Institutional History Division
Remote Off-Site Storage Project
Appendixes
A. SIA Organizational Chart for FY 1999
B. Volume of Holdings Summary
C. Chart of Volume Growth
D. Sources of Holdings
E. Records Center Services
F. Reference Service Statistics
G. "Research in Progress" Lecture Series
H. Publications of SIA Staff and Associates
I. Publications Using SIA Holdings
- Records Appraisal
- Special Projects
- Service to the Bureaus: Highlights
- Special Collections: Acquisition Highlights
- Arrangement and Description
- Records Management/Records Center
In FY 1999, the Smithsonian Institution Archives was assigned a project manager from the Office of Physical Plant to act as liaison between SIA and OPP branches in maintaining the facilities that the Archives occupies. Space is a major preoccupation of the Archives. Historically, SIA has supported the Smithsonian by playing a major role in the study of new facilities, the Suitland Collections Center in 1993 and the SIA Facility Prospectus in 1994. This year, the Archives provided space planning and facilities requirements reports in preparation for when the program will have to vacate the Arts and Industries Building for renovation. In November 1998 and May/June 1999, SIA coordinated the transfer of both its own records and those of other Smithsonian repositories to National Underground Storage in Boyers, Pennsylvania. By the end of the June transfer, the Institution had moved over 6,400 feet of material to NUS.
During the year the Archives Division was engaged in four critical projects. They were (1) preparation for a new Smithsonian online public access catalog (OPAC); (2) adoption of a record series/authority control method for holdings description and maintenance; (3) development of a new internal collections management system, covering the Division's records management, arrangement and description, and reference functions; and (4) adoption of authority control at SIA. The projects required staff to revise many existing practices and to develop entirely new functions and activities. All four projects were closely allied and will continue into the next fiscal year.
Division staff with strong support from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) began the migration of its name and subject index to finding aids from a MARC (Machine-Readable Catalog) based system to a generic OIT database with the ultimate goal of mapping the information onto a website linking the terms to on-line descriptive finding aids.
In FY 1999 a major records survey covering 1,400 cubic feet of records was carried out at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum. The Museum was issued records retention and disposition schedules upon the completion of the survey. Division
staff met with personnel from the National Portrait Gallery to discuss procedures for transferring records due to their
impending move from the American Art and Portrait Galleries Building because of building renovation.
The value of the records of the Institution and the special collections maintained by the Smithsonian Institution Archives to Smithsonian staff and outside researchers reside in the documents selected by the Archives staff for retention and the relevancy of the information they contain. The process for determining the retention or disposal of records and special collections is termed appraisal. During 1997 Archives Division staff began reviewing publications on appraisal and other institutional approaches to the subject. In August 1997, the SIA Appraisal Working Group submitted its findings in the report, "Developing Appraisal Criteria For The Official Records Of The Smithsonian Institution." Shortly thereafter, the Records Management Team began its survey work of various Smithsonian bureaus and held retreats to discuss its work in relation to the issued report. The Team refined the 1997 report and further defined its methods for surveying and appraising Smithsonian records. Its procedures and conclusions were issued in a September 1999 report, "Smithsonian Institution Archives Appraisal Methodology." While the report works well for most Smithsonian records, it does not provide all the requirements necessary to appraise more difficult machine-readable and scientific data files. In addition to the appraisal work carried out by the Team during the year, below are two case studies carried out by the Division Archivist along with RM and Preservation Team members and an outside consultant.
In 1974, the Archives first started appraising "Notice of Research Project" information that had been collected by the Smithsonian Science Information Exchange since 1949, in anticipation of transferring the notices to SIA. Until 1965, the information was stored on microfilm jackets and from 1966 through 1969 on microfilm cartridges. Beginning in 1970, the Project data was stored on magnetic tapes. The information was initially gathered from government funding agencies. By the time of SSIE's demise in 1980, it was collecting and storing data concerning 125,000 new and revised projects submitted from over 1,300 organizations and institutions, both private and federal, each year. The Archives could not make a decision on whether or not to discard the notices. The information was considered valuable by some staff members, but the electronic medium presented funding and man-hour problems should attempts be made to migrate the data to another platform so the information would be serviceable. SIA continued to review its appraisal decisions from 1981 through 1983, 1994, 1998, and 1999. In 1999 it ran several printed notices concerning research on cigarette smoking in the late 1970s against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CFDCP) files containing over 80,000 studies on tobacco. Neither the notices nor final reports about the research were found in the CFDCP database. This increased support that the information was unique and no single source outside of SSIE collected a wide variety of scientific research project data nation-wide. Nonetheless, SIA had neither the funds nor manpower to convert the files. At the time SIA was making its final decision to deaccession the notices, the National Science Foundation, preparing for its anniversary, asked if they could borrow and review the notice files. It was understood that if they found the notices useful for their own research they would migrate at least some of the data to a serviceable platform.
Since the 1970s, the Division has continually reviewed its holdings of spectrobolometric plates. These plates,
approximately two tons in weight and housed in forty wood crates plus numerous cardboard boxes, contain measurements
of spectral distribution of energy gathered at the Astrophysical Observatory facilities at Table Mountain, California, Mount
Saint Katherine, Egypt, and a smaller number from Mount Brukkaros, Namibia. Between 1900 and 1961, the APO of the
Smithsonian carried out an extensive program designed to measure the total energy received by the earth from the sun.
These observations are contained on the plates along with unpublished information on charts and waste books and site data
published in the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory. As one National Air and Space Administration scientist wrote to
a colleague, "...the six decades of APO pyrheliometric and spectrobolometric observations actually created a unique and irreplaceable
data base. Simply said, there is nothing approaching this data base for the field of atmospheric physics, in regard to both
long-term continuity and consistently high quality, for the first half of the twentieth century."
From the 1970s through the 1980s, the plates were used for major scientific projects and publications on worldwide
variations on atmospheric transmission, drought and climate predictions, baseline ozone results, and the historic trend of
carbon dioxide abundance in the earth's atmosphere. Some of the existing crates and plates have major conservation
problems including active mold and breakage. In order to properly maintain the plates the Division will try to obtain grant
funds for their rehousing and conservation. It is hoped that the plates can be electronically scanned and the unpublished printed information captured
digitally. This would make the information available for the next generation of scientists interested in the earth's
atmosphere during the first half of this century so they can use that data as baseline information for comparing current and
future atmospheric tests.
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The Archives Division was deeply engaged in modifying past standard practices and preparing for the migration of its
information to new database programs. These projects will continue into the next fiscal year.
Smithsonian On-Line Public Access Catalog (OPAC). Each Institution bureau and unit which reports its holdings in the
Smithsonian Institution Research and Information System (SIRIS) spent time during FY 1999 preparing for Horizon, a new
bibliographic utility with more power and complexity than the present NOTIS-based system. Along with colleagues from
other SI archival units, SIA's Archives Division focused on the archives database of SIRIS. Division staff helped to define
the type and extent of indexing and search limits in the new system and, in particular, they evaluated the completeness and
accuracy of the linking functionality in Horizon. By year's end, Division staff had conducted an extensive review of two
separate sets of SIA test data in the new system, with a third test to be conducted next year. Staff received training in the
new Horizon system in preparation for searching and cataloging activities taking place in late 1999. Division staff also
focused on the migration of existing records to the new system, began general records clean-up in the present NOTIS
system and planned for the eventual migration of accessions data from a locally maintained database to the new SIRIS
system. The project will continue into FY 2000.
Record Series Project. Division staff approached the Record Series Project in two phases. Phase One consisted of the conceptual development of the series/authority control model and a testing of its practicality for SIA purposes. During the period January - June 1999, the Division's Record Series Committee studied professional literature, reviewed in detail how other comparable repositories had described and controlled their records and/or used the record series concept, and conducted a test of the record series concept and methodology using actual Smithsonian creators and their records as a sample test bed. The committee developed a list of mandatories, rules and procedures for the implementation of the record series and included this in its final report to SIA managers.
Phase Two began in July 1999 and focused on actual implementation of the series concept. Division staff formed into a
Record Series Task Force and an Agency History Task Force. Each task force was assigned responsibility for writing
record series and authority records, also known as agency histories, respectively. Each task force developed standard data
fields (conforming to MARC fields throughout), methods for writing and editing entries, and deadlines for completion of
assignments. Assignments were based on a list of priority museums/research bureaus/offices of the Smithsonian, the list
having been developed by the Record Series Committee prior to its dissolution. Phase Two of the Record Series Project
will continue next fiscal year.
Collections Management System Project. Archives Division staff worked closely with Technical Services Division staff to
develop a new collections management system during FY 1999. The new database combines accessioning data, processing
needs, preservation information, and reference functions in one shared system. Division teams identified a complex set of
data fields for each of their functional areas, often developing work flow charts and functional analysis of archival processes in detail. The Division used the 1997
report, Integrating Automation Technology: A Functional Analysis and Needs Assessment for the OSIA to assist with this
process. The teams worked closely with Technical Services on designing a system to meet collections maintenance
requirements and staff/public information needs. This project continues in the next fiscal year.
Authority Control Project. SIA realized early on in all of the above projects that none of them could move forward without a massive cleanup of existing accession records and, to some extent, SIRIS records. The bulk of the clean-up work required the development of authorized headings to be used in all descriptive tools created at SIA. Non-standard terms used in SIA's thousands of accession records were particularly troublesome. All personal names, non-personal names, subjects, and form/genre terms had to be standardized. In addition, SIA needed the ability to create authority records in the new OPAC.
Beginning in March 1999 staff from the Archives Division and one staff member from the Institutional History Division
formed an Authority Control Task Force. The task force established a rigorous plan for its work. During Phase One the
task force would identify all SIA index terms and their authorized headings (whether Library of Congress or local terms).
Once authorized headings had been identified, Phase Two tasked the Records Management and Arrangement and
Description teams with correcting all non-standard terms used in accession and SIRIS records. During Phase Three,
Division staff will create authority records in the new Horizon system, thereby making authorized terms instantly known
and accessible to all SIA staff. (Phase Three requires a capability not currently available to SIA.) By year's end, Division
staff were heavily engaged in Phase One of the authority control project. The project will continue in the next fiscal year.
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Services to Bureaus: Highlights
Despite the work undertaken by the Division to prepare and migrate its information to new systems the Archives Division continued to focus on its mission to support the Smithsonian in its archival and records management activities.
For a complete list of transferring offices, see Appendix D: Sources of Holdings. The following is a list of records
management and acquisition highlights during FY 1999:
"America's Smithsonian" Exhibition: The Archives received additional records of the America's Smithsonian traveling
exhibition, documenting theme development, exhibition design and production, and exhibition administration.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum: The Records Management Team completed a project to survey, identify, and
appraise records created and maintained by the Museum. A total of 1,400 cubic feet of records were surveyed. As a result of
the records survey project, the RM Team created comprehensive records disposition schedules for general records and for
records created and maintained by Cooper-Hewitt's twenty-seven individual offices. The Archives also received transfers
from the Design/Exhibitions Office, Programs/Education/Internship Program, Masters Program, and the Office of the
Assistant Director for Public Programs.
Freer/Sackler Gallery of Art: Records Management staff, along with intern Jennifer Gunther, a graduate student at the
University of Maryland, surveyed the Offices of the Director and Deputy Director, and the Central Files of the Freer Gallery. Gunter completed an annotated folder list and a highlights summary for the
Central Files of the Gallery. RM staff will continue to work with Freer/Sackler personnel to further survey the Gallery's
records and develop records disposition schedules for institutional records created and maintained by the Gallery.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: The Archives received records of the Curatorial Department, documenting the
work of Curators Phyllis D. Rosenzweig and Valerie J. Fletcher, as well as records of the Hirshhorn's Tenth Anniversary
celebration from the Assistant Curator for Exhibitions. The Archives also received transfers from the Office of the Director
and the Office of Public Affairs.
National Air and Space Museum: The Aeronautics Department transferred numerous accessions documenting exhibitions
developed by the Department, and other curatorial activities and programs. The Archives also received additional records documenting the Enola Gay exhibition, including comment cards and exhibition
protest posters. Other transfers included records from the Development Office and Office of Public Affairs.
National Museum of American Art: Significant transfers from the Museum included records of the Director and Deputy
Director documenting exhibitions, programs, collections, and other administrative activities; and exhibitions records from
the Office of the Registrar.
National Museum of American History: Electronic Records Program staff continued to meet with Archives Center
personnel to develop a pilot project for managing e-mail in the Office of the Director. The Archives also received records of
the Museum Director, curatorial records of Lonn Taylor from the Division of Social History, records from the Office of
Information, Technology and Society, and from the Office of the Assistant Director for Administration.
National Museum of Natural History: The Archives received files documenting the Biodiversity Program, records documenting curatorial activities, research, and exhibitions from the Departments of Entomology and Vertebrate Zoology and the Divisions of Fishes and Vertebrate Paleontology, as well as records of the Office of Special Exhibits.
A records survey was completed in the Department of Anthropology for records, personal papers, and special collections in
the Office of the Chairman, Deputy Chair, Administrative Officer, Center for Arctic Study, Asian Cultural History Program,
Office of Repatriation, and Handbook of North American Indians. A draft disposition schedule report was written, but the
final version will not be completed until FY 2000.
National Museum of the American Indian: The RM Team presented a lecture to Washington, D.C. NMAI staff concerning
records management and the use of NMAI disposition schedules. The Archives also received financial records from the
George Gustav Heye Center.
National Portrait Gallery: RM personnel met with over fifty NPG staff members to discuss records management and
transfer procedures in preparation for the NPG offices' move. The Archives also received significant transfers from the
Office of Exhibitions documenting exhibition planning, development, and production; and records of the Director,
documenting Gallery programs and administration.
National Zoological Park: The Archives received additional animal records from the Department of Animal Health.
Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs, Office of Human Resources and Office of General Counsel: With
representatives from each of these offices, the RM Team executed a memorandum of understanding enabling more
efficient transfer, review, and disposal of equal employment and personnel records.
Office of General Counsel: Archives staff met with OGC counsels over the course of the year to develop guidelines and
policies for administrative records. The Archives, with the help of OGC, also revised its Deed of Gift. The Archives
transferred sixty-two cubic feet of records from the Office.
Office of Membership and Development: The Archives received records documenting the Contributing Membership
Program, Smithsonian development projects, and the Smithsonian's 150th Anniversary Program.
Office of Public Affairs: The Archives received records documenting the Smithsonian's 150th Anniversary Program, the
Enola Gay exhibition, and various news clippings, press releases, publications, and biographical files documenting
Smithsonian programs, activities and staff.
Office of Special Events and Conference Services: After discussions with Office staff about its records keeping system, the
Archives received records documenting major Smithsonian events.
Office of the Provost: The Archives received records of Dennis O'Connor, documenting Smithsonian administration,
special programs, exhibition development, and bureau research activities.
Office of the Secretary: The Archives received 25 cubic feet of Secretary's files from 1996, and records of the
Smithsonian's 150th Anniversary Program.
Office of the Under Secretary: The Archives received records of Constance B. Newman documenting budgetary and
administrative activities of the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory: The RM staff met with the SAO Historian and scientific records experts to develop
a more intensive program to identify and collect records and papers of SAO scientists. The Team developed two brochures
to publicize its efforts in this program. The Archives also received numerous records transfers from the Subcontracts and
Procurement Department.
The Smithsonian Associates: The RM Team reevaluated collections received from TSA and worked with the office to
develop a more efficient records transfer cycle.
Smithsonian Productions: With generous support provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee and the Research
Resources grant program (Office of Fellowships and Grants), SIA staff continued a project to appraise, preserve and make
accessible the films and videos of the institution's Smithsonian Productions (SP) unit. This fiscal year the project continued
to bring physical control over titles that were appraised as archival. Staff developed procedures for appraising film and
video titles and for copying titles of joint interest to SP and SIA. Accessioning and descriptive procedures were also
established. SIA contracted with a video conservator to assess the status of the collection and to begin duplicating,
cleaning, rehousing, and conserving video materials. This project will continue during FY 2000.
Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center: RM staff met with VIARC personnel to discuss records disposition
and records transfers.
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Special Collections: Acquisition Highlights
This year the Archives acquired the papers of Robert McCormick Adams, ninth Secretary of the Smithsonian; the papers of Thomas D. Crouch, Curator of Aeronautics in the National Air and Space Museum; the papers of Lloyd G. Henbest, geologist with the United States Geological Survey; the papers of William J. Sando, research scientist with the United States Geological Survey; and the papers of T. Wayland Vaughan, geologist and oceanographer. The Archives also received additions to the papers of A. Remington Kellogg, Curator in and Director of the United States National Museum, and Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian; the papers of Paul N. Perrot, Assistant Secretary for Museum Programs at the Smithsonian; the papers of S. Dillon Ripley, eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian; the papers of Donald R. Whitehead, entomologist with the Systematic Entomology Laboratory; and the papers of Frank C. Whitmore, Jr., paleontologist with the United States Geological Survey.
The Archives also received transfers from several professional organizations. Of special note are transfers from the American Society Of Naturalists, the American Zoo And Aquarium Association, the Council Of American Overseas Research Centers, the Smithsonian African American Association, and the Society Of Vertebrate Paleontology.
A complete list of acquisitions appears in Appendix D: Sources of Holdings.
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During FY 1999 the Arrangement and Description Team selected the papers of distinguished astrophysicist
Riccardo Giacconi for full descriptive treatment. Efforts were begun to fund the project, which is
expected to cost $40,000. A&D Team carried out a detailed evaluation of the descriptive status of all SIA
holdings in order to better plan its processing decisions. The results of this work, combined with
information on the value and level of use of the collections, will be migrated to the new SIA collections
management system in FY 2000. A&D Team also worked closely with the Records Management team to
improve the process by which records move from accessioning to description and become available for use
by patrons. An HTML version of the finding aid to record unit 7173, Field Reports of the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service, 1860-1961, was completed and is now available through the Smithsonian website at www.si.edu/archives/archives/faru7176.htm A similar treatment of record unit 7004, Guide to the
Charles D. Walcott Collection, 1851-1940, is in preparation. The Archivist continued the intellectual
processing of the papers of a former curator in the Department of Anthropology, NMNH, Eugene Knez. The
papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives. Intern Jeremy Skinner, an undergraduate
student at Lewis and Clark College, rehoused, labeled, and prepared a folder list to the SIA's Research
Files. The Files contain a wealth of information on individuals, organizations, and subjects of frequent
interest to SIA researchers and staff. In addition, he rehoused and organized SIA's Information Files, which
contain historical materials concerning Smithsonian museums and activities. Jane Livermore, long-time
volunteer and friend of the Archives, continued her work processing the records of Science Service,
completing 27.5 cubic feet during the year.
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Records Management/Records Center Operations
SIA Records Management Team assists Smithsonian Institution museums, bureaus, and offices in determining which records to keep and which to discard. Inactive records that have historical and research value are accessioned into the Archives' permanent holdings. Those with short-term value are transferred to the Archives' records center facility for scheduled destruction after all legal, fiscal, and administrative requirements for their retention have been met.
During the year, 364 cubic feet (728,000 pages) of records scheduled for eventual disposal were deposited in the Center. The archives staff disposed of approximately 309 cubic feet (619,280 pages) of records in accordance with established disposition schedules and procedures. Some records were also returned to the originating offices, or were reappraised and accessioned into the permanent collections. A list of records that were transferred or destroyed during the fiscal year appears in Appendix E: Records Center Services.
As part of its strategic plan, the RM Team developed a written methodology on the appraisal process. This
appraisal methodology provides SIA archivists with an outline of procedures and a cache of resources to
use when gathering information necessary to make appraisal decisions before, during, and after appraisal
visits or records surveys. It is a tool for conducting on-site appraisals and for creating records disposition
schedules.
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Smithsonian Institution Archives || Archives Division
Institutional History Division || Joseph Henry Papers Project
National Collection Program