About SIL Research Annex
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries Research Annex houses over 80,000 items including runs of historical serials, government publications, trade literature, and overflow material from other SI library locations.
The facility features a modern reading room with connections for laptops and scanners, a
microform reader, and a photocopier. Researchers must call or email Mike Hardy in advance of
any visit to ensure materials are available for viewing. The Libraries’ Book Conservation
Laboratory and Digital Imaging Center are also located in the same facility.
Using the library
M-F 8:00am -4:30pm
Please call for an appointment
301.238.2082
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 37012
3400 Pennsy Dr., Rm. K17, MRC 806
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Physical address:
Rm. K17, MRC 806
3400 Pennsy Drive
Landover, MD 20785-1607
Staff
Michael Hardy
Library Technician
Telephone: 301.238.2082
Email: Hardym@si.edu
Collections
The collection includes over 5,000 monographs and 225,000 volumes of serial holdings with broad strengths in the following areas:
- 19th century travel and exploration narratives, original and reprints
- Anthropology foreign language journals
- Arabic language medical tracts reprints
- Applied sciences and technology, particularly foreign language titles
- Extended historical series, such as the Presidential Papers, and colonial papers of the
states
- Extractive industries, chiefly mining
- Museum reports from all over the world, notably Europe
- Older editions of reference works, such as encyclopedias and Who’s Who
- Auction catalogs, chiefly from Sotheby’s and Christie’s
- Robert P. Anderson Collection of Easter Island archival materials
- SAMS Photofacts collection
- 19th and 20th century photography serials
- Culinary Historians of Washington collection
- Washington Post and Washington Star microform holdings
- Dissertation abstracts, in both print and microform
- Smithsonian publications, including the bulletins of the National Museum, annual reports for both the Institution and the National Museum, Contributions to Knowledge series, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection, as well as contributions from various museums and other Smithsonian organizations.
- NASM Library Aerospace Legacy Reports Collection
The Annex collection fills the needs of people conducting research in unique and varied subjects.
