warfare areas, such as Undersea Warfare or
Amphibious Warfare are also provided. The Master
Publications Allowance List is available from the Naval
Oceanographic Office on CD-ROM. It can also be
downloaded via the Secure Internet Protocol Routing
Network (SIPRNET).
Useful Publications
Useful publications include those publications that,
although useful, are not required for inspection
purposes.
These publications include climatology
studies, National Weather Service publications, and
certain classified publications. Appendix III of
NAVMETOCCOMINST 3140.1, U.S. Navy
Oceanographic and Meteorological Support System
Manual, lists several pertinent references for
oceanographic and meteorological support. These
consist of different instructions and publications that
contain information especially useful for different
METOC-related tasks. However, the appendix stresses
that the list is not a list of required publications.
Unclassified Naval Oceanographic Office
publications are listed in the NAVOCEANO RP-50,
Catalog of Naval Oceanographic Office Publications.
Classified Naval Oceanographic Office publications
are listed in the NAVOCEANO RP-51(S), Catalog of
Classified Naval Oceanographic Office Publications.
Source listings for NAVAIR publications, airfield
summaries, and observation summaries are discussed in
the following text.
Climatic Publications
The National Weather Service, the Air Force, and
the Navy all produce various types of climatic studies
and climatic summaries. Many of these products are
routinely distributed to your command via CD-ROM as
they are produced. Some products must be specially
ordered. The best place to find out what type of climatic
information is available for a specific location or region
is the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography
Detachment (FNMOD), Asheville Internet website at:
http://waves.ncdc.noaa.gov. This site contains
information on climatic reference publications and
studies available on CD-ROM as well as in book form.
It also provides a listing of several climatic studies that
are currently available for issue on different types of
media-paper, microfiche, microfilm, or compact disk.
It does not list any classified studies that may have been
made for any particular location. The FNMOD website
also provides a listing of available Worldwide Airfield
Summaries (WWAS) and Summary of Synoptic
Meteorological Observations (SSMOs).
MAINTENANCE OF PUBLICATIONS
So far, we have discussed several sources that list
publications that may be found in your office. Now we
will discuss how to take care of the publications that you
have.
The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography
Command centers and facilities may have rooms that
are designated as a library, but for most detachments
and ships, this is a luxury because of space limitations.
Undoubtedly, you have some bookcase space available,
whether aboard ship, in a detachment, or at a center or
facility. If your command has an established system for
filing and retrieving publications, and the system
generally works, then the best thing you can do is to
learn that system and work with it.
If no workable system has been established, the
simplest system for office-size book collections is the
alphabetical filing system. File the publications on
shelves in alphabetical order by the title. A computer
listing (or index cards) should be made up for each
book, listing the title, publication number, and
subject(s) covered.
For slightly larger collections of publications, you
may wish to divide the bookcase shelves into sections
for each series of publications, such as NAVAIR
publications (all publications with NAVAIR numbers),
National Weather Service publications, Naval
Oceanographic Office publications, Naval
Environmental Prediction Research Facility
publications, and so forth. Publications within each
group may be arranged alphabetically. The same type of
title and subject computer listing (or index card listing)
may be maintained, but each entry should also include a
listing of the bookcase section in which the publication
is located.
Your title index and subject index are the key to
your library. Keep the index current. Let the other
people you work with know how the publications are
arranged and how the index is maintained. If the index
is maintained on the office computer, let them know
how to access the information, or be available to access
the information for them.
Some sort of checkout system or log must be used to
keep track of publications that are removed from the
area. The most useful reference publications, if not
controlled properly, tend to "disappear" from libraries.
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