Hospital Library Support of Navy Medical Operational Readiness

ABSTRACT

Hospital librarians in Naval Medical Centers and Naval Hospitals provide information to support the physicians, nurses, psychologists, chaplains, dentists, and corpsmen on ships and on Navy bases worldwide. The concept of “operational readiness” refers to the training required by Navy personnel during peacetime to perform wartime missions. Navy medical librarians receive challenging requests. Providing information electronically through full text, electronic mail, and fax is part of the routine when preparing staff to deploy to other countries and when supporting them in the field and on ships. Librarians at Naval Medical Center, San Diego help prepare Navy health care providers for operations during combat, humanitarian, and peacekeeping missions. This paper describes several Navy medical field operations with brief explanations of medical librarians' support.

Key Words:

• Naval medicine
• biological warfare
• chemical warfare
• anthrax
• Persian Gulf Syndrome
• military medicine
• military personnel