American Library Association, Library War Service

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Poster showing numerous scenes of activities sponsored by the American Library Association Library War Service, including interiors and exteriors of facilities, and military personnel reading and studying.
 
In 1917, the American Library Association was called upon to help the war effort with training, funds and providing books for the many military camps. They created the War Service committee, and provided library services to U.S. soldiers and sailors. They worked to provide library collections to over 500 military locations, distributing over 7 million books, magazines, and other material to soldiers. Though they only had  3,300 members at the time of the war, they managed to raise $5 million in public donations and continued to campaign for soldiers to get reading material they needed. Thanks to these combined efforts, soldiers today have access to libraries in the army, navy, and Veteran’s bureau.