05/25/2026
“Decent, but not too highbrow.” That’s how one volunteer described the kind of fiction he and his colleagues solicited from their Hibbing, Minnesota, neighbors for the second of three book collection campaigns the American Library Association sponsored for servicemen during World War I.
ALA established its Library War Service in 1917 to provide books and library services to U.S. soldiers and sailors both in training at home and serving in Europe, raising $5 million from public donations and holding three book drives—one in September 1917, one in March 1918, and one in January 1919. This second book drive generated 3 million books, many going overseas, others ending up on the shelves of 36 training-camp libraries erected through Carnegie Corporation funding and managed by ALA volunteers across the country.
During the war, tens of thousands of servicemen spent much of their free time reading in those camp libraries and near the European battlefronts. By poring over “decent but not too highbrow” fiction, many improved their literary skills beyond the merely functional. The affinity they developed for these services often carried over into postwar use and support of public libraries.
Read more about ALA's Library War Service: https://bit.ly/4v7IDPV
