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On May 17, 1994, Pleasant Company presented a check for $78,758 to NAAMP. The donation, which represents 5% of all January and February sales of books, dolls, and accessories from the new Addy collection, was part of Pleasant Company's Black History Month celebration. Addy, a nine-year-old African American girl whose family struggles to be free during the Civil War, is the fifth character in Pleasant Company's American Girls Collection - a line of books, and accessories that teaches youngsters about American history. 

Implementation of SIRIS for Smithsonian Libraries

The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS), the interactive, integrated system used to manage, describe, and provide access to research resources held primarily by the Institution's libraries, archives, and research units, is nearly fully operational. Three of its four catalogs are accessible, and staff access from desktop workstations and the Internet is expected by fall. The Smithsonian Library Catalog contains information about the holdings of the 18 branch libraries of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries and the American Art and Portrait Gallery. The Research/Bibliographies Catalog holds the Museum Studies Theses Database, the Art Inventories Catalog provides access to the Inventory of American Paintings Executed before 1914, and the Inventory of American Sculpture is maintained by the National Museum of American Art. These three catalogs are now operational. Use of the Archives Catalog is expected in August, including the holdings of the National Museum of American History Archives Center, the National Museum of Natural History Human Studies Film Archives, the National Anthropological Archives, the Archives of American Art and the Smithsonian Institution Archives. 

SIRIS will soon offer "Z39.50" capability, a national standard for data searching and retrieval to provide browsing of databases at other institutions. Regent Hanna H. Gray was instrumental in providing SIRIS with this capability.

Study to Assess Animal Welfare Compliance

The Institution is subject to a number of laws and regulations that govern the use of animals in research and exhibtion. Over the years, a series of internal mechanisms have been set in place within the Institution to conform with national policies and to ensure that appropriate regulations are met. Recent amendments to laws and regulations in this field may have significant effects on how the Institution's biological bureaus conduct their activities in future years. 

To ensure that the Smithsonian is meeting both its regulatory and societal obligations in relation to the use of animals in research, a study has been initiated with Dr. Franklin Loew, Dean of the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine and an international expert in animal welfare compliance. Dr. Loew will visit and review present and proposed plans from all the Institution's biological bureaus (e.g. Museum of Natural History, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)to ensure compliance with existing laws and regulations and to assure that proper documentation and policies are in place. It is expected that this study will be largely completed in early October and will be reviewed by the affected bureaus and the administration of the Institution. 

Foreign Country Interests in Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Telescope Projects

As previously reported, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) continues its effort to build a Submillimeter Array (SMA) of six, 6-meter-diameter antennas to be placed on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and electronically-linked into a single instrument, called an interferometer.