Museum Support Center Library
4210 Silver Hill Road, MSC Rm. C-2000
Suitland, Maryland 20746-2863
Telephone: 301.238.1030 | Fax: 301.238.3661
email: libmail@si.edu

Using the Library

HOURS
Monday-Friday
8:45 am - 5:15 pm
MSC staff has 24-hr access
Other Smithsonian staff must have encoded proximity key card to enter library unaccompanied
Open to the public by appointment
Closed on Federal holidays

USERS
The library serves the staff of the Smithsonian Museum Support Center, other Smithsonian staff, fellows, research associates, other government agencies, professional associations, students, scholars, and the general public.

COLLECTIONS
The Museum Support Center Library houses approximately 25,000 volumes, including over 500 serial titles as well as an audiovisual and microform collection.

Specialized subject coverage includes:

• Conservation, restoration, preservation, deterioration of materials and of museum objects as well as the scientific understanding of these processes.
• Molecular evolution, molecular systematics, molecular genetics, population genetics, phylogenetic theory and analysis, electrophoresis genetics, evolutionary biology, protein DNA and RNA analysis as it relates to topics in natural history, plant molecular biology, and animal molecular biology.
• Medical entomology, keys to identification, taxonomic, and systematic works on fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.
  Books are arranged in the Library of Congress classification system. Serials are arranged alphabetically by title. Stacks are open to Smithsonian staff and visitors to MSC. Specific information on Branch Library holdings may be obtained from the library staff.

INFORMATION AND REFERENCE SERVICES
Online catalog: The online catalog of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL) is available on SIRIS, the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System, and can be accessed through the Internet at http://www.siris.sil.si.edu. The catalog can be searched by author, title, subject, keyword, and call number with Boolean options. SIRIS can be searched from any workstation in SIL or the wider SI and via the Internet.

Databases and electronic journals: Library users can conduct their own specific searches on various end-user online databases. The SIL offers users access to over twelve-hundred electronic journals from Academic Press, Cambridge University Press, Wiley Interscience, JSTOR, and others. On request, the librarian can search Thomson-Dialog databases such as Chemical Abstracts and others.

Reference: The librarian offers assistance and instruction in the use of the library’s resources, and directs users to additional information sources in related SIL collections and/or to outside resources when appropriate.

LENDING POLICIES
Library materials, except for those cataloged as Reference, are available on loan to all SIL-library-card-holding Smithsonian staff, affiliated agencies staff, and other long-term appointees for a period of from one to six months with renewal by phone, email, or in person. Library materials are expected to be used on the premises of the Smithsonian Institution and should not be removed to off-site locations.

The public may use materials in the branch library or may borrow materials through the interlibrary loan system available to them through public, special and academic libraries. SIL adheres to the interlibrary loan guidelines of the American Library Association.

In lieu of borrowing, library materials may be photocopied within the restrictions of the Copyright Act provided that, in the judgment of the librarian, no damage to the materials will result. A photocopy machine and a microform/microfiche reader/printer are available in the library. Non-Smithsonian users may be charged fifteen cents per page for photocopies.