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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



Orchestra, jazz legends Charlie Byrd and Herbie Mann, 

 1999 Grammy Award winner Flaco Jimenez, and Lydia 

 Mendoza, the "Queen of Tejano Music," were among the 

 many performers. 



Involvement with Latino communities is a priority for 

 The Associates, and programs by, for, and about the history 

 and culture of people of Hispanic origin are increasingly 

 popular. "Musica de las Americas" was made possible with 

 the support of the Smithsonian Center fot Latino Initiatives 

 and America's Jazz Heritage, a Partnership of the Lila Wallace- 

 Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution. 



Connecting to Smithsonian Resources 



Fot more than 25 years, staff and volunteers in the Visitot 

 Information and Associates' Reception Center's (VIARC) 

 Public Inquiry Mail and Telephone Information Services 

 have fielded an extraordinary variety of questions, from the 

 ptedictable ("What are the Smithsonian's hours?") to the 

 startlingly specific ("What is this insect? See enclosed."). 

 When the public is curious, VIARC is ready with assistance. 



Today, people seeking information are more likely to send 

 an e-mail than to pick up the telephone or mail a letter. Some 

 15,600 electronic inquiries arrived at VIARC's address, 

 info@info.si.edu, in fiscal year 1999, representing 45 percent 



of all inquiries received and an 80 percent increase over last 

 year's electronic mail. Each month, thousands of cyber-visitors 

 log on to the Smithsonian's Web site, whete they can browse 

 Encyclopedia Smithsonian, a VIARC page that provides se- 

 lected links to on-line information throughout the 

 Institution. A VIARC behind-the-scenes volunteet has made 

 critical contributions to the creation of this site, working with 

 many Smithsonian organizations. Most recently, she collabo- 

 rated with the Department of Entomology in the National 

 Museum of Natutal History to create the extensive "Bug 

 Info" area (click on "Insects" in Encyclopedia Smithsonian). 



VIARC volunteers and staff work with an impressive li- 

 brary of fact sheets and bibliographies on everything from 

 mollusks to the history of taxicabs, created and revised over 

 the years in cooperation with Smithsonian specialists. When 

 the Institution joined forces with America Online in 1993 to 

 create Smithsonian Online, VIARC conttibuted highlights 

 from these information resources. By 1995, the Smithsonian 

 had launched its own Web site, and VIARC was instrumen- 

 tal in supplying much of the initial content. 



Although e-mail makes asking questions easy, VIARC 

 still fields telephone queties at (202) 357-2700. "People ate 

 astonished when they get a live response," says VIARC's 

 Katherine Neill Ridgley. Whether in person or on-line, she 

 says, "people tell us how grateful they ate to be connected to 

 the wealth of knowledge and mfotmation the Smithsonian 

 has to offer." 



