Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (SLA)

Libraries

The Smithsonian Libraries is a network of 21 specialized research libraries supporting each of the Institution’s museums and initiatives. The Libraries’ collections of approximately 2 million volumes is available to Smithsonian staff, interns and fellows, visiting researchers, and other scholars working in Smithsonian facilities in Washington, DC, Maryland, New York City, and the Republic of Panama. Users who visit the Libraries’ online research page (http://library.si.edu/research) and ejournal and database pages (http://qr7ug7ul2q.search.serialssolutions.com) have access to over 301 databases, 28,388 electronic journals, and over 200,000 electronic books. In addition to providing customary library services, the Smithsonian Libraries serves the Institution and the general public through education and outreach programs, including exhibitions, lectures, and publications, and through internship and volunteer programs.

Library collections are particularly strong in natural history, tropical biology, ecology and environmental management, wildlife conservation, American ethnology and culture, American history, the history of science and technology, aviation history and space flight, postal history, design and decorative arts, African art, American art, modern and contemporary art, Asian art, horticulture, conservation, and museum administration. Collections in African American and Latino history and culture are growing steadily. In addition, the Libraries holds a distinguished collection of 50,000 historically important rare books and manuscripts and 500,000 examples of manufacturer’s commercial trade catalogs, representing 30,000 companies, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Smithsonian Libraries is the leader of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org), a consortium-built digital library, which contains over 140,000 volumes of natural history and botanical texts.

The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) includes the online catalog of library collections as well as the automated acquisitions, circulation, and other library functions. Holdings are accessible at https://siris-libraries.si.edu/. Records of the Libraries collections are also accessible through OCLC, and the Libraries maintains access to collections through Resource Sharing.  The Smithsonian Libraries website presents a constantly increasing variety of content in science, American history, art and design, and industry and technology. SI researchers demand continuous, instant access to information, and the Libraries’ staff delivers reliable information to internal and external users when and wherever it’s needed, from whatever source. See https://library.si.edu/.  Digital offerings include full texts of rare books, collections of unique research resources, online exhibitions, resource guides, newsletters, and other SI Libraries publications, and links to other web resources in Smithsonian areas of interest.  The Smithsonian Libraries’ Image Gallery (https://library.si.edu/image-gallery) is a growing collection of individual images from digitized books with enhanced metadata.

The Smithsonian Libraries offers three programs for Resident Scholars to use Special Collections: The Dibner Library Resident Scholar Program, the Spencer Baird Society Resident Scholar Program, and the Margaret Henry Dabney Penick Resident Scholar Program. Dibner Library Resident Scholars conduct research using rare works from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. The core of the holdings of the Dibner Library consists of approximately 11,000 rare books and 1,600 manuscript groups that were generously donated to the nation by the Burndy Library (founder, Bern Dibner) on the occasion of the nation’s Bicentennial (1976). The strengths of the Dibner Library collection are in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, classical natural philosophy, theoretical physics (up to the early 20th century), experimental physics (especially electricity and magnetism), engineering technology (from the Renaissance to the late 19th century), and scientific apparatus and instruments. The rare books, which date from the 13th to the 20th centuries, include significant holdings of works by Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Euclid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Leonhard Euler, René Descartes, Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace, and Aristotle. Scientists represented by significant manuscript papers include Dominique François Arago, Humphry Davy, John William Lubbock, Isaac Newton, Henri Milne-Edwards, Hans Christian Ørsted, Henry Hureau de Sénarmont, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., and Silvanus P. Thompson. The Dibner Library collections support the scholarly interests of Smithsonian staff in the National Museum of American History, and provide valuable resources for other Smithsonian and external researchers worldwideThis program is supported by the Dibner family.

Baird Society Resident Scholars undertake research in Special Collections located in Washington, D.C. and New York City. These special collections include printed materials on world’s fairs in the Dibner Library (19th and early 20th centuries); trade  literature in the National Museum of American History Library used to study American industrialization, mass production, and consumerism; natural history rare books in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History (pre-1840 works on topics such as  botany, zoology, travel  and exploration, museums and collecting, geology, and anthropology), as well as James Smithson’s library; air and space history in the National Air and Space Museum Library (ballooning, rocketry, and aviation, late 18th to early 20th centuries); and European and American decorative arts, architecture, and design in the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Library (18th to 20th centuries).

The Margaret Henry Dabney Penick Resident Scholar Program was founded by a bequest of Mrs. Margaret P. Nuttle.  The Penick Resident Scholar Program supports scholarly research into the legacy of Patrick Henry and his political circle, the early political history of Virginia, the history of the American Revolution, founding era ideas and policy-making, as well as science, technology, and culture in colonial America and the Early National Period. The Libraries also provides guidance and contact information to relevant historical collections in the Washington, DC area, especially regarding the holdings of Patrick Henry materials and resources of the pre-American Revolution and the colonial era.

The Libraries also offers the Neville-Pribram Mid-Career Educators Award, which allows mid-career educators to be in residence and utilize the Smithsonian Libraries distinctive collections, focusing on science, history, culture and arts.  The awards are open to middle and  high school teachers, college teachers, and museum educators working on curriculum development or publications in print or electronic form. Recipients are awarded a short-term residency in the host branch, which rotates each year. The Libraries offers excellent resources for developing curricula relating to Common Core, Core Arts Standards, and Advance Placement curricula.

The Libraries’ active internship program hosts roughly 30 students per year. The program places high school, undergraduate and graduate students in appropriate projects throughout the Libraries, giving them valuable experience in library and information science as well as related fields. Several internship programs, such as the Kathryn Turner Diversity and Technology internship and Professional Development internship, carry stipends. 

Additional information about academic programs may be found on the Libraries webpage: https://library.si.edu/internships-and-fellowships

Research Staff

VEKERDY, Lilla, Head & Curator, Special Collections Department. B.A. (1982) Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; M.A. (1984) and M.L.S. (1984) Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. Research specialties: Rare book studies, History of Medicine and Science, Paracelsus (1493-1541), medieval manuscripts. Contact: vekerdyL@si.edu