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20

MUSEUM SUPPORT FACILITIES

The Smithsonian Institution's present facilities and space in the Washington area are heavily concentrated in and around the national Mall, an area explicitly and properly dedicated to the use, education and enjoyment of the American public. The complex of Smithsonian activities encompassing exhibits, education, collections, conservation, research and support fully occupies its available space on the Mall and elsewhere. Yet each day the National collections of specimens and artifacts are growing, even with deliberate and selective acquisition policies, and are competing for the space on the Mall with the expanding public function of the Institution. The collections themselves cannot be made properly available for study and exhibition unless they are well documented and conserved--activities which also require space. Space economies are being pursued, including more compact storage and access systems, programs of loan and transfer of collections, and traveling exhibitions. But the preservation and progress of essential public services require the development of plans for additional facilities to house the equally necessary but less visible service of collection management with its associated functions of preparation, conservation, care, study and publications.

Two needs are apparent. Improved housing on existing sites should be achieved where feasible in the future for services remaining on the Mall such as central conservation research and training and central library services. The most immediate requirement is for a museum support facility in the service of collections