24 | The Writer • April 2020
education, and research complex” and
comprises 19 museums and galleries,
the National Zoo, 21 libraries, and nine
research facilities.
The Smithsonian’s collection
includes more than 155 million items,
falling into subjects from aviation to
zoology. Its library system reaches
across Washington, D.C.; Maryland;
Virginia; New York; and Panama and
hosts more than 2 million books, man-
uscripts, pieces of ephemera, micro-
film, photo collections, and audio/
visual material.
Many of these can be accessed and
used for free. If searching digitized
books online through the Smithsonian
Libraries’ webpage, there’s a copyright
field that either states “No Copyright
United States” or, in fewer instances,
“In Copyright.” Items in the latter cate-
gory have been digitized with permis-
sion from a copyright holder, so there
may be costs for usage. Fees are also
charged for on-demand or new high-
resolution scans.
“We are actively digitizing the public
domain materials so people around the
world can use them,” says Erin Rush-
ing, outreach librarian for the Smithso-
nian Libraries. “We want people to
understand we are their Smithsonian,
and we want them to read, download,
and reuse the materials.”
On the library homepage, you can
find a list of all the branches to call or
email. There’s also an Ask a Librarian
email for reference questions. In-person
visits to the libraries are by appointment
only. “We require appointments to
guide visitors into our library spaces,
which are located beyond exhibition
halls in secure areas,” says Rushing.
“You must have a Smithsonian affilia-
tion to check a book out directly. How-
ever, anyone can borrow our non-rare
books via interlibrary loan through
their local public library.”
The Smithsonian also leads the Bio-
diversity Heritage Library – a global
consortium for online resources related
to anything ever living, including ani-
mals, plants, fossils, and more. It has
250,000 volumes of natural history
available. “If you’re ever researching a
specific species of an animal and want
the actual literature about it or amazing
pictures, like an old 1800s plate, it’s an
excellent source for that,” says Rushing.
“You can type in the species name and
instantly receive a huge list of where it
is found, along with a tremendousamount of information.” All of the
Smithsonian Libraries’ digitized natural
history collections are located there.
Everything else – like history, art, and
culture titles – is hosted on the Smith-
sonian Libraries’ own website.
Although librarian and author Mar-
cie Flinchum Atkins lives in the Wash-
ington, D.C., area, she has conducted
only online research through the
Smithsonian Libraries. However, she
has conducted both online and in-per-
son research at the Library of Congress
and National Archives. She relied on a
number of national institutions for her
most recent book, Wait, Rest, Pause:
Dormancy in Nature, a nonfiction pic-
ture book that explores the science of
dormancy for animals and plants.
Atkins says she’s always heard from
someone when she’s reached out to any
of the organizations. “It may take a few
days or so, but they always respond,”
she says. “They might say ‘We don’t
have anything,’ but more often they’ll
share where you should look.”Beyond the big three
The Library of Congress, National
Archives, and Smithsonian are impor-
tant starting points, but writers
shouldn’t stop there. “Many of the dif-
ferent government agencies that pro-
duce documents of enduring value have
libraries,” says Reilly. For example, if
you’re writing about an invention, the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a
library. A lot of its patents are online.
Some libraries at national institu-
tions have specialized collections that
go beyond those associated with the
U.S. government, such as the National
Gallery of Art. With nearly 500,000
volumes, including rare books, the
Gallery maintains one of the largest art
history libraries in the world. It also
offers approximately 16 million photo-
graphs, slides, negatives, microforms,
and digital images.
Similar to the other institutions, the
Gallery has a national mandate to
serve the entire United States. “We feelSmithsonian Institution
Jennifer L. Blanck