American Library Association

“I’ve found that momentum matters more than page count; once I reconnect with the feeling of discovery, the habit tends to return on its own.”

ALA President Sam Helmick on how picking up a book that’s different from what you “should” be reading is a great way to get out of a reading slump.

In a Reading Slump? Here’s How to Finally Fall Back in Love with Books We asked a bunch of bookworms for their best tips on rekindling their love of reading. Here's what they had to say.

“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

Due to communist hysteria before and after World War II, many organizations and publications were under suspicion of being affiliated with or promoting the Communist party. One curious suspect of this scrutiny was Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, the product testing and consumer advocacy magazine. In the late 1930s, Consumers Union faced unsubstantiated accusations of communism. Despite the fruitless claims, Consumers Union was placed on a list of subversive organizations by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1944.

In 1951, representatives from the Better Business Bureaus drew attention to Consumer Union’s status on the House Committee’s list. As a result, Ohio schools banned the use of Consumer Reports in the classroom. While the Ohio schools' ban of the magazine was short-lived, questions about it were not, and the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) noticed the attempts to ban the publication.

The IFC received inquiries from librarians as far away as Hawaii, asking about the supposedly communist Consumer Reports. The committee provided librarians with information outlining the facts of the accusations against Consumers Union, concluding that “the case against Consumers Union is, at best, tenuous and without evidence of subversion.” This wasn’t an endorsement of the publication, and the committee urged that library materials should be selected to fit local needs, recommending that “all librarians should resist the pressures of those who want to prevent American citizens from being informed.”

Read more: https://bit.ly/3RkeaQ0