Theresa West Elmendorf was elected the first woman ALA President: 19 years before women could vote in American elections. 


The first library record collection was establish in St. Paul, Minnesota.

However, it was not until 1923 that the first circulating record collection was established in Springfield, Mass.



The first presidential library opens in Fremont, Ohio. The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Library is the first of the presidential libraries.


The ALA Executive Board appointed the Committee on Mobilization and War Service Plans (later the War Service Committee). ALA undertook to supply books and periodicals to military personnel, at home and overseas. The initial campaign raised $1M for camp libraries, as well as including a book drive.

This Committee accepted an invitation from the War Department's Commission on Training Camp Activities to provide library service to the U.S. soldiers and sailors in America, France, and other locations.


ALA opened a library for American military personnel in Paris during 1918. This library was later established (1920) as the American Library in Paris

"During the closing years of World War I, when the United States entered the conflict, hundreds of American libraries launched the Library War Service, a massive project to send books to the doughboys fighting in the trenches - by the Armistice, nearly a million and a half books.


In 1919, the Executive board becomes the governing board of ALA.