampments at home and abroad.
They also contained information required for effective military operations and they helped prepare soldiers socially and intellectually for life after the war.
[9] In 1918, a librarian at Camp Meade wrote the following to a reporter about his troops' need for books: We are having repeated calls for technical handbooks and textbooks.
[7] Books and periodicals were minimally cataloged and camp librarians were either volunteers or were paid a small annual salary of around $1,200.
[7] With the Army and Navy being made up of "about every nationality on Earth", camp libraries contained books in dozens of languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Yiddish, Chinese, and Russian.
On August 29, 1918, the American Library in Paris or Paris Library opened with the aim of collecting a large volume of technical handbooks and textbooks to distribute to the American Expeditionary Force and other books to distribute to the English-speaking residents of France.
Around the same time, Burton Stevenson, the American Library Association representative to Europe, established a books-by-mail program.
[3] Female librarians working in hospital libraries had a unique uniform of naturally colored pongee.
