Smithsonian Libraries

CUA SLIS 2011 Students Tour

19 students and their two instructors from the Catholic University’s Art and Museum Libraries Institute were treated to a tour of the Museum Support Center (MSC) and the National Museum of American Indian’s Cultural Resources Center (NMAI/CRC) on Tuesday, July 27. Of course the libraries from both Centers were highlighted in the tours. This is the third consecutive year that the Libraries' two Suitland-based librarians have hosted this group.

The MSC tour started at the MSC Library for a quick intro by MSC/NMNH librarian Gil Taylor on how the Libraries is meeting the challenges of 21st century library services. The group then was treated to a visit to the Museum Conservation Institute, expertly guided by MCI Tech Info Specialist Ann N’Gadi. At MCI, E. Keats Webb gave a tour of the MCI Imaging Studio, Mehdi Moini showed off some of his sophisticated and expensive analytical equipment. HaeMin Park and Jia-sun Tsang explained about the Paintings Studio with some real-life examples and then Don Williams regaled with the history of various furniture pieces under restoration. The group headed to wet-storage unit Pod 5 and were told many scientific fish tales by Dr. Jeff Williams, and included a look-see with a celebrity fish, the coelacanth. Afterwards, NMNH Collections Support staffer Joel Allen hosted a visit to the huge Pod 4 holdings, and detailed the careful care needed to store a myriad of fascinating objects of all sizes.

Following lunch at the MSC cafe, the group moved on to the NMAI/CRC where they had a general tour of the building led by NMAI Librarian, Lynne Altstatt. This tour included the indoor ceremonial area (which is the only room at the Smithsonian where you can light a fire), the NMAI Conservation Lab (where several Mellon fellows talked about their current projects), and the NMAI Library. At the library, the students were given information packets with materials for both the NMAI Library and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Lynne discussed the histories of the NMAI and the NMAI Library and also talked about the role of the Libraries at the Smithsonian. Several of the CUA students are hoping for library careers in a museum environment so there were several lively question and answer periods during the tour.  It is always a pleasure to work with such enthusiastic guests.

Check the Libraries' Flickr site for some more MSC tour photos.

—Lynne Altstatt and Gil Taylor

Related articles

• New Arrivals in the Natural History Library/Museum Studies Reference Library (smithsonianlibraries.si.edu)
• Smithsonian Libraries Converts Digital Publications for E-Readers (smithsonianlibraries.si.edu)

NMAI Library hosts Grad Students

On the afternoon of April 8 the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Librarian, Lynne Altstatt, provided a tour for a group of thirteen recently graduated students from the Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management and three faculty members. The students were part of the Emporia Diversity Initiative (EDI) program, a 3-year long (2006-2009), multi-partner project led by Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management to recruit and educate local minority library staff in Kansas, Colorado and Oregon.

The EDI is funded with $857,754 dollars as a part of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21 st Century Librarian Program awards of 2006. The students were attending a week-long seminar "Preserving Cultural Identity: Treasuring America’s Diversity through Librarianship" in Washington, DC. The seminar was planned to introduce the students to the importance of maintaining cultural legacies within their community. By encouraging the creation of oral histories and the preservation of cultural property, diverse ethnic and cultural differences will be saved, thereby encouraging positive community-based action through library service.

Altstatt gave the group a tour of the NMAI Cultural Resources Center, with special attention paid the the NMAI Library. In the Conservation Department two Mellon fellows discussed their current projects and answered the student's questions. Altstatt also provided to the group the history of the National Museum of the American Indian and its predecessor, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. She also talked about the responsibilities and daily work life of a museum librarian and shared stories about working in the museum library. The tour ended with a short presentation about the NMAI Archives by the Head Archivist, Jennifer O'Neal.

—Lynne Altstatt

An International Visitor

On March 25 Martin Kalfatovic met with Maria Van der Spuy-Groenewald, Digitization Coordinator, Department of Library Services, University of Pretoria (South Africa). Ms. Van der Spuy-Groenewald visited the United States under the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program.

During her visit to the Libraries, Ms. Van der Spuy-Groenewald learned about the Libraries' digitization projects, including the Biodiversity Heritage Library. She also had a chance to meet other staff from the Libraries, including Carmen Eyzaguirre (Anthropology Library), Martha Rosen and Gil Taylor (Natural History Library), and Robin Everly (Botany & Horticulture Library).

There Are No Duplicates: APHA Visit

It is not hard to find special collections librarians who believe that there are no duplicates, meaning that no two printed items made by hand are the same, even if from the same type, plate, or press. 

This may seem funny to some since the very goal of publishing and printing is to make reproduceable copies of the same thing over and over again, but if you consider that all aspects of early books and printed matter were made by hand:  the type, the ink, the paper, the binding, the illustration plates, everything, then differences between copies that were meant to be the same may be a little easier to understand. 

Think of a batch of homemade cookies and how they all taste the same, but each is a little different, some are rounder than others, some with more chips, etc. 

So when the American Printing History Association (APHA) during their conference "Learning to Print, Teaching to Print" came to visit the Special Collections Department of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, there were plenty of things to show.    

Consider these different copies of the same plate by Friedrich Heinrich von Kittlitz, a 19 century naturalist, artist, and explorer:
 
 
Each is printed from the same plate, but coloured by hand differently: some are spotted, some are not; some are striped, some are not, etc.  This is not only interesting from a printer's and illustrator's point of view, but also from a scientist's point of view. In printing and the printing arts, there are so many variables that can influence the end product. This is why we say there are no duplicates and why, in part, special collections librarians and printing historians have jobs. We provide perspective about the historical and technical nuances of these handmade printed documents.   

Other types of printed matter we displayed for APHA were modern handmade artist's books about the history of science, variant copies of an illustration in different editions of a Galileo work, an illustrated 18th century encyclopedia on how to print, a 19th century scientist's proof copy of printed illustrations with corrections alongside the original drawings. 

—Daria Wingreen-Mason