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[[underline]] Museum Support Facilities Legislation [[/underline]]

Mr. Ripley reported to the Board of Regents that the Smithsonian Institution's facilities in the Washington area are heavily concentrated in and around the Mall, an area explicitly and properly dedicated to the use, education and enjoyment of the American public. Smithsonian activities, encompassing exhibits, education, collections, conservation, research and support, fully occupy available Mall space, yet each day the national collections of specimens and artifacts are growing, despite deliberate and selective acquisition policies, and are competing for space on the Mall with the expanding public functions of the Institution.

The collections cannot be made properly available for study and exhibition unless they are well documented and preserved, activities which also require space. Space economies are being pursued, but the continuation and expansion of essential public services require the development of plans for additional facilities to house necessary, but less visible, services of collection management, conservation, documentation, and publication.

To restore as much Mall building space as possible to public use and to provide for the long-range needs of the Institution's collections an off-Mall Museum Support Facility is required. A facility within easy reach of the museums and designed for effective integration of its collections and work space with those on the Mall would serve as