This document provides facts and figures about the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL). SIL consists of 102 libraries located across multiple sites in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. The libraries contain over 1.7 million volumes, including 50,000 rare books and 10,000 manuscripts. SIL aims to provide authoritative information to Smithsonian researchers and the public to further their quest for knowledge. SIL is working to enhance discovery of information in its collections through initiatives like digitization and improving metadata.

1. Smithsonian Institution Libraries
“Metadata Mixing & Matching For
Discovery”
LSC 888
The Special Library/ Information Center
Suzanne C. Pilsk ~ Smithsonian Institution Libraries ~ 2010

2. Facts and Figures
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Washington, D.C.
• Anacostia Museum & Center for African American History and Culture
Library
• Anthropology Library
• Botany and Horticulture Library
• The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology
• Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library
• Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History

3. Facts and Figures
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Washington, D.C. (continued)
• Museum Studies & Reference Library
• National Air and Space Museum Library
• National Museum of American History Library
• National Museum of Natural History Library
• National Postal Museum Library
• National Zoological Park Library
• Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library
• Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art

4. Facts and Figures
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Elsewhere
Suitland, Md.
• Museum Support Center Library
• National Museum of the American Indian Library
Edgewater, Md.
• Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library
New York City
• Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library
Republic of Panama
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library

5. Facts and Figures
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
African Art Latino History and Culture
African American History and Materials Research
Culture Modern and Contemporary Art
Anthropology Museology
American Art Native American History and Culture
American History Natural History
Asian and Middle Eastern Art Postal History
Aviation history and Space Flight Tropical Biology
Design and Decorative Arts Trade Literature
Environmental Management and World’s Fair Ephemera
Ecology
History of Science and Technology

6. What’s So Special?
Public Museum
Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum complex in the
world …
“The Nation’s Attic”

7. “Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge”
Unlock the Mysteries of the Universe
Understanding and Sustaining
a Biodiverse Planet
Valuing World Cultures
Understanding the American Experience

8. SIL Mission
(Smithsonian Directive 500)
As the largest and most diverse museum library
in the world, SIL leads the Smithsonian in taking
advantage of the opportunities of the digital
society. SIL provides authoritative information
and creates innovative services and programs for
Smithsonian Institution researchers, scholars and
curators, as well as the general public, to further
their quest for knowledge. Through paper
preservation and digital technologies, SIL ensures
broad and enduring access to the Libraries’
collections for all users.

9. SIL’s Strategic Plan “Focus on Service”
• GOAL 1: COLLABORATING ACROSS BOUNDARIES
– SIL creates a compelling environment for connecting, collaborating and
exploring across disciplines and information boundaries
• GOAL 2: DISCOVERING INFORMATION
– SIL enhances and eases the discovery of information in our collections
for SI scholars, researchers, scientists, and the larger world of learners
• GOAL 3: CONNECTING WITH USERS
– SIL understands and meets user needs, serving users where they live
and work
• GOAL 4: BUILDING EXPERTISE
– SIL builds expertise on information discovery, navigation and
management
• GOAL 5: ENABLING OUR MISSION
– SIL ensures its success through increased financial strength, effective
administrative support, and organizational excellence

10. Facts and Figures
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Total volumes
> 1.7 million
50,000 are rare books
10,000 manuscripts
Trade Catalogs
> 500, 000 items
> 30,000 companies
dating from the 1800s

11. Facts and Figures
• 102 Smithsonian Libraries
Staff
• 17 Souls in Cataloging
Services (with contractors)

12. • Traditional Library
• Traditional Services

13. Integrated Library System
Smithsonian Institution
Research Information
System (SIRIS)
– MARC
– AACR2r
– ISBD
– LC Classification
– LC Subject Headings

14. Traditional Cataloging
• Monographs
• Serials
• Videos
• Microfilm/fiche
• Sound Recordings
• CD/DVDs
• Electronic Resources

15. Traditional Cataloging
• OCLC
• Program for Cooperative
Cataloging
– NACO
– SACO
– BIBCO

16. SI Libraries Serves
• Curators
• Researchers
• Post-Docs
• Museum Administrators
• Public

18. IFLA’s Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Data
To Find
To Identify
To Select
To Obtain
To USE

19. Determining Level of Metadata
• What do you have?
• What staff do you have?
• Who are your users?
• Where will it go?
• Will it stay there or travel on and on and on
and on and on and on and on and on

20. Metadata

21. Metadata – failure to serve

23. Metadata: MARC
MARC
110 Oscar Mayer & Co.
650 Frankfurters

24. Metadata
Dublin Core
Creator:
Oscar Mayer & Co.
Subject:
Frankfurters

25. Metadata: Real MARC – Still failure to serve
02761nam 2200469
4500001000700000005001700007008004100024010002300065019001300088035001400
1010350023001150400061001380490027001990500015002261000042002412450193002
8326000830047630000170055950403350057650501540091159001090106559000960117
4650002601270945002101296945007301317945003101390945004801421945004801469
9450047015179450079015649450044016439450046016879450048017339450076017819
4500440185794500510190194500510195294500710200394500900207494500960216494
5003102260-459797-20050131154400.0-731129m19021933enk b 000 0 lat
c- -aagr03000069 //r582- -a14018362- -aABY6485LB- -a(OCoLC)ocm00751549- -aU.S.
Dept. of Agr.
Libr.-cRIU-dOCL-dCHS-dSER-dSMI-dWaOLN- -aSMI$-aSMIM-aSMIE-aSMIB-00-aQL354-b.S5-
1 -aOscar Mayer & Co.-10-aPronto pup:-bhot dogs hamburgers/-ca Oscar Mayer and
Company.- -aNew Orleans, La. :-bBourbon Street Foods,-c2000.

26. Metadata: MARCXML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<collection xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim
http://www.loc.gov/standards/marcxml/schema/MARC21slim.xsd">
<record><leader>02761nam a2200469 4500</leader>
<controlfield tag="001">459797</controlfield>
<controlfield tag="005">20050131154400.0</controlfield>
<controlfield tag="008">731129m19021933enk b 000 0 lat
c</controlfield>
<datafield tag="010" ind1=" " ind2=" ">
<subfield code="a">agr03000069 //r582</subfield>
</datafield>

27. How to make THIS into 0’s and 1’s

28. Virtual Library defined in the
Online Dictionary for
Library and Information Science
A "library without walls" in which the collections do
not exist … [in] tangible form at a physical location but
are electronically accessible in digital format via
computer networks.
The term digital library is more appropriate because
virtual (borrowed from "virtual reality") suggests that
the experience of using such a library is not the same
as the "real" thing when in fact the experience of
reading or viewing a document on a computer screen
may be qualitatively different from reading the same
publication in print, but the information content is the
same regardless of format.
~ http://lu.com/odlis/odlis_v.cfm

29. Digital Library defined in the
Online Dictionary for
Library and Information Science
A library in which a significant proportion of the resources are
available in machine-readable format … . The digital content
may be locally held or accessed remotely via computer
networks. … In libraries, the process of digitization began with
the catalog, moved to periodical indexes and abstracting
services, then to periodicals and large reference works, and
finally to book publishing.
~ http://lu.com/odlis/odlis_v.cfm

30. Traditional Digital Library
• Electronic Journals &
Databases
• Digital Editions
• Online Exhibitions
• Online Catalog
• Digital Reference

32. If you digitize it …
Will they find it?

33. Search Gone BAD!

35. - Specimen
- Plate or other visual image
- Taxonomic description

37. Beyond the Traditional
Taxonomic Literature Needs/Requests
• Beyond the Scan
• Beyond the Re-Keyed
• Marking up the data in metadata schemas

40. MARC
Milk, eggs, lactaid
Make dentist appt.
LCSH/LCCS
Feed the cat
ISBD
AACR
Pick up dry cleaning

41. Access relatedItem
MARC Dublin Core
XMP
Milk, eggs, lactaid
METs ISBD
Faceted RDA
LCSH/LCCS
Add hotdogs to grocery list
Feed the cat
XML
MODS Dewey AACR
FRBR
Pick up dry cleaning
Hierarchical TEI
ONIX

42. Discoverable
Milk, eggs, lactaid
Make dentist appt.
Interoperability
Feed the cat
Open Access
Collaboration
Pick up dry cleaning

44. Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)

46. EOL Bibliographic
Curator species Data from
RequestEvaluate need SIRIS Carts delivered to scanner
title
Goin’ down is…
Need
Put on shipping cart,
“gap-fill” Picklist Database
the rows generate‘packinglist’ invoice
for other Stores Select /
BHL library reject / ship
Update picklist if item record
state & supplies
has been changed
item metadata During cataloging touch-up
to IA Circ to scanner
Select title
serial? no in picklist,
Circ to cataloging
upload to
monograph de-duper for MARC editing
yes
no The Stacks Reject in picklist,
Duplicate? fail
Other yes Circ in Horizon
Return to stacks
library
“bid” ? Meta-
Reject in picklist, data
no return to stacks check pass
“Bid” Pull from stacks
Preser-
on title, Circ in ILS vation
select in Preliminary metadata check review pass
picklist And physical check
fail

47. IA scanning process
BHL Portal
Unique IA id is assigned
Metadata is gathered from Periodically harvests
SIRIS and the picklist db Marc.xml (bib) and item
And associated with the scan Records, along with
JP2000s generated JP2000 from
Carts delivered & transformed Archive.org
to scanner Served on archive.org
To index and display
QA is done by IA on 10%
In the portal
Put on shipping cart,
generate ‘packinglist’ Books are returned,
Invoice, alert cart contents are
scanning center verified against invoice
SIL does 20% QA Download .csv from
Update picklist Checking for metadata matching
to indicate portal with SIL
With item, scan quality etc
rescan barcodes, Portal
URLs
no Pass QA?
yes
Updated in picklist as scanned
Circ in Horizon Send URLs to SIRIS
Place BHL sticker near barcode Office for batch
Return to Stacks updates

48. BHL
Mass Scanning Workflow
•Bid Lists
•Serials Management
•Pick Lists
•Packing Lists
•Monographic Management
•Local data flow
•WonderFetch tm
•Return of data
•Return of material
•Billing
Ernest Ingersoll
Hand-book to the National Museum … Smithsonian Institution, 1886

49. BHL
1. Select Book ~Pull from Shelf
2. Review Physically and Metadata
3. Establish viability and create
Wonderfetchtm
4. Send to IA scanning center
5. Book is scanned & QA
6. Page images loaded
7. Derivatives created
8. Book returned to library
9. Files harvested from IA portal to
BHL
10. Taxonomic Intelligence Added
11. Available through BHL

50. Monographic DeDuper

58. The BHL Portal is not a library catalog

79. Collections.SI.edu ~ SI Libraries
842,000 Records in ILS
27,805 Trade literature
74,613 Art and Artists files
4,000 SI Digital Repository
(SI Research Online)

80. Not in
Collections.Si.Edu

81. Collections.SI.edu ~ Freer + Sackler
53% of the ENTIRE
collection at www.asia.si.edu
& collections.si.edu
12,269 objects online
NOT: F/S G’s Study Collection – 10,872 objects only for
study not for exhibit – will never go online

82. Collections.SI.edu ~ NPM
12,000 Records
Collections.si.edu
16,000 Records in the
ARAGO
214,000 Records
in the database
6 Million objects
= 0.2% in Collections.si.edu

83. Collections.SI.edu ~ NMNH
NMNH estimates 126 Million Specimens

85. Collections.SI.edu ~ NMNH
NMNH estimates 126 Million Specimens
5,400,000 Catalog Records in collection
management system –
5,218,793 available on collections.nmnh.si.edu
(181,207 records not available)

86. Collections.SI.edu ~ NMNH
Coming soon:
IZ 992,000 (68,000 with media)
Bot 788,000 (1,300 with media)

87. Collections.SI.edu ~ NMNH
NMNH estimates 126 Million Specimens
5,400,000 Catalog Records in collection
management system – 5,218,793 available on
collections.nmnh.si.edu
(181,207 records not available)
6 out of 10 units supplying data to
collections.si.edu = 2,527,557 records
(153,418 have images)

88. Collections.SI.edu
4,600,000 Records
445,000 Images
40 Data sources
50%
of the records are from 1 source
(NMNH and still growing 2,527,557 records
with 153,418 images)

89. SI Wide Estimations
• 136.9 MILLION objects
• 13 MILLION digital records
• 821,000 digital images

90. “The worth and importance of
the Institution is not to be
estimated by what it
accumulates within the walls of
its building, but by what it sends
forth to the world.”
—Joseph Henry
The Smithsonian Institution’s First Secretary
1852

92. Credits
Thanks to staff at
NMAI SIL
NMNH MBL/WHOI Library
NPM MoBot
Freer/Sackler NYBG
BHL

93. Smithsonian Institution Libraries
“Metadata Mixing & Matching For
Discovery”
Suzanne C. Pilsk
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
PilskS@si.edu