| A&I | Arts & Industries building |
| AAA | Archives of American Art |
| ERP | Electronic Records Program |
| IHD | Institutional History Division |
| MARAC | Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference |
| MARC | MAchine Readable Cataloging |
| NAA | National Anthropological Archives |
| NASM | National Air and Space Museum |
| NCP | National Collections Program |
| NMAA | National Museum of American Art |
| NMAH | National Museum of American History |
| NMAI | National Museum of the American Indian |
| NMHT | National Museum of History and Technology |
| NMNH | National Museum of Natural History |
| NPG | National Portrait Gallery |
| NUS | National Underground Storage |
| OGC | Office of the General Counsel |
| OPMB | Office of Planning, Management and Budget |
| RELACT | Research, Libraries and Archives Conservation Task Force |
| RM | Records Management team |
| RRG | Research Resources Grant |
| RU | Record Unit |
| SCMRE | Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education |
| SAA | Society of American Archivists |
| SD | Smithsonian Directive |
| SERC | Smithsonian Environmental Research Center |
| SI | Smithsonian Institution |
| SIA | Smithsonian Institution Archives |
| SIRIS | Smithsonian Institution Research Information System |
| SITES | Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service |
| USGS | United States Geological Survey |
| USFWS | United States Fish and Wildlife Service |
| USNM | United States National Museum |