Instant library - Education - Brief Article

Joint Force Quarterly, Summer, 2002

The holdings of military libraries can be accessed through the Military Education Research Library Network (MERLN), a Web-based information portal designed to promote international outreach. Divided into geographic and content-specific areas, the home page offers access to MERLN (North America) through a central node in the National Defense University (NDU) Library. Other points include: MERLN (Asia-Pacific) with a central node at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; MERLN (Latin America-Caribbean) under the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at NDU; MERLN (Europe), with a central node at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies; and MERLN (International Fellows) and (Near East-South Asia) with access to licensed electronic products for NDU alumni.

Three content-specific areas include resources, online publications, and the digital library. Resources present holdings from catalogs, library home pages, and bibliographies of participating libraries. Listings include terrorism and homeland security and also bibliographies on topics such as asymmetric warfare, civil-military operations, and strategic deterrence. Information is updated daily. Online publications afford centralized access to periodicals like Joint Force Quarterly and Parameters and titles released by the Marshall Center, Partnership for Peace Consortium, and other institutions. The digital library presents unique collections, including archives on command and staff colleges, papers of John M. Shalikashvili and Maxwell D. Taylor, and student work from the National War College.

MERLN is available worldwide on a 24/7 basis at http://merln.ndu.edu.