ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ April 2001 / 387 FOCUS ON LIBRARIES Sharing the wealth Issues of public education and outreach in museum research libraries by Margaret R. Dittemore I n discussions among librarians in teach­ ing institutions concerning the role of re­ search librarians in education and public ser­ vice, the museum library community is often overlooked. Yet museums were established in the United States with education as a primary mission, and outreach has a long and distinguished role in their history. In recent years, with advances in technology and the changing roles of both stewards and stake­ holders, museums and the libraries within them have become increas­ ingly active in conduct­ ing multiple programs to inform and serve diverse audiences. A brief look at one museum library’s expe­ riences offers a window into this broad commit­ ment to outreach and education, particularly by those libraries with stewardship over pub­ licly held collections. It is also an opportu­ nity to consider the special responsibility all “Constitutions such as museums, libraries, or The Smithsonian’s Bureau of American Ethnology colophon found on the title pages of many publications. archives have … to share the wealth of their resources with the descendants of those people who created that wealth.”1 Founded in 1846 through the bequest of a wealthy English scientist, the Smithsonian Institution is funded today primarily by U.S. taxpayers’ dollars. Its mandate—to promote the “increase and diffusion of knowledge”—has led to more than 150 years of sig­ nificant research, the building of unparalleled collections, and an active, national program of pub­ lic education and outreach. The Smithsonian Institu­ tion Libraries (SIL) and its predecessors have played an integral part in this effort.2 The John Wesley Powell Li­ brary of Anthropology, a SIL branch, has had a special place. Its collections and services reflect the formative role that the Smithsonian has had in the development of American anthro­ pology as a discipline and its long history of research and collecting in this area all over the world. About the author Margaret R. Dittemore is head of the John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, e-mail: dittemorem@sil.si. edu mailto:dittemorem@sil.si 388 / C&RL News ■ April 2001 ”Anthropology on the Internet for K-12,” a Web site for students and teachers compiled and maintained by the Smithsonian’s Anthropology Library. Of particular note is the library’s strength in the study of Native American history, lan­ guage, and culture resulting from huge col­ lections amassed by the Smithsonian and extensive fieldwork conducted and published in this area, most prominently through its Bureau of American Ethnology.3 Today this material is preserved in the museum’s an­ thropological collections, with the published materials under the stewardship of the Powell Anthropology Library. Serving many constituencies As a part of SIL, the Powell Anthropology A Kuna Indian from Panama consults with a researcher in the library. Library’s primary mission is to support the research and information needs of the institu­ tion while sharing the wealth of information that it holds in trust as a publicly supported institution with the nation. Because of anthropology’s strong appeal to the general public, the library serves an especially broad range of patrons. Requests for sup­ port and information come from local, national, and international clientele, in­ cluding students, educators, and other scholars, magazine and book publishers, artists, picture researchers, hobbyists or craftspeople, interested laypeople, and museum visitors who have seen an ex­ hibition or heard a talk that sparks their interest. Larger groups are also regularly served, such as government agencies, professional and educational organiza­ tions, news agencies, special-interest groups (such as those concerned with conservation and indigenous populations), and other mu­ seums. The core of its service to these wide-rang­ ing groups is SIRIS, or the Smithsonian Institution’s Research Information System (http://www.siris.si.edu), which includes the online library catalog; the SIL homepage (http://www.sil.si.edu) with information about its collections and services; and an ac­ tive e-mail reference service (libmail@sil. si.edu). Moreover, it participates in resource­ sharing nationally and internationally, a long and time-honored tradition among all libraries and a true example of public outreach. The Powell Anthropology Library also maintains a branch Web page of its own (http://www.sil.si.edu/ Branches/anth-hp.htm), which offers virtual audiences easy access to Smithsonian Internet resources in an­ thropology and a Web page, Anthro­ pology on the Internet for K-12 (http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/ Anthropology-K12/anth-k-12- home.htm), which introduces young people (including college students) and their teachers to the field. The site is illustrated with photos of Smithsonian anthropologists at work in the field or in their labs and with ob­ jects from the Smithsonian anthropol­ http://www.siris.si.edu http://www.sil.si.edu si.edu http://www.sil.si.edu/ http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/ C&RL News ■ April 2001 / 389 ogy collections. The close day-to-day rela­ tionships with researchers that librarians in a museum enjoy facilitate such collaboration and support, especially in public education and outreach efforts. A second such cooperative effort is Smithsonian Expeditions (http://www.nmnh. si.edu/anthro/laexped), a multimedia, bilin­ gual Web site integrating library, archival, and object collections to present an overview of 150 years of Smithsonian research in Latin America.’1 Among the stakeholders … Among the wide range of patrons who fre­ quent SIL’s Powell Anthropology Li­ brary is a special group of stakehold­ ers whose heritage is closely tied to the Smithsonian’s history and collections. Al­ though such a clien­ tele is not unique to museums, museum librarians probably interact with these patrons much more often than their aca­ demic counterparts. Prominent among this clientele are na­ tive peoples from all over the world, es­ pecially from the Americas. Often they arrive in conjunction with visits to the Anthropology Department’s National Anthropological Archives (http:// www.nmnli.si.edu/naa), its Office of Repa­ triation (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/ repatriation), or its Tribal Catalog Project. They may be working on repatriation efforts or language revitalization programs, seeking documentation for tribal recognition efforts, music, legends and art for school programs or cultural heritage centers, or simply hoping to find a picture of an earlier family member. Similarly, there is a smaller group of people whose ancestors worked for or had contact with the Smithsonian as researchers, mission­ aries, explorers, traders, and the like, usually among native peoples. Recent examples in­ clude a woman in Italy seeking more infor­ mation about her great-grandfather, a mission­ ary among the Blackfeet Indians in the Rocky Mountains; and another seeking to complete fragmented childhood recollections of her great uncle, a modest, but prolific, Smithsonian re­ searcher in both the Arctic and Mexico. Many of these stakeholders share deeply moving experiences as they uncover their past and plan for their future. Their knowledge and/ or research substantially adds to our own un­ derstanding of these records and makes us aware of their present-day meaning and im­ portance. Related to this clientele are the Smithsonian researchers themselves who rely on the library and its resources in their own St. Lawrence Island children in the 1880s. outreach to native and other peoples. For example, the Repatriation Office docu­ ments museum collections and materials that have been requested for return by Native American tribes as part of the Native Ameri­ can Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). When complete, much of the documentation becomes part of the Powell Anthropology Library’s own collection, en­ riching it and enabling both the office and the library to fulfil their basic missions. A final example, notable especially from the library view point, is the work of “knowl­ edge repatriation,” as one researcher and his colleagues call it. With the help of a National Science Foundation grant, they are “return­ ing” historical knowledge to the Beringian Yupik communities on St. Lawrence Island, http://www.nmnh si.edu/anthro/laexped http://www.nmnli.si.edu/naa 390 / C&RL News ■ April 2001 Alaska (and neighboring Chukotka, Russia), a region where the Smithsonian conducted extensive research and collecting over a num­ ber of generations. “Libraries [and] govern­ mental and local archives abound in all sorts of valuable historical documentation,” says Igor Krupnik, the principal investigator on the project.5 Although routinely used by scientists, Krupnik believes that the written record re­ mains poorly known and largely inaccessible to many local people who have a vested interest in it. As a result, he is collecting copies of photos, fieldnotes, genealogies, publications, census materials, and the like—the work of scientists, teachers, missionaries, and government officials over the past 120 years— for return to those Alaskan native people whose ancestors helped to generate them. His goal is to prepare this material as small, local col­ lections for access and use in heritage, educational, and community programs. By en­ gaging a new generation in its own history, Krupnik and the libraries and archives with which he works are “boost(ing) the edu­ cation and cultural awareness in places and communities where (this material) was col­ lected generations ago.”6 Conclusion As part of the long tradition of Smithsonian anthropology, the John Wesley Powell Li­ brary of Anthropology is sharing its re­ sources with the descendants of those who helped to create them and all those who seek to learn from this enormously rich legacy. Its activities are examples of how many museum research libraries—espe­ cially those with stewardship over publicly held collections—reach out to people ev­ erywhere as part of their broader commit­ ment to public service and education. By sharing this wealth, libraries help to facili­ tate research, the growth of the public record, and the preservation of those very resources on which we all rely. An Apache woman visiting the National Anthropological Ar­ chives finds photos of her parents. Notes 1. Joallyn Archambault, personal commu­ nication, 1996. Archambault is head of the American Indian Program, Department of An­ thropology, National Museum of Natural His­ tory, Smithsonian Institution. 2. Nancy E. Gwinn, “The Smithsonian In­ stitution Libraries: Afoot in Three Camps,” Col­ lege & Research Libraries 50, no. 2 (1989): 206- 214. See also Margaret R. Dittemore, “Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL): Anthro­ pology Branch,” in Anthropo­ logical Resources: A Guide to Archival, Library and Mu­ seum Collections, ed. Lee S. Dutton (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999), 147-152. 3. For more infonnation, see Curtis Hinsley, The Smithsonian and the American Indian: Mak­ ing a Moral Anthropology in Vic­ torian America (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994). An online index to all publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) is among the Smithsonian Insti­ tution Libraries’ offerings at http://www.sil.si.edu/ Digital Collections/BAE/ baehome.htm. 4. This site is based on an actual exhibition hosted by the Inter-Ameri­ can Development Bank in Washington, D.C., in late 1996 and a beautifully illustrated bilin­ gual catalog published for that event titled Ex­ peditions: 150 Years of Smithsonian Research in Latin America. Expediciones: 150 años de investigaciones de la Instituciσn Smithsonian en America Latina. A revised and substantially enlarged version of this exhibition now ap­ pears at the Miami Museum of Science. 5. Igor Krupnik, “Historical Knowledge Pre­ pared for ‘Return’ to Beringian Yupik Com­ munities,” Arctic Studies Center Newsletter 7 (Aug. 1999): 8-9. See also Igor Krupnik, “Re­ captured Heritage: Historical Knowledge of Beringian Yupik Communities,” Arctic Studies Center Newsletter8 (August 2000): 9-10. The Newsletter is published by the National Mu­ seum of National History, Smithsonian Institu­ tion. Also view the Arctic Studies Center Web site at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/arctic. 6. Ibid. ■ http://www.nmnh.si.edu/arctic C&RL News ■ April 2001 / 391 392 / C&RL News ■ April 2001