The Virtual Naval Hospital: the digital library as knowledge management tool for nomadic patrons.
OBJECTIVE
To meet the information needs of isolated primary care providers and their patients in the US Navy, a digital health sciences library, the Virtual Naval Hospital, was created through a unique partnership between academia and government.


METHODS
The creation of the digital library was heavily influenced by the principles of user-centered design and made allowances for the nomadic nature of the digital library's patrons and the heterogeneous access they have to Internet bandwidth.


RESULTS
The result is a digital library that has been in operation since 1997, continues to expand in size, is heavily used, and is highly regarded by its patrons.


CONCLUSIONS
The digital library is dedicated to delivering the right information at the right time to the right person so the right decision can be made, and therefore the Virtual Naval Hospital functions as a knowledge-management system for the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
D'Alessandro
Michael P
MP
Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA. michael-dalessandro@uiowa.edu
D'Alessandro
Donna M
DM
Bakalar
Richard S
RS
Ashley
Denis E
DE
Hendrix
Mary J C
MJ
D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007484:Iowa; D046609:Libraries, Digital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007993:Libraries, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009326:Naval Medicine; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D012767:Ships