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SUMMARY - 14228_106
CHIEF OF NAVAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Religious Program Specialist 3 - Pastoral training manuals for Navy Chaplains
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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 5-1







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