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[[underlined]] Museum Support Center. [[/underlined]] Construction of the basic structure for the Museum Support Center began in January 1981 and was completed in January 1983. Occupancy of the building for maintenance purposes, installation of the storage system, and preparation of the laboratories and other work areas began shortly thereafter. Throughout the planning process, and during the construction period, strict standards for suitable environmental conditions and security, as well as for laboratory functions, have been adhered to closely. Following a thorough study of the problem, a storage system of racks capable of holding a variety of integrated modular collection encasement units has been determined to be the most effective means of meeting the needs of the various Smithsonian museum departments to store collections there. The acquisition process for both storage and laboratory equipment began in FY 1981 and will continue through the planning period and beyond. It is planned to start the process of transferring collections as soon as possible after all the basic systems (fire, protection and environmental) are operational and have been thoroughly tested, and the first increments of storage equipment are installed. The first collections to be moved to the Center are "wet storage" collections from the Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center, and from the Departments of Invertebrate and Vertebrate Zoology of the Museum of Natural History/Museum of Man.

Additional details regarding the construction, equipping and operations of the Museum Support Center appear in the Special Programs chapter and the Facilities chapter.

[[underlined]] Conservation Research, Training, and Information. [[/underlined]] The plans developed in 1979 for the Conservation Analytical Laboratory in the Museum Support Center and for the facilities and training program for conservators and conservation technicians have remained substantially unchanged since their inception, and both program and budget growth will occur during the years immediately ahead. Within the Center, the Laboratory and training program will occupy the major portion of the 44,000 square feet of space assigned to conservation functions to be performed there. Other parts of this space will be used by the Anthropology Conservation Laboratory and by the Conservation Laboratory of the Museum of American History. Conservation treatment, as well as analytical and archaeometric research, presently performed by the Conservation Analytical Laboratory in the American History Building will be transferred to the new Museum Support Center.

Proper utilization of the new facilities will require a significant increase in staff for various organizations. The phasing of this growth takes into account the time required for construction of the Museum Support Center and acquisition of its equipment and furnishings. For the Conservation Analytical Laboratory, because of the difficulty in recruiting highly qualified and scarce conservation personnel, steps were taken in 1980 to prepare appropriate position descriptions so that personnel actions can be instituted on schedule. Precise specifications for special conservation equipment, particularly fumigation equipment which must be in place in the Center at the time of its occupancy, have been developed and