About the PILOTS Database

PILOTS is a bibliographical database covering Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress. It is produced at the headquarters of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in White River Junction, Vermont. Although it is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the PILOTS database is not limited to literature on PTSD among veterans. Its goal is to include citations to all literature on PTSD and other mental-health sequelae of traumatic events, without disciplinary, linguistic, or geographical limitations, and to offer both current and retrospective coverage.

PILOTS is a bibliographical database. That is, it is essentially a list of publications, rather than a collection of texts. Each record in PILOTS is a representation of a document, containing:

• a bibliographic citation, giving the information (author, title, and source) needed to locate the document
• a description of its content, which basic computer search techniques can use in selecting documents of possible interest from the thousands listed in the database
• a brief summary, to help in determining whether it contains information relevant to a particular enquiry.

The PILOTS database is intended to enable users to identify those publications that contain the information they need. PILOTS citations are not intended to substitute for the documents they represent; in no case should the information contained in a PILOTS citation be used as the basis for a clinical decision. As with any bibliographical compilation, it is the responsibility of the compilers to provide accurate bibliographical information. It is always the responsibility of the user to determine whether the information he or she finds is applicable to the situation at hand, and to use the best professional judgement in its application.

The PILOTS Database is produced by

• Fred Lerner, D.L.S., Information Scientist
• Karen Matthews, M.L.S, M.A., M.S., Librarian/Bibliographer
• Victoria Bedi, M.I.S., Librarian/Bibliographer
• Margaret Willoughby, Program Assistant
• Jan Clark, Program Assistant Emeritus

at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in White River Junction, Vermont.

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