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staff of a local university to explore the extent to which Conservation Laboratory instruction and graduate and undergraduate level courses must be integrated to produce a well-rounded and complete conservation program.  A training program coordinator will be employed by the Laboratory during FY 1981 to prepare for and set up the training activity so that students can be accepted during FY 1983.  Other staff positions important to the expanded conservation analytical and treatment functions, and to the training program, will be recruited over the planning period, particularly FY 1982 and FY 1983.

In addition to attending to the development of activities that will occur in the Museum Support Center in the coming years, the Conservation Analytical Laboratory will continue to explore the best means of monitoring environmental conditions throughout the Institution's museums in an effort to stabilize relative humidity and temperatures in all areas housing exhibits and collections; it will continue its program of computerizing conservation data and related information which are the product of its ongoing work, and to establish closer linkage with similar systems elsewhere.  As an example of this, the Laboratory has installed a system for gaining access to the British Museum for their conservation reports and the Index to Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts.  Future projects of the Laboratory will include the updating of conservation information videotapes which are distributed upon request to the museum profession, and the making of new videotapes of conservation processes while they are in progress.  These tapes will provide a valuable record of laboratory work and will be used for training and instructional purposes.  The Laboratory will continue its role of providing assistance and advice to curators in the identification and selection of objects requiring treatment.  Other Institution-wide conservation matters are subjects of discussion of the Smithsonian Conservation Council which meets regularly.

The Conservation Analytical Laboratory is also planning to continue its cooperative arrangements with the National Bureau of Standards for archaeometric studies and seminars.  The Laboratory has and will continue to participate in international conferences on archaeometry and will be actively involved in a major meeting to be held in the United States in May 1981 which will address the future development of the subject.

[[underlined]]Collections Management.[[/underlined]]  Collections management, particularly the acceleration of inventories of collections and the establishment of improved data systems, ahs been established as an institutional priority for the coming years.  Aside from the issues and requirements associated with the Conservation Analytical Laboratory and the specific references to collections management/inventory matters appearing in the Science, History and Art, and other chapters, the Office of the Registrar will play an increasingly important role in collections management over the planning period.  The Office will provide continuing assistance to bureaus in modernization of their systems for management of information about objects in collections, will guide the development of a Smithsonian-wide information system to achieve effective intellectual integration of data on the collections, and will maintain information on the progress of collection inventory projects in the various bureaus.  In addition, the Office will pursue implementation of recommendations made in the 1977 report on collections management to develop training programs to support Smithsonian personnel working in collection registration and related functions.  The Office will continue to manage the affairs of the Smithsonian's Council of Registrars and will collect and disseminate collections management information through this group.