provide access to journal articles, chapters in books, book 

 reviews, pamphlets, and other ephemera that are difficult to 

 locate. 



SIL is committed to the concept of being one single library 

 located in a number of places with consistency in access to the 

 collections and databases. To ensure quality service, the Re- 

 search Services Division instituted a training program for 

 public service librarians to enable them to keep abreast of the 

 rapidly changing environment of electronic information, and 

 then train other branch staff and library users. 



In the Management Services Department, a major focus 

 was training for implementation of phase II of the Smith- 

 sonian Financial System. Working with other offices, SIL 

 renovated space at the SIL Research Annex and planned for 

 renovations in the Natural History Building. Plans for design 

 of the National Museum of American Indian Branch Library 

 and the Natural History Rare Book Library continued. SIL's 

 Administrative Services Manual was updated; staff created a 

 single database to generate standard personnel reports, and 

 streamlined the reconciliation of SIL records to the 

 Institution's official accounting records. 



The Systems Office performed a major upgrade to catalogu- 

 ing units and smaller upgrades in other offices in addition to 

 making the WWW platform operational. The STRI Branch 

 library implemented automated circulation. During ten 

 months of the year, the Systems Office responded to 1,340 

 help/problem calls. 



Acquisitions Services staff implemented new procedures to 

 add provisional records for gift volumes at the point of receipt 

 to the online catalogue. This will alert staff and users to the 

 gifts, prevent duplicate orders, and allow gifts to be tracked as 

 they are processed. Acquisitions staff also reduced the inven- 

 tory of SIL's stock of Smithsonian publications used for gifts 

 and exchange. 



"From Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institu- 

 tion," SIL's 150th anniversary exhibition, opened in July for a 

 six-month run in the SIL Exhibition Gallery (located in Na- 

 tional Museum of American History, first floor). Organized 

 by the Libraries in collaboration with the Office of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution Archives, including the Joseph Henry 

 Papers, and the Architectural History and Historic Preserva- 

 tion division, with assistance from Office of Exhibits Central 

 and the Office of Imaging, Printing, and Photographic Ser- 

 vices, the show recounts the events leading to the Institution's 

 founding in 1846, the building of the Castle, and a review of 

 the administrations of Secretaries Joseph Henry and Spencer 

 Baird. Two small internal exhibitions were produced for the 

 SIL Library Hall, Natural History Building. "Conquistadores 

 del Cielo: Latin American Aeronautical Materials in the Na- 

 tional Air and Space Museum Branch Library" opened in 

 January and, in July, "From Easel to Book: Picturing Natural 

 History" went on display, curated in collaboration with 

 natural history illustrators and an Institution historian. 



Among the most important acquisitions in special collec- 

 tions was L'Usage Du Thermometre ("Paris, 1628), the first edi- 



tion of the first independent work on the thermometer SIL 

 books were loaned the to National Building Museum, the Na- 

 tional Portrait Gallery, and the Inter-American Development 

 Bank, the latter to celebrate the Institution's 150 years of con- 

 nection with Latin America. 



SIL welcomed Luis Oporto-Ordonez, Director of the 

 Department of Information and Scientific Documentation at 

 the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, 

 Bolivia, for a three-month term as a Library Fellow of the 

 American Library Association in October. The Special Collec- 

 tions Department hosted two SIL/Dibner Library Resident 

 Scholars, supported by The Dibner Fund. One researched the 

 wotks of a 17th-century Jesuit polymath, and the other 

 worked on the social uses of scientific instruments. The Preser- 

 vation Services Department hosted thtee interns during the 

 year, including a third-year conservation student from the 

 University of Texas, Austin, Graduate School of Library and 

 Information Science. SIL staff delivered several invited papers 

 this year, rhree of which were published, along with two 

 books, thirteen articles, and twenty-six book reviews. Staff 

 also served on committees of professional associations. 



Smithsonian Institution Traveling 

 Exhibition Service (SITES) 



Anna R. Cohn, Director 



Since 1952, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition 

 Service (SITES) has made Smithsonian exhibitions available to 

 millions of people who cannot view them firsthand on the Na- 

 tional Mall in Washington, DC. Each year, audiences across 

 the Western Hemisphere experience the treasures and oppor- 

 tunities of the Smithsonian by visiting SITES exhibitions on 

 view in local museums, libraries, science centers, historical 

 societies, zoos, aquanums, community centers, and schools. 



The Smithsonian's International Gallery, which now falls under 

 the auspices of SITES, fulfills a complementary mission by hosting 

 unique temporary exhibitions and programs in Washington that 

 fall outside the collections scope of Smithsonian museums. 



SITES and the International Gallery both marked new ter- 

 ritory with their FY 1996 programs, launching directives that 

 will move them into the next century. Electronic outreach 

 projects, the national distribution of teachet resources, and 

 the growth of milestone partnerships with nonprofit, cor- 

 porate, and government organizations made FY 1996 one of 

 SITES' most exciting years to date. During the same period, 

 the International Gallery forged new ties with Washington's 

 diplomatic community, explored the melding of ait and 

 science, and organized a forum for community building 

 within the Smithsonian. 



SITES expanded its own national community of host 

 museums, visitors, and supporters by developing the 



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