46 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



Kansas), Mexican Heritage Plaza (San Jose, California), Mi- 

 ami Museum of Science (Miami, Florida), National Museum 

 of Industrial History (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), and San 

 Carlos Institute (Key West, Florida). These additions bring 

 the total number of implemenred affiliations to nine. 



The program welcomed six new participants during fiscal 

 year 1999: B&O Railroad Museum, Florida International 

 Museum (St. Petersburg, Florida), McAllen International 

 Museum (McAllen, Texas), San Carlos Institute, Storytelling 

 Foundation International (Jonesborough, Tennessee), and The 

 Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future (Dallas, Texas). 



As an extension of their affiliations projects, the Bisbee 

 Mining and Historical Museum and Centro Alameda (San 

 Antonio, Texas) each had interns working in Smithsonian of- 

 fices during the summer. The Affiliations Program office 

 also oversaw one fellowship this year. 



Smithsonian Institution Archives 



Edie Hedlin, Director 



Improving internal systems and promoting outreach were 

 the major goals in 1999 for Smithsonian Institution 

 Archives. The National Collections Program (NCP) made 

 significant progress in coordinating the Institution's revision 

 of SD600: Collections Management Policy by securing the 

 Board of Regents approval of "Smithsonian Collections Man- 

 agement Guidelines." The Archives Division began a 

 multi-year project to implement a new system for describing 

 its holdings. By adopting a method of using contextual de- 

 scriptions, known as agency histories, combined with 

 content descriptions of series of records, SI A will provide re- 

 searchers with improved access to the hundreds of collections 

 in its care. 



The Electronic Records Program within the Technical 

 Services Division developed advice for Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion staff that was placed on the Smithsonian's Intranet 

 PRISM to assist them in managing their e-mail messages as 

 the Institution upgraded its e-mail system. In response to 

 perceived problems with insect infestations, the Pteservation 

 Team developed an integrated pest management program. 

 The Joseph Henry Papers project entered into the Model 

 Editions Partnership, a cooperative effort by documentary 

 editing projects and the National Historical Publications 

 and Records Commission to establish standards for efficient 

 coding procedures for electronic publicarions. 



A major effort to convert individual databases tracking 

 various aspects of archival processes commenced in 1999. 

 Staff from both the Archives Division and the Technical Ser- 

 vices Division defined the fields required by the various 

 activities and began the design of the Collections Manage- 

 ment System. The ultimate goal is to incorporate all of this 

 information into an integrated database that can share com- 

 mon information across archival functions. 



The Institutional History Division (IHD) continued its 

 vigorous schedule of publicarion in both printed and virtual 



form, as evidenced by rhe issuance of volume 8 of The Papers 

 of Joseph Henry. Staff from the Joseph Henry Papers provided 

 rhe information that appeated in the Mini Page syndicated 

 column, featuring Joseph Henry and his role in creating a 

 wearher reporting system in the United States. They also 

 added three new articles on Henry's role in the history of 

 American technology to its Web site. Other Web activities 

 included the completion of the "Bairds's Dream: A History 

 of the Atts and Industries Building" electronic exhibition, 

 the initiation of a new Web resources that will offer public 

 access to legal documents relating to the history of the 

 Smithsonian, and the inclusion of the finding aid, "Field Re- 

 ports of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 186-61" on the SI A Web site. 



NCP compiled and published the Institution's annual col- 

 lection statistical report. In June, the Provosr approved rhe 

 transfer of the production of the Smithsonian Annals from 

 the Smithsonian Institution Press to NCP. During this fitst 

 year, NCP sraff began to gather information for the 1997 

 and 1998 Annals. 



The focus for the Electronic Records Program in 1999 was 

 on issues associated with electronic record keeping systems. 

 SIA participated in a pilot project with the Archives Center 

 to determine the feasibility of managing and preserving the 

 Office of the Directors e-mail records by creating a parallel 

 electronic sysrem. SIA purchased elecrronic record keeping 

 software to examine the feasibility of using this type of sys- 

 tem fot managing both paper and electronic files. 



The Preservation Team focused irs activities on addressing 

 the cote preservation needs of SIA by performing holdings 

 maintenance on high-value collections, conducting pteserva- 

 tion assessments of accessions and high-value collections, 

 environmental monitoring of records storage facilities, 

 preparing collections to National Underground Storage, and 

 treating collections identified as containing mold. With 

 funding from a research resources grant, the team members 

 rehoused 215 archival collections comprising 941 cubic feer. 

 A second project funded by research resources granr and the 

 Women's Committee continued the work begun in 1998 of 

 appraising, preserving, and making accessible the films and 

 videotapes created by Smithsonian Productions. The team 

 continued its practice of providing outreach services to the 

 National Anthropological Archives, Hirshhorn Museum and 

 Sculpture Garden, and the Archives of American Art. 



The core archival activities continued with providing 

 services to Smithsonian offices. SIA completed a survey of 

 1 ,400 cubic feet of records for the Cooper-Hewitt, National 

 Design Museum, which culminated in a comprehensive 

 records disposition schedule for that museum. The Archives 

 Division coordinated the transfer of SIA records and those of 

 othet Smithsonian repositories to National Underground 

 Storage in Boyers, Pennsylvania. By the end of 1999, over 

 6,400 feer of Smithsonian material had been moved to NUS. 

 SIA transferred 559 cubic feet into its holdings and dis- 

 carded 37 cubic feet. Total archival holdings ar the end of 

 1999 amounted to 22,207 cubic feet of material. Staff 

 broughr in 364 cubic feet and discarded 310 cubic feet of 

 records at the records center. 



