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ed to the archeology-ethnology collection. The completion date for this collection is fall 1981. Inventories on the carnivore and the large mammal collections are moving along rapidly, and work on the fossil fish collection and the Burgess Shale collection is ahead of schedule. Progress has been recorded on the mollusk collection, and the initial inventory of the gem and mineral collection is complete and will be verified this year. Fourteen pilot projects designed to prepare other collections for inventorying in future years are underway, or are about to be initiated. These include the massive collections of plants, insects, marine and fresh water invertebrates.

Funds also will be needed in future years for the maintenance and updating of the collections inventory at the Museum and at the Support Center. This will be a continuing activity and resources will be required to sustain these efforts.

Along with the Air and Space Museum and the History and Technology Museum, the Natural History Museum is among the leading attractions of the Institution. The Museum hosts between five and six million visitors per year who come to view the extensive exhibits, currently being revised in accordance with a twenty year plan. The Museum reaches out to schools in the Washington metropolitan region to provide information about the Museum and to encourage visits. Serious amateur naturalists can find specimens and equipment to use in furthering their interests in the Museum's newly established Naturalist Center. Also, the Museum receives hundreds of scientific visitors each year who make use of the collections, and thousands of personal and letter inquiries about the Museum's collections and exhibits are answered as well.

As part of the long-range exhibitions plan, a permanent exhibit on evolution opened in May 1979, and the Dinosaur Hall was closed in June 1979 to begin a major renovation of the fossil exhibit area. Research results continue to be published through the Institution's series publications, books, articles, and monographs. The popularity of the Handbook of North American Indians has exceeded expectations, with the first two volumes on Indians of [[underline]] California [[/underline]] and the [[underline]] Northeast [[/underline]] sold out within a few months of their release dates. Both have had second printings, and these also are selling out. The first two volumes on [[underline]] Southwest [[/underline]] Indians is scheduled to be available in early 1980. The [[underline]] Subartic [[/underline]] volume and the volume on [[underline]] Indians in Contemporary Society [[/underline]] also will be published in 1980. Some additional funds to cover increased production costs may be necessary later in the planning period before the entire twenty volumes can be completed (estimates place this need at approximately $100,000), but further study is necessary before a request is made.

Increasing the amount of federal support available to individual scientists to achieve resource equality with other federal research organizations remains a high priority of the Museum. Added resources over the planning period will continue to be sought for this purpose.