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    [[underlined]] The National Museum Act. [[/underlined]] Through its grants program, the National Museum Act (NMA) provides support to museums, professional museum associations, and academic institutions for training of museum personnel, special museological studies, and for professional and technical assistance for the museum community.

    The grants concentrate on museological issues and high priority is given to projects advancing conservation training and techniques.  This emphasis is unlike the grant programs offered by the National Endowments which support, for the most part, art-or humanities-related programs, or those offered by the Institute of Museum Services which provide support for museum operating costs.  The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Museum Programs and the NMA staff maintain continuing liaison with other organizations and with the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities, all of which are concerned with suppir for various kinds of museum activity throughout the United States.  The NMA continues to operate under the principles established in a memorandum of understanding that was developed with these organizations in 1979.  During the past year, The NMA conducted a thorough review of the grant programs that it supported and developed an offering to fill a need for mid-career training through refresher course for persons involved in museum work.

    In 1980, The National Museum Act was reauthorized for FY 1981 and FY 1982.  At the end of this period, NMA grant programs, as well as the grant programs of other organizations, will be reviewed by the Congress.

    [[underlined]] Other Programs. [[/underlined]] A strong demand continues for the museum training workshops and the conservation audiovisual presentations produced by the Office of Museum Programs.  In 1980, at the request of local and regional museum associations and organization, the Office conducted a number of training programs away from the Smithsonian; in these instances, the local organizations paid all expenses involve.  The Office will further explore this type of cooperative arrangement as a means of making museum training accessible to more museum personnel at no cost to the Institution.  The Native American training activity was expanded with contract funds from the Department of Labor, resulting in the establishment of a substantial number of internships, seminars and technical advisory services for Native American tribal groups interested in developing their own museums.  A review has begun of the library of audiovisual materials, and a number of items may be remade, particularly those for which the master tapes no longer lend themselves to quality reproduction.

    The Smithsonian Archives uses automatic data processing extensively to sort various indexes to the Archives and to publish the [[underlined]] Guide to the Smithsonian Archives. [[/underlined]] Over the period 1982-86, computer usage will be expanded to include archival data on photographs and the development of a management information system to control processing and reference functions.  The Archives also plans to improve its microfilm capability.

    The Office of Exhibits Central will continue to provide its general and specialized exhibition production services for the Institution's museums.  Intensified activity will result from planned renovation of the Federal City Exhibition, designing, editing and production work for many more traveling exhibits, and from exhibits planned by the National Associates.