The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 288 The Educational Screen I'iioio i>y r. S. Army Signal Corps (Top) Training officers attend preview of new Signal Corps release in library theatre. (Center) Lt. J. V. LeClair, Fifth Service Command Visual Aids Co-ordinator, tests student in the library projection school. (Bottom) Sgt. Saks preparing filmstrip reviews for publication to inform officers of releases. oj it by training officers and instructors once prints arc in their hands. The Task of the Film Library War means playing for keeps, and every factor must be directed toward that end. The job of the Army fihn library is to see that the vital message and technical information put down on film reach the soldier. In the Fifth Service Command — a sub-division of the Army Service Forces — Central Library headquarters are maintained at Fort Hayes, with sublibraries located at key camps and posts throughout the area over which the Fifth Service Command has jurisdiction. The libraries receive the many prints of training films and film strips and must meet the booking, handling and co-ordinating problems inherent in so big an "enterprise." Under leadership of the Central Library, the liliraries must see to it that visual aids are put to use by training officers instructing in the thousand-andone subjects in which the soldier must be skilled. Moreover, the film library must see to it that the film and film strip are used properly, for the difference between "showing" a visual aid and utilizing it properly is a difference often measured in life-and-death terms. To meet these problems, Signal Corps visual aids coordinators run the film libraries and maintain continual field supervision of the visual education program at their camps. The chief coordinator in charge of the Central Library works to expedite the movement of films and projection equipment from his headquarters library to the sub-libraries and the coordinator on duty at the sub-libraries works with the instructor, the last link in getting the film to the soldier. Aside from a small group of basic films required to be shown to all military personnel, the use of the main body of the excellent productions of the Army Pictorial .Service is contingent upon the requests of the individual training officer. The film library must publicise its "wares" and keep the training office informed of latest releases and new methods of utilizing visual aids. The libraries of the Fifth Service Command issue a monthly bulletin of the Central Library and constantly growing catalogs put out by the Central and sub-libraries. Once the training officer is aware of the assistance he can draw upon from his film library, the library must meet his request for such and such film and film strip at such and such time. To successfully work with a multitude of officers, carrying on different programs at the same installation, requires an efficient, flexible library system. Master booking ledgers are kept by the Central Library to govern the movement of its own prints to the small training units having no sub-library. The Central Library in each command must also serve as a depot to replenish the stock of any of its sub-libraries and be able to speed prints to given points as new training needs arise in the field. Circuit bookings — the automatic scheduling of a film for every camp — are used when an important orientation release is earmarked for Army-wide attendance. Visual aids move fast this way but individual bookings are the order with