Petrified Truth: They want it in electrons

January 13, 2005

They want it in electrons

It's good to see this work recognized: military librarians are providing essential support to both miltary personnel and their families. Their mission is intensified during wartime, just like all other operations.

A Marine in Iraq wants a database search for information about terrorist suspects. A lonely child with a deployed military parent needs a few good books to help pass the time. A sailor deployed for months at sea wants to study for college entrance exams.
As the war on terror continues, America's military librarians serve readers who range from warriors in the field to the families they've left behind.

"Last year, we had 20,600 people sign up to use our services," said John Vassallo, director of the Thomas Lee Hall Library at Fort Jackson, the Army's largest training installation.

Vassallo's tiny library - the main branch on this huge base - serves not only the 30,000 people normally associated with Fort Jackson, but also the 50,000 soldiers a year who come through here for weeks or months of training.

As noted by Camille at Book Moot, the "number of military libraries is amazing."

Army officials say there are about 82 such Army libraries at installations around the world. In all, there are about 230 libraries in the Army system, which includes academic, technical, legal, medical and military unit libraries.
Air Force officials say their service has 109 libraries worldwide; Navy officials said their branch has 32 general libraries on bases and book collections on some 322 active vessels.

The Navy and Marine Corps also have more than 50 specialized libraries for academic, technical, medical and legal matters, according to Carole Ramkey, head of the Grey Research Center at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va.

The Library Journal says:

Under normal, peacetime circumstances, military libraries resemble their civilian counterparts, except that they serve additional special constituencies. Their hospital libraries emphasize military medicine and trauma care. Service academy libraries support traditional liberal arts, but the collection and reference questions are heavily weighted toward military history, technology, and strategy.
"General libraries"—those serving army posts and navy and air force bases, which comprise the majority of military libraries—are like public libraries, serving the needs of soldiers and their dependents plus the strategic planning needs of commanders and the professional advancement goals of officers.