Development Watch
Seidell Supports Electronic Publishing Effort
In June, the Libraries received $35,000 from the Institution's Atherton Seidell Endowment Fund to purchase equipment for a Libraries' World Wide Web (WWW) Server. An Electronic Re-Publishing Task Force was appointed to plan a pilot effort for digital library project. Publications from the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) series are now being prepared for distribution over the WWW, and the Libraries expects to mount other publications on the Libraries' server. Tom Garnett, principal investigator on the Seidell grant and head of the Systems Department, is leading the project.
Grant for Exhibition Educational Materials
The Institution's Educational Outreach Fund has awarded $16,000
for development and implementation of online and printed
educational materials for the 150th anniversary exhibition, From
Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institution. Working in
cooperation with the Smithsonian Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education and the curators of the show (see back
cover), the Libraries plans to create and publish an electronic
version of the exhibition, an online curriculum unit designed for
schools, and printed materials. The Smithsonian Women's
Committee has also awarded funds for this 1996 exhibition.
Dave Spencer (right), Librarian of the National Air and Space
Museum Branch, welcomes a major gift of a microfilm copy of
Trade-a-Plane magazine from TAP Publishing Company. Representing
the company, Jean Durfee presented the gift of 114 reels of
microfilm which preserves the run of the magazine from its
beginning in 1937. The gift includes a printing copy, a user
copy, and a cabinet to house the film. Russell Lee (left),
Curator in the Aeronautics Department of the museum, notes that
the advertisements for aircraft, flying instruction, and aviation
equipment in these back issues of Trade-a-Plane offer scholars "a
powerful tool for understanding one of aviation's most tumultuous
periods." The magazine, the world's oldest and largest of its
type, began in October 1937 when Ms. Durfee's father, Crosby
Harrison of Crossville, Tennessee, crashed his 1929 Swallow
biplane in a field and experienced difficulty finding parts to
repair it. (Carolyn Russo)
Smith-Terrell Memorial
Twelve books in the Anthropology Branch carry memorial bookplates
honoring Rochelle Smith-Terrell who worked in the branch for five
and a half years. A memorial fund was established in 1993 at the
time of her death, with donations from 21 contributors. The
anthropology research materials purchased in her memory range in
subject matter from Native American studies to general works in
the field.