CHAPTER 5 THE NAVAL LIBRARY ^SYSTEM

This chapter was based on information available to the writer at the time the text was written. It is anticipated that significant changes in the administration of the general library system are forthcoming. Current instructions should be consulted and followed. The information in this chapter will be revised, if necessary, when permanent changes have been issued by the Chief of Naval Operations.

The Navy's General Library Program provides afloat and ashore libraries with an inventory of books. The first ship's library was placed aboard the warship USS FRANKLIN in 1812 just before the FRANKLIN sailed for a 3-year cruise of the Pacific. Upon the return of the ship, the books remaining in the collection became the nucleus of the Seaman's Library at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

HISTORY

The shipboard libraries of that era were among the first projects sponsored by Navy chaplains to improve the social and moral conditions of naval personnel. Similarly, the promotion of learning was among one of the chaplain's earliest collateral duties. One chaplain serving aboard a ship during this period wrote of "forty men aboard who could read poorly or not at all."

Since 1828, when the Navy assumed official responsibility for provision of shipboard libraries from appropriated funds, the Navy's General Library Program has been an important factor in meeting educational, information, communication, professional, and recreational needs of commands and individual personnel.

Figure 5-1 shows a shipboard library around 1898. Compare the view of the shipboard general library of 1898 with that shown in figure 5-2 of a shipboard library on a modern warship in today's Navy. Despite variations, the purpose of the shipboard library remains very much the same. As wooden ships gave way to steel ships that required extensive shore support facilities, shore libraries were added to the Navy's general library system.

MISSION

The primary mission of naval general libraries afloat is to assemble, organize, preserve, and make available to all naval personnel afloat a well-balanced, unbiased, and uncensored collection of library materials, including print and nonprint materials as well as accompanying library services, specifically adapted to the interests and requirements of naval personnel, in support of missions and tasks of commands so naval personnel may do the following:

Educate themselves continuously

Keep pace with progress in all fields of knowledge

Become better members of home and community

Discharge political and social obligations

Develop their creative and spiritual potentialities

Appreciate and enjoy literature, art, and music

Make use of leisure time in ways that will promote personal and social well-being

Develop esprit de corps in the naval service

To achieve these goals, the Navy's General Library Program guides and supports the Navy's general libraries afloat and ashore.

THE NAVY'S GENERAL LIBRARY PROGRAM

Religious Program Specialists (RPs) normally provide library service on board aircraft carriers and other deep-draft vessels to which they are assigned. As an RP, you need to understand the responsibilities of

Figure 5-1.-Shipboard library on USS MASSACHUSETTS in 1898.

commanding officers for general libraries afloat. When library materials are allocated to ship squadrons, for example, you may be called upon to provide advice and assistance to library officers of these ships. The many factors involved in the administration of the Navy's General Library Program will be described in the following paragraphs.