Valerie Wheat, Smithsonian Institution Libraries' branch 

 librarian for the Museum Reference Center, completed a year's 

 participation in a program to prepare librarians from a racial 

 minority group for top leadership positions in research and 

 academic libraries. Ms. Wheat was one of 21 librarians chosen 

 from a competitive pool in this program sponsored by the 

 Association of Research Libraries Leadership and Career 

 Development Program and funded by the Department of 

 Education. She adapted her completed research project, 

 "Museum and Library Collaborations: A Natural Cultural 

 Partnership." into a presentation at the American Association 

 of Museums in May. 



The Smithsonian Institution Libraries plays an essential 

 role in the exhibitions, the programs, and in the research con- 

 ducred at the Institution with its IS branch libraries and 

 electronic resources available at unrw.sil.si.edu. Its collections 

 of 1.2 million volumes with 40,000 rare books include strong 

 holdings in most of the Institution's historical disciplines, 

 lending crucial support to founder James Smithson's mandate 

 for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Particular col- 

 lection strengths are in rhe fields of natural history, anthropol- 

 ogy, and Native American history and culture to the history 

 of science and technology, American history, aviation history 

 and space flight, postal history, design and decorative arts, 

 African art, museology, materials conservation research, tropi- 

 cal biology, and environmental management and ecology. The 

 distinguished collection of manufacturers' trade literature 

 (285,000 pieces representing 30,000 companies) and of world's 

 fairs materials are used by scholars in many disciplines. The 

 Libraries is actively building collections in Latino history and 

 culture and African American history and culture. 



Smithsonian Institution Traveling 

 Exhibition Service 



Anna R. Cohn, Director 



The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service 

 (SITES) is the largest traveling exhibition service in the world. 

 Its mission is to extend the Smithsonian collections, research, and 

 exhibitions to "sites" across the nation and beyond. SITES or- 

 ganizes and circulates exhibitions of all shapes and sizes on the 

 arts, sciences, and humanities. Since the first exhibition went on 

 the road in 1952, SITES has traveled thousands of exhibitions for 

 the education and enjoyment of museum goers in every state and 

 several foreign countries. 



In order to expand the Smithsonian's outteach, SITES has 

 continued to seek out alternative partners and spaces to create 

 and host exhibitions. For example, throughout its tour, the ex- 

 hibition "Vanishing Amphibians" traveled to science centers, 

 conferences, and libraries in order to reach audiences that 

 might not visit traditional science or natural history 

 museums. SITES also continues to work the American Library 



Association to create poster versions of exhibitions to hang in 

 libraries across the country. It began a strategic alliance with 

 Silver Dollar City in order to insure wide visibility for Smith- 

 sonian exhibitions way beyond the Belrway. 



Additionally, SITES continues to work with Ametica's Jazz 

 Heritage to create innovative exhibitions and programs to ex- 

 plore the historical and social impact of jazz music. 



SITES' Rural Initiative Program is designed to reach under- 

 served communities in rural areas Throughout the United 

 States. In addition to providing these venues with exhibi- 

 tions, SITES works with the Federation of State Humanities 

 Councils to provide the venues with professional development 

 programs and training, as well as assisting in the develop- 

 ment of site-specific public programming. 



SITES also expanded its national outreach this year through 

 the Internet by launching the online exhibition "Rotten Truth 

 (About Garbage)" and by including new educational materials 

 on its own newly tedesigned Web site. 



Smithsonian Office of Education 



Ann Bay, Director 



Web Sites for Young Researchers 



In FY 1998 SOE created two Web sites fot young tesearchers: 

 "Migrations: People, Culture, Objects, Ideas" (launched fall 

 1997) and "Impacto, Influencia, Cambio: Science, Technology, 

 and Invention in Latin America and the Southwestern United 

 States" (launched September 28, 1998). Both sites contain 

 primary source materials such as oral histories, patent draw- 

 ings, photographs of objects, and documents from a variety of 

 Smithsonian museums and archives. The Web sites (subareas 

 of the Smithsonian Education Web site) have been designed 

 for use by srudents in grades 6 through 12 who are doing 

 projects for National History Day (about 500,000 students 

 annually). Our purpose is to make Smithsonian resources as 

 useful and accessible as possible to this audience. 



Museum/School Conference 



In September 1998 the SOE and the Institute fot Museum and 

 Library Studies are sponsoring a conference on the evaluation 

 of museum schools. Participants will look at the impact of 

 museum-based cutticula on cognitive, emotional, and be- 

 havioral measures of student performance. At the conference 

 the schools will shate examples of instruments used to 

 measure student growth including instructional rubrics, stu- 

 dent and teacher surveys, and specific performance tasks. 



Audience Research: Readers of Smithsonian in 

 Your Classroom 



The Smithsonian Office of Education joined forces with the 

 Office of Institutional Studies to conduct a full-scale survey of 



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