After the 150th anniversary celebration and looking toward 

 the new century, Secretary I. Michael Heyman felt the time 

 was right to create a unified visual identity for the Institution. 

 It was clear, he wrote in Smithsonian magazine, that "knowing 

 who we are and being able to communicate rhat identity 

 dearly and confidently to the public is best achieved in a 

 single graphic representing both our sum and our parts." 



The choice was the sunburst, linking the Smithsonian's 

 history with its future. Chermayeff& Geismar, Inc., of New 

 York designed the updated sunburst and logorype and created 

 design guidelines to help implement the new visual identity 

 program throughout the Institution. 



Building a strong corporate identity is standard practice in 

 the business world. For the Smithsonian, the challenges are 

 similar. "If we are to be successful in attracting the support we 

 need, now and into the next century, to sustain our multiple 

 departments, activities, and service to our audiences," the 

 Secretary wrote, "the Smithsonian must express those needs 

 with one voice, with one image." 



As the sunburst logo continues to appear on stationery, 

 Web sites, publications, and product packaging, a stronger 

 public image of a multifaceted institution dedicated to 

 knowledge is emerging. 



Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center 



The Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center 

 (VIARC) supports both public access to Smithsonian research 

 and the work of the Institution's scholars and scientists. This 

 year, 5,684 volunteers contributed 495,541 hours of service as 

 docents, volunteer information specialists, and staff assistants 

 behind the scenes, as well as in other volunteer activities that 

 help the Smithsonian fulfill its mission. 



An important example of VIARC's contributions is the 

 Behind-the-Scenes Volunteer Program, which places 

 volunteers as research assistants to staff on subjects as varied as 

 the Smithsonian itself. VIARC also administers the Public 

 Inquiry Mail and Telephone Information Service, which 

 provides a central point for public contact about the 

 Institution's work. Collectively, mail and phone inquiries 

 number 400,000 annually, many of which are specific to the 

 Institution's research activities. 



Hundreds of thousands of visitors are exploring the 

 Institution's research resources online through the electronic 

 "Encyclopedia Smithsonian" (bttp:llunvw.si.edulresourcelfaq! 

 start.htm), developed and maintained by VIARC on the 

 Smithsonian Web site. "Encyclopedia Smithsonian" also 

 presents fan sheets and recommended reading lists prepared 

 by the Public Inquiry Mail Service in cooperation with 

 curatorial and research divisions. 



Research Volunteers 



Working with museum and research institute staff on 

 everything from aviation history to threatened plants of Latin 



America, volunteers in the Visitor Information and Associates' 

 Reception Center's Behind-the-Scenes Volunteer Program 

 actively contribute to the Smithsonian's research efforts. At 

 the National Portrait Gallery, the range of volunteer research 

 projects illustrates just how valuable volunteer participation 

 can be. 



In the Painting and Sculpture Department, Philippe 

 Newton, a retired engineering executive and a painter, has 

 spent the past four years doing research for assistant curatot 

 Brandon Fortune in preparation for the exhibition "Franklin 

 and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in 

 Eighteenth-Century America," which opens in April 1999. 

 "He has researched everything from the transits of Venus to 

 bee keeping," Fortune says, even taking time during a 

 personal trip to London to study some 18th-century 

 manuscripts at the Natural Hisrory Museum. 



For an exhibition of portraits by photographer Hans 

 Namuth, also opening in April, volunteer Christopher Saks 

 searched the National Archives, locating information that 

 other researchers had not found. "He deserves a lot of credit 

 for his diligence and perseverance, and especially for his skill 

 at using the Archives," says Carolyn Carr, exhibition curator 

 and the gallery's deputy director. 



Elsewhere in rhe Portrait Gallery, Mary Skow and Joseph 

 Phillips volunteer with the Charles Willson Peale Papers 

 project. Their research runs the gamut from tracking down 

 basic biographical information ro more complex activities. 

 They summarize and transcribe manuscript letters of Peale 

 family members, for example, and then research specific 

 aspects of the letters' contents. For the Catalog of American 

 Portraits, Sylvia Lee is involved in a variety of tasks, from 

 verifying information about portraits in public and private 

 collections, to data entry, to answering research requests. 



Volunteers working on research-related projects are among the 

 1,240 behind-the-scenes volunteers who contributed 176,128 

 hours of their time to the Smithsonian during fiscal year 1998. 



Office of Government Relations 



The Office of Government Relations, with Donald L. Hardy 

 as its new director, oversaw a successful legislative agenda to 

 enact personnel protections for Smithsonian employees and 

 secure funding to updare and expand the Institution's 

 transportation collections, exhibitions, and public 

 programming. Supporting the Smithsonian's priority to make 

 its collections and programs more accessible to the public, 

 Government Relations staff coordinated discussions, 

 demonstrations, and tours for members of Congress and their 

 staffs. The goal was to enlist their support for making the 

 Smithsonian the nation's virtual museum and research 

 complex. 



In collaboration with educators and with Smithsonian 

 museums, research institutes, and offices, the Office of 

 Government Relations placed special emphasis on bringing 

 Smithsonian resources to the classroom. 



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