Smithsonian Libraries

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Smithsonian Research Online

During the week of January 16-19th, I visited the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) to discuss several matters relating to the Smithsonian Research Online (SRO) program and to offer technical support and training to STRI library staff. I was accompanied from Washington by Digital Services Head, Martin Kalfatovic, who was to attend a three-day Encyclopedia-of-Life meeting at Barro-Colorado Island during the same week.

Together we met with Oris Sanjur (STRI Associate Director for Science Administration), Vielka Chang-Yau (STRI head librarian), Angel Aguirre (librarian), Klaus Winter (STRI scientist) and Eldredge Bermingham (STRI Director). Everyone was in agreement that STRI-authored publication data ought to be collected in one place and that the SIL is doing a good job of coordinating this program across all Institution units. The Director and Associate Director will discuss the specific needs of their unit and report back to SIL, who will propose a workflow to accomplish this.

Meanwhile, I held a brief introduction to the bibliographic tools, EndNote and Zotero for STRI library staff and volunteers. While we had a training room available to us, unfortunately there was not a copy of these programs available to all participants. But they were still able to see the possibilities of using these tools in day-to-day library services.

Alvin and Vielka review the SRO website and list of Smithsonian-authored publications using the newly-installed LCD screen in the STRI library. Photo courtesy of martin_kalfatovic via Flickr.

Finally, I met with Fernando Bouché (Head, Office of Information Technology) and STRI programmer, Carlos Caballero, to discuss the management of publication data, its re-use on the STRI web page and inclusion in the SI Collections search system (EDAN).

STRI scientists publish over 300 scholarly papers every year. Approximately 70% of them are captured automatically by the SRO via websites and associated tools. This circumvents the need for manual data entry. The inclusion of the complete corpus of work being done there is an essential part of representing the research being conducted at the Institution and the cooperation between the SI Libraries and STRI will bring the project to fruition.

 

 

 

Digital Repository Now Contains 10,000 Items

The Smithsonian Research Online program recently surpassed the mark of 10,000 publications in the Digital Repository. This collection of digital publications by Smithsonian staff represents a broad review of research done by researchers at the Institution. Each year the program (initials, SRO) collects information on nearly 2000 publications by Institution researchers many of whom later contribute their article’s corresponding digital reprint. This milestone was achieved when the paper by Ben Hirsch (STRI) and Jesus Maldonado (NZP), “Familiarity breeds progeny: sociality increases reproductive success in adult male ring-tailed coatis (Nasua nasua)” was deposited to the collection.

The SRO consists of two basic components: a list of publications authored by Smithsonian researchers and affiliates, and a corresponding digital repository which contains the actual article or chapter in electronic form. The data which SRO collects is not only used by Institution administrators for research assessment purposes, but is also re-used by webmasters and other Smithsonian offices for reports, presentations and other public information services.

 These electronic versions of peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles are therefore made much more widely available to the worldwide research community thanks to indexing and search capabilities provided by the Repository in conjunction with scientific web portals. In addition to finding specific articles authored by Smithsonian scholars, the Digital Repository indexes the full text of each publication, thereby allowing search engines to retrieve these publications based on technical or geographic terms which may not appear in the title of the publication.

Shortly after adding the Hirsch and Maldonado paper, the Repository then added a paper by NMNH paleontologist, Matthew Carrano, “New materials of Masiakasaurus knopfleri Sampson, Carrano, and Forster, 2001, and implications for the morphology of the Noasauridae (Theropoda: Ceratosauria)”. Part of Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, the addition of this item to the Repository ensures that Smithsonian Scholarly Press publications are archived in digital form for long-term public access.

Women's History Month: Carrie H. Lippincott

Carrie H. Lippincott from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the self-titled “Pioneer Seedswoman of America.” She started a seed business in 1886 out of the necessity of increasing the family income. By 1896 the business claimed they had received 150,000 orders. A quote from a contemporary publication said “the key to her success is prompt service, best seeds, reasonable prices, beautiful flowers, by a woman.”

Most of the lithographs in Lippincott’s catalogs portrayed women or children. Lippincott’s approach to marketing through her emphasis on a woman-owned company led to at least two other seed firms in Minneapolis beginning business under women’s names. Their catalogs were also similar in size and illustration. Lippincott was convinced that men owned these companies. Her 1899 catalog stated “it is a peculiar thing in this day and age that a man should want to masquerade in woman’s clothing...I do not advise a life of business for any woman when it can be avoided. It means self-sacrifice...”

From The American Seed and Nursery Industry bibliography. —Elizabeth Periale

Drink your milk

This history of the Borden Condensed Milk Co. is told through an allegory of an Eagle - only one of the wonderful World's Fair materials featured in the Libraries' Revisiting the World’s Fairs and International Expositions: A Selected Bibliography, 1992-2004. The Borden's Condensed Milk Co. exhibit pamphlet also includes maps and plans of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

E pluribus unum : the story of an eagle, Borden Company, New York: Borden's Condensed Milk Co., 1904

Meet me in St Louis, Louis... —Elizabeth Periale