{"id":249,"date":"2012-10-10T18:53:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T18:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/?p=249"},"modified":"2021-01-27T19:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T19:49:49","slug":"a-book-for-every-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/2012\/10\/10\/a-book-for-every-man\/","title":{"rendered":"A Book for Every Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
New York City, New York Book Collection, February, 1919
Record Series 89\/1\/13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within a few weeks of America\u2019s entrance into World War I, the American Library Association undertook an enormous campaign to send books and other reading materials to American forces at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

The ALA collected $5 million in donations, amassed a collection of ten
\nmillion books and magazines, and set up thirty-six camp libraries with the help of the Carnegie Corporation.\u00a0 “A book for every man\u201d was the initial aim.<\/p>\n

According to the March, 1919 ALA Bulletin<\/em>, this motto was eventually regarded as \u201cyet another casualty to the boneyard of discarded slogans\u201d resulting from the war\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Magazines for Marines at Quantico, circa 1919
Record Series 89\/1\/13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the height of U.S. involvement in the war, the ALA was not able to maintain a sufficient supply of reading materials. Large numbers of books were lost between American and Europe, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the U.S. libraries in France. And, as librarian John Cotton Dana noted, 7 million books for 4.5 million solders was not enough.<\/p>\n

Despite these significant shortcomings, the Library War Services Program was an impressive first demonstration of mass library service to armed forces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Magazine Corner, Newbark Hospital, New York City, New York, circa 1919
Record Series 89\/1\/13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Military departments assimilated the ALA programs after the armistice. Hospital library service also continued, first under the U.S. Public Health Service and then under the sponsorship of the Veteran\u2019s Bureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Within a few weeks of America\u2019s entrance into World War I, the American Library Association undertook an enormous campaign to send books and other reading materials to American forces at home and abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":566,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,112,137,138,214],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-history","tag-american-library-association","tag-hospital-library-service","tag-library-extension","tag-library-history","tag-world-war-i"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7228,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/7228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}