the teachers who subscribe to SOE's quarterly teaching guide 

 for elementary schools, Smithsonian in Your Classroom. The of- 

 fices designed a survey instrument and mailed 2,000 question- 

 naires in spring of 1998 (to about 15 percent of subscribers). 

 An astonishing 80 percent of those questioned responded to 

 the survey. Results indicated satisfaction with the publication 

 and considerable use of it in classrooms. More than half of 

 the publication's subscribers also read Smithsonian 

 magazine and take advantage of Smithsonian outreach 

 activities, and 90 percent use the Internet. Readers seek 

 more materials in science and history and activities geared 

 to the primary grades (K-3). 



Teachers as Researchers 



To promote the use of museum-based methodologies in class- 

 rooms, SOE conducted a seminar for teachers in the Washington, 

 DC. area on how to develop an exhibit. Teachers visited the 

 Office of Exhibits Central, CAL, and met with museum 

 curators to understand the processes involved in researching 

 and building an exhibit. Teachers emulated these processes as 

 they used primary sources within the Smithsonian to build 

 prototype exhibirs for their own classrooms. Based on this 

 work and other research, the SOE will publish guidelines on 

 classroom exhibit development in 1999. 



A significant amount of Program time is spent on acces- 

 sibility reviews of facilities and exhibitions to ensure that all 

 new construction is fully accessible ro people with disabilities. 

 A close working relationship has been fostered through these 

 reviews with the Office of Physical Plant and museum exhibi- 

 tion designers, thus increasing staff awareness of what acces- 

 sible design entails and helping the Institution further its 

 goals to become fully accessible to all visitors and staff. 



In conjunction with its policy and implementation and 

 guidelines writing responsibility, the Program conducted five 

 seminars with staff and outside advisors with disabilities to 

 Smithsonian staff and outside cultural organizations. Address- 

 ing cutting-edge issues in the areas of accessibility in museum 

 settings, these sessions prepare staff to present becter 

 programs to the Smithsonian's entire public. 



Support for Smithsonian units also included providing 

 direcr accessibility services for visitors (for example, sign 

 language interpreters, real-time captioning, and translation of 

 documents into Braille.) This year the Program arranged 

 nearly 500 hours of services for visitors attending Smithsonian 

 Associates courses, FONZ lectures, and docent-led tours of 

 the museums. 



Finally, the Program provides technical assistance on issues 

 of museum accessibility to museum and Universal Design 

 professionals around the wotld. 



Office of Sponsored Projects 



Ardelle G. Foss, Director 



The Office of Sponsored Projects served Smithsonian researchers 

 and scholars by supporting the work of approximately 137 

 principal investigators who submitted 248 new proposals 

 valued at $63 million and by negotiating and accepting for 

 the Institution 208 grant and contract 3wards valued at 

 $27 million. 



Accessibility Program 



Janice Majewski, Smithsonian Accessibility Coordinator 



The Accessibility Program is a pan-Institutional resource for 

 Smithsonian units to ensure that the Smithsonian's programs 

 and facilities are accessible to people with disabilities. The 

 Program collaborates with all Smithsonian organizations to 

 improve access to existing resources, as well as to design each 

 new program, exhibition, publication, media presentation, 

 and building to be fully accessible to visitors and staff with 

 disabilities. The Program's activities this year show the range 

 of information and services it provides. 



Institutional Studies Office 



Zahava D. Doenng, Director 



The Institutional Studies Office (ISO) is a pan-Institutional 

 resource for the systematic study of the characteristics, attitudes, 

 opinions and experiences of Smithsonian constituencies. The 

 small staff includes professionals with expertise in sociology, 

 demography, research methods, survey statistics, and a variety 

 of quantitative and qualitative data analysis and evaluation 

 techniques. 



Since its founding in 1987, ISO has conducted studies and 

 applied research for Smithsonian administrators, curators, and 

 programmatic staff. Areas of investigation include audience 

 and membership profiles, background studies and assessments 

 of SI exhibitions and public programs, and ongoing analyses 

 of employee composition. For each study, ISO is responsible 

 for all aspects of study ot survey design, implementation of 

 daca collection, analysis, and report writing. Institutional 

 clients are asked to assume the costs of data collection and 

 data entry. In addition, the office provides some technical 

 consultation to cultural organizations throughout the country 

 and professional review of applied research conducted for 

 them. The staff is also available, on a limited basis, to conduct 

 seminars in various aspects of applied quantitative and qualita- 

 tive research and program evaluation. 



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