As far back as 1902, a national U.S. Forest Service library formed with the transfer of 3,000 books from the Department of Agriculture library. It grew steadily over the years providing a range of services to research customers. Gradually interest grew in expanding service to other Forest Service employees outside of the research branch and to consolidate into fewer locations.
However, over the decades, and because of its evolving decentralized organization structure, large parts of the Forest Service and the public ended up without access to library services.
