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[[underlined]] Smithsonian Exposition Books [[/underlined]]

Mr. Ripley introduced the topic of popular book publishing at the Smithsonian. He noted that at the meeting of the Executive Committee on January 3rd, he had suggested that the Smithsonian has reached a point where its mail-order popular book publishing program, known as Smithsonian Exposition Books, is assuredly no longer an experiment. It has proven itself to be integral to the Institution's mandate for educational outreach, and the five books published to date have sold approximately 636,000 copies and have brought a net return of more than $3 million to the Institution.

The Executive Committee recommended that the Secretary develop a comprehensive statement of the Institution's objectives in publishing and its plans for meeting such objectives -- particularly in terms of the size of the program (volume of publications, budget and staffing parameters) and the types of books to be published. Mr. Ripley stated that this recommendation coincided happily with an internal initiative just undertaken to form a review panel (composed of specialists from the publishing world, interested members of our Smithsonian Council, and appropriate staff) to make recommendations in three areas:

1. Defining the Institution's objectives in such publishing in relation to the mandate "for the . . . diffusion of knowledge among men."

2. Determining the extent to which these objectives are met by current Smithsonian publishing, and where additions or deletions to the program should be effected.

3. Evaluating the efficiency of the Institution's current publishing organization and recommending improvements for more effective publishing.