Smithsonian Libraries

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays in 2008!

All through 2008, the Smithsonian Libraries has been celebrating the 40th (Ruby) anniversary of the year (1968) that Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley created the Smithsonian Institution Libraries as a separate unit with a central administration and Director. We had a party for our Smithsonian friends and colleagues in April, and Acting Secretary Cristián Samper gave us $40,000 for acquisitions, a dollar for every year.  We held a symposium about 18th century naturalist Mark Catesby with the Washington premier of the film “The Curious Mr. Catesby,” which you may see on your local PBS station in the coming year. 

With Smithsonian colleagues, we sponsored a speaker series that brought thinkers and experts from outside the Institution to talk about their views of the future of libraries, archives, and museums. We engaged a consultant to lead us through a strategic planning process that will start us off well for our next 40 years! 

On October 30, we hosted our Ruby Anniversary Gala, “Paint the Town REaD!” to raise funds to support our art libraries.  And we opened two exhibitions: Picturing Words:The Power of Book Illustration in the just re-opened National Museum of American History, and The Art of African Exploration in the National Museum of Natural History. Whew!

It has been a busy time, but now we will all stop and reflect on the needs of others and the joys of the holiday season.  We wish everyone well for the coming year.

Nancy Gwinn

President Bush and Our Oceans -- Up Close

Tomorrow is the opening of the new Sant Ocean Hall in the National Museum of Natural History, and today I had the privilege of being in the Baird Auditorium to hear remarks from President Bush concerning his administration's efforts to protect our oceans.  Regardless of party affiliation, it is exciting to be in the vicinity of the President, as the Secret Service operates the security measures needed to keep our leaders safe.  The central core of the museum was closed to staff and public until 11am today when the visit concluded.  We waited in the auditorium while the President toured the new exhibition and learned about what Smithsonian scientists are doing to learn about our oceans to underpin protection efforts.  Touring with him were our new Secretary Clough, Chairman of the Board of Regents Roger Sant (for whom the exhibition gallery is named), Natural History Museum Director Cristian Samper, and other dignitaries.

President Bush said "oceans are important as an economic lifeline" and spoke of the 88-point "Ocean Action Plan" that has guided the work of the White House in restoring diminished fish stocks, protecting coral reefs, expanding ocean research and educational programs, expanding the Monterey Sea Sanctuary in California and protecting whales in shipping lanes.  It was a brief presentation, but it brought attention to the new Sant Ocean Hall, which will do much to enlighten the public about the importance of oceans in our lives.

Impressions of an IFLA Congress - 2

It's Friday, August 15, and the 2008 IFLA Congress is officially finished, but I have one more meeting, the Governing Board, tomorrow.  On Wednesday, I attended the meeting hosted by Jay Jordan, President of OCLC, concerning OCLC's new initiatives, and especially how it operates internationally.  It's clear that the organization will be making some changes in governance to allow for more participation by OCLC members outside the U.S. as those numbers are growing fast.  OCLC's Karen Calhoun spoke about metadata and how library catalogs need to be put in a larger context if they will continue to be relevant to information searchers.  I had to leave the session early, but not before she quoted from both David Weinberger and David Lankes, both authors looking into the future of information and both speakers coming to the Smithsonian Libraries this fall.

Earlier that day, the Acquisitions and Collection Development Section held a program about mass digitization, at which Robert Miller of the Internet Archive, and Jonathan Bengston of the University of Toronto talked about the large-scale digitizing going on there.  Robert showed a clip of the scanning center there, which has 28 workstations operating 14 hours a day to scan university collections.  They were followed by Klaus Ceynowa of the Bavarian State Library in Munich, which has signed a non-exclusive contract with Google for digitizing its collections.  He defended this by laying out the enormous cost of doing it themselves, but also pointed out that the Library is getting a copy of the files that it can make available in any way it wants.

Yesterday was the IFLA Council Meeting, the Council being the voting body of IFLA, followed by the Closing Ceremony.  At the Ceremony, the Italian National Committee  welcomed delegates to the next IFLA Congress in 2009, which will be held in Milan.  They introduced two young musicians who played a lovely classical oboe-piano duet, followed by a film showing the many charming features of the city and Lombardy region.  Claudia Lux, IFLA's President, then announced that the 2011 Congress will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which stimulated a moving, tearful speech from the head of the Puerto Rican National Committee and another film clip than definitely encouraged the audience to plan to attend.  I had the pleasure of announcing the winners of the best section newsletter and best poster competitions, which seemed to please the crowd.

All in all, it was a smooth running event with many excellent papers that will find their way into the IFLA Journal and many memories of Quebec to take home.

Nancy Gwinn

Thoughts on the Library as Place

SIL is involved in several renovation projects--at the Cooper-Hewitt where the library is moving to new space; at NMNH where the main Natural History is also moving to new space; and at NMAH, where the library has been in the middle of a construction zone for a year and a half.

Consequently, I attended a meeting called "Tomorrow's Library in Today's  Space." The most interesting presentation was from Jay Shaffer, Director at the U. of Massachusetts, who created a "Learning Commons." He distinguishes this from an Information Commons, which a number of academic libraries are creating.  The latter, in his view, is just providing computer workstations anle to do searching on the library's website or the Internet, but no other software.  A "Learning Commons" is staffed by both librarians and computer staff and has workstations with Microsoft Office and other software needed by students to do their work.

These spaces are open 24/7 and the library has also put in a coffee bar or other food service near by.  Places for students to practice presentations are also included.

The operative word here is students, meaning undergrads.  The spaces are set up for individual and group study and to do group projects.  And they need these spaces because that is the kind of assignment undergrads are given.

I saw something similar at Georgia Tech recently.  And hearing about both, my main question is, what relevance does this have for the Smithsonian Libraries?  After all, with some exceptions, our on-site clientèle are largely  "faculty" (scientists, curators, historians)  and grad students (research assistants, fellows, interns).

The universities are thinking of this also.  Jay Shaffer says his next focus is on this community and what kind of spaces they require.  I've heard that from others as well, so we should see what kinds of ideas our academic library colleagues come up with.

Meanwhile, let me speculate.  Our new Secretary and other SI leaders have talked about the need for more cross-disciplinary activity within the SI, more collaboration, and thinking that is pan-Institutional.  SIL is a neutral space with a broad view of service to all. We are having the opportunity to renovate some spaces, and in some of our areas! We will be moving parts of the collections to our new housing location at Pennsy Drive.

Perhaps SIL could begin to provide not only study space in a reading room environment, but also collaborative spaces where groups can work together, workstations with larger tablespaces, even small enclosed rooms for meetings.  This certainly bears thinking more about, as we consider how to further support the Institution's mission.

Report from the ALA exhibits floor

One of the advantages of attending such a large conference is the exposure that is possible to issues and programs outside one's normal everyday interests.  The extensive exhibits are one place where vendors and publishers of all kinds promote their wares. I'm on the exhibit floor now, watching a presentation in the Library of Congress booth about LC's digital preservation program.

The big news in print publishing continues to be children's books and products; it's hard to find adult books (my personal interest) here on the exhibit floor.

Nevertheless, many publishers are giving away advance reading copies or uncorrected proofs, not to mention posters, catalogs, flyers and many other (heavy) items.  No wonder there is a post office right here, ready with boxes available for shipping.

The exhibit flloor is also a good place to catch trends.  I was struck by the growing specialty areas of gaming and  graphic novels and comics, as well as the increase in audiobook producers.  These are geared toward public and school libraries more than to a place like the Smithsonian, of course, but there may be relevance to our education programs.

Technology is big, of course, but there are furniture displays, architects, and much more.  Continuing presentations from authors and tech vendors can be engaging.  Finally, there seems to be a growing number of jewelry, clothing, and other commercial products, which adds to the fun, if not the business.

I'll be back with more serious stuff later.

- Nancy

Report for the ALA conference

I'm attending the annual ALA conference in Anaheim, where we're enjoying welcome relief from Washington's hot, muggy air.  ALA is so big that every attendee is going to have a highly individual view.  I only arrived yesterday (Friday) afternoon, but already I have several meetings under my belt.

My focus this time is largely on international activities, given my current role as a member of the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and as chair of it's Professional Committee.  So yesterday I sat in on the meeting of ALA's International Relations Committee, where there were numerous reports on how the association is reaching out to colleagues around the world.

I joined Sjoerd Koopman, IFLA's Coordinator of Professional Activities, in reporting on what IFLA was doing in many areas of the developing world to advocate for libraries and freedom of information.

IFLA has just published a world report on the status of intellectual freedom in over 100 countries.  IFLA is also helping to rebuild the library on the small island of Yap; it's library was completely destroyed in the
tsunami that caused a disaster in Southeast Asia several years ago.  Yap was overlooked in the rush to help the more publicized problems in the larger countries.  You can get more information at IFLANET, the association's website.

Right now (Saturday) I'm sitting in on a program about how to renovate library spaces to meet new needs in the future.  More on this and the exhibits later.

- Nancy

40th Anniversary Kick-off Nets $40,000 gift

On Tuesday, April 8, we kicked off our 40th anniversary year when over 200 people came to the Smithsonian Castle building to help us celebrate.  As employee recognition awards, SIL staff had been given red T-shirts to mark the "ruby" anniversary, and most wore them to the party.  When I looked out from the podium it was a sea of red, and all who came were very, very impressed!   Here's Heather Ewing, author of the new biography of James Smithson, and Shauna Collier, our Anacostia librarian, modeling the shirt.

Among the attendees were four of the Libraries' Board members, the chairman of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, the the Acting Under Secretary for Administration, several Smithsonian museum directors, and a terrific cross-section of scientists, historians, curators, and other library users and friendsof the Libraries.   Our 40th Anniversary Committee put together a trivia contest and a raffle, which made for lots of fun.  Thanks to them all for doing such a terrific job!

The fortunate attendees heard excellent remarks from Ira Rubinoff, Acting Undersecretary for Science, and Acting Secretary Cristian Samper.  Ira Rubinoff said "I think of all our colleagues, the librarians have had to adapt most rapidly to the electronic information age.  Not only have you kept up and adopted the latest resources for our scholars, but you have been innovative, as illustrated by your leadership role in the Biodiversity Heritage Library...."

Acting Secretary Samper went further and said "I know, Ira knows, we all know how indispensable the 20 libraries are to our age-old mission, "the increase and diffusion of knowledge."  They are invaluable to our Smithsonian scholars, and also the general public, offering a galaxy of resources and the help of informed staff to anyone via the Internet or in person.  And they are curators of magnificent treasures that they share online and through exhibitions....By preserving priceless works by the likes of Aristotle, Euclid or Newton -- some of which you can see here today -- our libraries are nothing short of amazing. . . .[yet] they have their eyes on the future."   He went on to give an example of that, saying "...they are helping transform the nature of biodiversity research by their leadership in developing the biodiversity Heritage Library project."

He finished by announcing that he would contribute $40,000 from the Secretary's discretionary fund to the Libraries for the purchase of library materials, "one thousand for each year."  Afterwards, we blew out the candles, cut the cake and cheered.

Many Smithsonian staff at the event made an effort to tell me how much they depend on the Libraries and how much they value the staff and what we do, even through these hard budgetary times.  The support in the room for all of us was almost palpable.  And when I told them some of the numbers that illustrate how much work staff did last year, there was great applause.   

Thanks to Martin Kalfatovic and Gil Taylor took photos--we'll have some official ones to share, eventually.

Nancy E. Gwinn