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New Day Cafe: WWI Libraries as Patriotism [1]

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Date: 2023-04-24  

JSTOR Daily recently had a piece on libraries during WWI. At that time, they were promoted as important tools of patriotism.

“By June 28 (1916), the Commission on Training Camp Activities unanimously voted to ask the ALA (American Library Association) to take on the responsibility of providing library facilities and professionally trained librarians to the thirty-two training camps throughout the United States. The ALA would be responsible for securing funds both to build the onsite facilities and to equip them with books, while the Commission would cover utilities.

The Library War Service, as it this collaborative entity was soon named, solicited donations from librarians, corporations, and the public. It aimed to raise $1 million by September 24. ALA members secured a $320 thousand donation from the Carnegie Corporation, contingent upon the ALA raising a matching sum. Soon $10,000 in pledges were arriving. In one two-week stretch, some fifty-three libraries around country pledged $50 thousand, equivalent to more than $1.13 million in 2023.

Throughout the fall of 1917, individual donations poured in—from as little as three cents up to a thousand dollars a piece. By January 19, 1918, the ALA had raised more than $1.5 million. Librarians made sure donors knew where their contributions went; they donors to have a sense of ownership in helping boost troop morale and, in turn, aiding the war effort.

In March, the ALA began a book drive, asking the public to pass along titles they’d read. In particular, the ALA wanted novels and adventure stories, volumes on aviation and engineering, travel and foreign language titles (especially those about France and written in French), and books on trades, professions, and agriculture. To fortify bonds between the public and camp libraries, the ALA printed informational bookmarks with detachable bookplates to be pasted inside of the book. On the bottom of the bookplate, donors wrote their names and addresses, fashioning their donations into something of a gift, and furthering their emotional investment in the cause. The ALA had wanted two million donated books; within six months, they had more than three million to distribute.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/24/2164961/-New-Day-Cafe-WWI-Libraries-as-Patriotism

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