Using a combination of electronic and manual techniques, the staff members who work in the Acquisitions Services Department are responsible for ordering, keeping records on, acknowledging receipt of, paying for, and finally distributing books and journals to the Libraries' 18 branches. The materials flowing in from special orders and subscriptions also supply other Smithsonian offices with the research materials they require, from the Woodrow Wilson Center to Smithsonian libraries outside the Libraries' system.

The work begins with the acquisitions module of the Libraries' automated system, where books, CD-ROMs, microfilm, journals, newspapers, and audio and video tapes are ordered and paid for. Through an online interface program, all order and payment re- cords are then transmitted electronically to the Institution's financial accounting system.

This year Acquisitions Services staff handled more than 8,000 orders for books and 3,358 subscriptions for journals. Annually more than 15,000 issues of journals, including those received through the Gift and Exchange section, are received and recorded in this office and routed throughout the Institution. Charmone Williams oversees the ordering and payment which assure timely receipt of these valuable research tools. Joyce Swayne is re- sponsible for the record-keeping required for each individual journal issues received.

Automated ordering and payment have streamlined record-keeping for the thousands of purchase orders generated and invoices received every year. Ned Kraft and Anne Graham handle orders for books, Lucy Julian is responsible for invoice processing, and Willie Dillard for receipt and delivery verification. Mr. Kraft also manages the Libraries' Translations Publishing Program.

Museums, research institutes, and scholarly publishers around the world regularly send journals, books, catalogs, and other printed miscellany without cost to the Institution. These materials, many of which would be otherwise difficult to obtain, are received by the Gift & Exchange section. Marcia Benouameur, Edward Sweeney, and John Dick maintain extensive automated records on exchange partnerships across the U. S. and internationally, and correspond frequently with worldwide exchange partners to procure these library materials which comprise an important part of the Libraries' collections. In return for these publications, the Libraries sends titles published by the Smithsonian Institution Press to its exchange partners, many of which are in third world countries.

Lucien Rossignol
Department Head
Acquisition Services

Back, from left: Charmone Williams, Marcy Benouameur, Willia Dillard, Ned Kraft, Joyce Swayne, Ed Sweeney; Seated, Lu Rossignol, Lucy Julian, John Dick. Not pictured, Anne Graham (Carl Hanson)

Libraries' funds are spend annually for books and journals for the 18 branch libraries to support the wide variety of research conducted at the Institution, as well as the exhibits, programs, and the curation of specimens and artifacts in the collections. The materials purchased, including rare books and special collections, reach across dozens of specialized fields in the natural sciences, the arts and material culture, the history of science and technology, and museum studies.

More than 4,000 books added to Libraries' collections each year are gifts from individuals, libraries, publishers, and corporations.

Over 3,200 journal subscriptions are donated to the Smithsonian each year. These gifts and exchanges result in enormous cost- savings to the Institution.

Of the Libraries' 4,600 Gift and Exchange partners in 150 countries around the world, 1,215 are in the United States; over 100 each are in Japan, England, Germany, France, and Canada; over 75 each are in Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and Spain; 163 exchange partners are in 30 countries of Africa; and there are several each in the former USSR and the former Yugoslavia.