Up the Hill of Opportunity: American Public Libraries and ALA during World War II

World War II presented America's public libraries with the daunting challenge of meeting new demands for war-related library services and materials with Depression-weakened collections, inadequate budgets, and demoralized staff, in addition to continuing to serve the library's traditional clientele of women and children seeking recreational reading, especially fiction. During mobilization many librarians purchased technical materials to assist library users in acquiring skills needed in the expanding workforce. After the U.S. entered the war public libraries held film forums to discuss current issues, mounted patriotic exhibits, and participated in the Victory Book Campaigns to collect supplemental reading material for armed forces libraries, among other local activities. While libraries responded to their communities' library needs as best they could, the American Library Association (ALA) under the leadership of Executive Secretary Carl H. Milam turned to the federal government for support for its ambitious war program to put libraries in official war service. Shedding librarianship's customary neutrality, ALA believed that public libraries should participate in disseminating government propaganda and in promoting the American democratic political system, even if it meant violating the civil liberties of library users. However, ALA met significant resistance and indifference from legislators and government agencies that did not share the association's view of public libraries as essential community institutions. Furthermore, many librarians and library users rejected ALA's attempt to expand the jurisdiction and purpose of the American public library. ALA primary sources include correspondence, press releases, meeting minutes, published documents, scrapbooks, and the ALA Bulletin. Similar types of materials from the Library of Congress, the Office of War Information, Office of Civilian Defense, and Office of Education lend insight into the government's perspective. Annual reports, board meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other miscellaneous materials from small, medium, and large American public libraries throughout the country provide color and detail. Numerous secondary sources contribute to the dissertation's conceptual framework and historical context, and relate the concerns arising during the period under study to ongoing discussions of the purpose of the American public library.