It was during World War I, when soldiers began wanting to have some reading material around for their downtime, that the book light went on in the military. It's also when the American Library Association went to work delivering books and magazines paid for through the war bond program. They raised "a whopping $5 million in public donations, distributing more than 7 million books and magazines, erecting 36 camp libraries and providing library collections to over 500 sites, including military hospitals." The effort became "the foundation for the Defense Department’s first and longest-running morale, welfare and recreation program." Nellie Moffitt, the Navy’s general...
