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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 sponsor the next major meeting to be held in the United States in the spring of 1984 which will address the future development of archaeometry.

[[underlined]] Collections Management [[/underlined]].  Collections management, particularly the maintenance of inventories of collections, has 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 management of information about objects in 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 oversee the affairs of the Smithsonian's Registrarial Council and will collect and disseminate collections management information through this group.

In FY 1980, the Office integrated an Institution-wide approach for developing a statement on overall collections policies.  Throughout FY 1981, each bureau developed its policy, dealing with procedures on such specific topics as acquisitions, deaccessioning and loans.  This Office conducted reviews and offered recommendations for preparation of the final drafts of those policies.  In the future, the Office will maintain a complete file of the individual policies, along with other data on collections management, so that all relevant information on these activities may be readily accessible.

An important activity of the Office of the Registrar has been to work with a variety of organizations for the development of standards for national and international museum data exchange of information about collections.  This work will continue and will be accelerated in future years.  The office also plans, in FY 1985, to establish a specialized transportation function that will assist and advise museums and other