"Just Send Us Some Books": Library Service to American Soldiers in World War I

Abstract

This paper examines the success of the Library War Service of WWI in terms of the administrational and organizational functions of the American Library Association and other groups involved in providing reading material to the troops, and in terms of the soldiers' acceptance of the work. This research covers the period when America entered the war in April 1917 to the spring of 1919 when library service still flourished in Europe even though the war had ended on November 11, 1918.