![]() (In reality, most of the measures shown in the film would have been useless during a nuclear attack.) In Detroit, librarians even published their own civil defense magazine filled with abstracts of relevant materials. Libraries around the country screened movies like You Can Beat the A-Bomb, an upbeat film that presented information about the “best” ways to survive an attack. Libraries were turned into fallout shelters, urged on by government claims that the stacks “offered excellent radiation shielding.” The New York Public Library led the charge, collecting “mountains of civil defense booklets” that laid out how to drill for an atomic bomb and survive after one fell. Libraries became clearinghouses for pamphlets, books, and audiovisual materials about how to survive a nuclear attack. This participation showed up in library collections. But despite their resistance to political pressures, librarians “vigorously participated” in civil defense during the 1950s. That’s surprising, says Spencer, especially given many librarians’ stance on other Cold War issues, like McCarthyist attempts to control the books in their collections. The nation’s attempts to shield itself from the coming bomb were reflected across institutions, including libraries. But at the time, the threat felt very real for everyday Americans. Many of today’s scholars dismiss the nation’s civil defense push as a propagandistic effort that used fear to unite Americans against Russia. But what about libraries? Reference librarian Brett Spencer examines how libraries and librarians braced for the coming threat. From seemingly useless under-desk drills to legit bunkers, the general public was prepared for nuclear war during the Cold War.
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