Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
647 Contees Wharf Road
P.O. Box 28
Edgewater, MD 21037
Tel: 443.482.2273
Fax: 443.482.2286
email: libmail@si.edu

Using the Library

HOURS

Monday-Friday
8:00 am - 4:30 pm
SERC staff has 24-hr access
Open to the public by appointment
Closed on Federal holidays

USERS

The library serves the staff of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the resident Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC), other Smithsonian staff, fellows, research associates, other government agencies, professional associations, students, scholars, and the general public.

COLLECTIONS

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Branch Library houses a collection of materials which support the scientific and educational research in the following broad areas:

• Global change
• Landscape ecology
• Coastal ecosystems
• Population and community ecology, with emphasis on the Chesapeake Bay and its surroundings.

A separate collection (the Chesapeakiana collection) comprised mostly of grey literature dealing with the Chesapeake Bay area is also held.

INFORMATION AND REFERENCE SERVICES

Online catalog: The online catalog of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries 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 terminal in SIL or the wider SI and via the Internet.

Databases and electronic journals: Library users can conduct their own specific searches on various online databases. The SERC Library offers users access to over twelve-hundred electronic journals from Academic Press, Cambridge University Press, Wiley Interscience, JSTOR, 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 judgement of the librarian, no damage to the materials will result. A book-edge 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.