"The Feminine Touch Has Not Been Wanting": Women Librarians at Camp Zachary Taylor, 1917–1919

During World War I the American Library Association established libraries at military camps throughout the country as part of its Library War Service program. The experience of the female library workers at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, attests to both the essential nature of their work and the limitations women faced working in camp libraries during World War I. The ALA's published records create the impression that this library was staffed and run by men, except for the hospital librarian. The unpublished and locally published records of this library, however, reveal that women were quite involved in staffing and even leading the library. Despite regulations and attitudes that might have limited their involvement, women contributed significantly to the operation of this and other wartime libraries.