Ask a Conservator: Emergency Management
Author Steve Berry on our Adopt-a-Book program
Carmen Agra Deedy discusses our Adopt-a-Book event
Adopt-a-Book: Preserving Treasures Together - How it Works
Ask a Conservator: Materials Matter
At Home with the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives: Meet the Archives
At Home with the Smithsonian Libraries: African American History & Culture Unbound
Ask a Librarian Live: History and Culture Edition
Ask a Librarian Live: Science Edition
Did you know that the Smithsonian Libraries has eleven different libraries focused on natural and physical sciences? They cover everything from anthropology to zoology and are staffed by a team of expert librarians who are passionate about providing services and resources to our users at the Smithsonian and around the world.
Librarians from some of our science branches--Ricardo Beteta Bond and Carrie Smith (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library), Stephen Cox (Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute Library) and Bonnie Felts (National Museum of Natural History Library)--share some insight into how they support scientific research, especially during this pandemic, and will answer your questions.
At Home with the Smithsonian Libraries: A Colorful Conversation
Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi, Acting Head Librarian at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library, and Susan Brown, Associate Curator and Acting Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, talk about their co-curated exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color. Saturated explored how the sensory experience of color has been conceived by history's greatest color thinkers and used by designers to bring both order and excitement to our visual world.
Inspired by the Libraries’ rich collection of rare books on color, Jen and Susan guide viewers on a virtual tour, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and surprise discoveries they made along the way.
Ask a Librarian Live: Art Edition
The Smithsonian’s five art libraries house, curate, and provide access to printed and digital resources on the arts of many time periods, many cultures, and in many languages. In these libraries, you’ll find information on contemporary global art, design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present, American art, African art, and the art of Asia and the Middle East.
Librarians from some of our art branches—Anne Evenhaugen, Kathryn Phillips, and Jacqueline Protka—will share insight into how they and our libraries support research and education, especially during this pandemic, and will answer your questions.
Got a question? We can help.
Last year, our staff received over 18,000 questions from researchers around the world!
Read about this stat & more of our FY2019 activities in our recently released Annual Report: https://s.si.edu/2OmPGSx
At Home with Smithsonian Libraries: Curious Creatures
Illuminated manuscripts are beautiful books, full of glittering, colorful images. But they are much more than just pretty objects; illuminated manuscripts, particularly Books of Hours, survive from the medieval and early modern period in large numbers, allowing us to get a glimpse of the lives of people in the past. And the lives of people in the past were not as boring as one might think! In particular, the margins of their manuscripts show an interest in natural history, as well as some more creative and humorous figures.
Come along with Allie Alvis, our Special Collections Reference Librarian, and Dr. Kali Holder, a veterinary pathologist at the National Zoo, as they explore these marginal monsters!
Have a question? Drop it in the comments and we’ll let our co-hosts know.
We will be recording the session in its entirety. In case of technical difficulty or lost transmission, we will provide the recording after the session.
Is it just us or are these last days of 2019 flying faster than this spinning volvelle? 📅📅📅
Recently added to the collection of our Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, this book by Francesco Maneti was printed in 1643 and actually contains four movable volvelles (the circular, spinning feature). It was intended to help readers choose critical days (in both the favorable and unfavorable sense) for medical procedures, judicial proceedings, and undertaking navigation for dates between 1643 and 1655!
Catalog record: https://s.si.edu/2M7yBez
Meet Tuffy this #MewseumMonday😻 .
"The adventures of Tuffy" pop up was just added to our Cooper Hewitt Library collection. This children's book about Tuffy's high-jinks will join over 2,000 other examples of paper engineering: https://s.si.edu/30WEY8W
In Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History , a mechanized (and adorable) depiction of how early land animals may have walked is on display in their new Deep Time exhibition.
Learn more: https://naturalhistory.si.edu
How many museum professionals does it take to turn a book page? In the case of Audubon's double-elephant edition of “The Birds of America”, up to four!
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History staff and our book conservators team up to turn pages twice a week. See the book on view in "Objects of Wonder": s.si.edu/2WcPzL5
Can't make it to the museum to see "The Birds of America" in person? Audubon also produce a smaller (more affordable) version that combined the plates with text from "Ornithological Biography". View our copy in Biodiversity Heritage Library : https://s.si.edu/2lQyU0d
“The Life & Art of Elizabeth Gould”, part of #HerNaturalHistory
Holiday Greetings from Smithsonian Libraries!
We wish you warm tidings from all of us at Smithsonian Libraries this holiday season! Within the snow globe is an image of the Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle) from Hints on public architecture, containing, among other illustrations, views and plans of the Smithsonian Institution by Robert Owen (1849). Our current exhibition is featured in the video as well. Magnificent Obsessions: Why We Collect is now on view in the National Museum of American History through July 2020.
😍😍 Shirley Temple can keep the hippopotamus -- we want a Zebra Pegasus for Christmas!
This glorious popup is based on Hermès scarf designs. It was recently added to ouCooper Hewitttt Library, which is home to almost 2,000 movable books: https://s.si.edu/2PLh3na
#12DaysofCataloging
Author Series: James Grady
Watch author and investigative journalist James Grady wishes the Smithsonian Libraries a happy birthday and tells us why he loves libraries!
Grady is a New York Times and #1 internationally best-selling author of thriller, police procedural, and espionage novels. He is most well-known for “Six Days of the Condor,” which was adapted to film as “Three Days of the Condor” starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway in 1975.
James Grady Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Lisa Gardner
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Lisa Gardner sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.
Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels, including “Look for Me” and “The Neighbor,” which won the International Thriller of the Year Award.
A self-described research ju**ie, she has transformed her interest in police procedure and criminal minds into a streak of internationally acclaimed novels, published across 30 countries. She’s also had four books become TV movies.
Lisa Gardner Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Lee Child
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Lee Child sends his congrats and tells us why he loves libraries.
Lee Child is the #1 New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers. His debut, “Killing Floor,” won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and “The Enemy” won both the Barry and the Nero awards for Best Novel. "Jack Reacher", the 2012 film based on the 9th novel, “One Shot,” starred Tom Cruise.
Of Child’s 23 Jack Reacher thrillers, 13 have reached the New York Times #1 position. All his novels have been optioned for major motion pictures, and foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in one hundred territories.
Lee Child Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Louis Bayard
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Louis Bayard sends his congrats and tells us why he loves libraries.
New York Times notable author Louis Bayard’s fondness for bygone eras shines through his works, including historical mysteries “The Pale Blue Eye” and “Roosevelt's Beast” and young-adult novels, such as “Lucky Strikes.” His critically-acclaimed books have been translated into 11 languages.
Bayard has been nominated for both the Edgar® and Dagger awards. He is also a nationally recognized essayist and critic whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Salon. He is on the faculty of the Yale Writers Conference.
Louis Bayard Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Rita Dove
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Rita Dove sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.
Dove is an American poet, story writer, and script writer. In 1987, Dove’s book of poems based off the lives of her maternal grandparents, Thomas and Beulah, won the Pulitzer Prize. Dove served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 2003 Emily Couric Leadership Award, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 1996 National Humanities Medal.
Dove has published poetry collections including The Yellow House on the Corner, Museum, and On the Bus with Rosa Parks; a book of short stories, Fifth Sunday; the novel Through the Ivory Gate; essays under the title The Poet's World; and the play The Darker Face of the Earth.
Rita Dove Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Margot Lee Shetterly
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Margot Lee Shetterly sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.
Shetterly is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book "HIDDEN FIGURES: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race." She was also an executive producer of the Hidden Figures film based on the book.
Shetterly is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and has received a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities for her work on The Human Computer Project, the organization she founded to recover the names and work of all of the women who worked as mathematicians and engineers at all of the NACA-NASA centers from 1935-1980.
Margot Lee Shetterly Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Annette Gordon-Reed
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Annette Gordon-Reed sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.
Gordon-Reed won the National Book Award in 2008 and the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Her many awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in the humanities, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the National Humanities Medal. Her most recently published book (with Peter S. Onuf) is “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination.
Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
Annette Gordon-Reed Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Adriana Trigiani
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! Watch as author Adriana Trigiani sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.
Trigiani is beloved by millions of readers around the world for her novels. Her recent book “Kiss Carlo” was a The New York Times bestseller, and her latest, “Tony’s Wife,” arrives in bookstores November 20. Trigiani’s novels have been translated to 36 languages, and she wrote and directed the film adaptation of her debut novel “Big Stone Gap.”
Adriana Trigiani Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
Author Series: Katherine Neville
2018 marks the Smithsonian Libraries’ 50th Anniversary! In 2011, Katherine Neville became the first author invited to join the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board. During her tenure, she has furthered publicity, awareness, and events for the Libraries and currently serves on the Board’s 50th Anniversary Committee. Neville initiated the filming of 50 famous authors rolling out this year, along with film crew Maggie Linton and Kim Alexander, co-producers of the former Sirius XM Book Channel who have helped her record many glamorous author events for the Smithsonian Libraries. Watch as Neville sends her congrats and tells us why she loves libraries.
Neville is a New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author whose books have been translated into 40 languages. She has been dubbed “the female” Umberto Eco, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Stephen Spielberg. Her work has been reviewed and has received awards in categories as diverse as Mystery, Thriller, Historic, Romance, Science Fiction as well as classical literature. Publishers Weekly described Neville’s works as having “paved the way for books like The Da Vinci Code.” In a national poll by the noted Spanish journal, El Pais, her novel, “The Eight,” was voted one of the top ten books of all time.
Video is Courtesy of Katherine Neville (Smithsonian Libraries Board Member)
