The Monticellonian., 1918-03-08

which is destined to become one of the most powerful factors in winning the fight for liberty. Already the efforts of the association have been crowned by signal success and this, in spite of the faet that as late IS the end of last summer il had nothing but a concrete plan and determination to put that idea into operation.
 Since the association set for itself the task Of putting into the hands of the soldiers and sailors the books 1t felt they needed and would appreciate it has. by an intensive campaign car Iried on last autumn, raised a million and half dollars; has procured through donation and by purchase, more than half million books which it has assorted and sent out; with the S32o,eo0 donated by the Carnegie cor iporation for the purpose. has erected camp library buildings in 34 camps and has others in the course of con- struetion; has opened dispatch sta ition at one of the points of embarka- ition from which books are being shipped to France and has got to- lgether q force of trained workers to carry out it's plans on gigantic scale.
 The headquarters of the American Library Association War Service are at the library of congress. Dr. Herbert Putnam. librarian of congress- is the director. Assistants to the director are Carl H. Milan, librarian of the pub 4a z \ .l r., seph l.. Wheeler, librarian of the pub lie library of Youngstown. O. George B. Ttley of Chicago. secretary of the American Library association, is exec utiye secretary of the war service. Will Ham A. Slade, head of the periodical division of the library of congress, and F. l.. Windsor. director of the library school of the University of Illinois, are also on the headquarters staff.
 Keep Down Expense.
 It has been the determination of Doc tor Putnam and his associates in tke war work to keep overhead expenses down to minimum. Much of the most important work of the service is being done by volunteers and experts drawn from libraries all over the country who are working only for the salaries they receive from their regular occu- .pations. The standard salary of the camp librarians is S1o0 a month. and by obtaining board at the '. NJ. c. A. or at the camp mess the cost of sub Islstenee Is held to . low figure.
 To the war service the most gratify, ing result of its work so far is the tremendous demand for books, a de mand so great and so wide in its range as to prove conclusively to the asso ciation that it has a definite field o1 endeavor and one which is bringing un told happiness to thousands of men At all the camp libraries system ot book requests has been installed ant it Is giving accurate information or what the men want to read.
 To the great surprise of the older army officers the draft men are call ling continuously for serious books Fiction naturally leads. but not by sC wide margin as one who gave bu casual thought to the matter might sur mise. TOT eAaHoie, uay recoru d' the camp library at Camp Meade, Md. the following subjects were represent ed:
 French history, mechanics an6 strategy in war, self-propelled vehicles hand grenades, field entrenchments bridges. chemistry. physics, astronomy geology. hydraulics. electricity, med eval history, calculus, civil engineering geography, American history, survey ing. materials of construction, general history, masonry. concrete.