Research Services

With its 21 libraries the Readers' Services division of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries plays an essential role at the Institution. The combined collections include approximately 1.5 million volumes with 40,000 rare books, and have especially strong holdings in most of the Institution's historical disciplines including Natural History, History of Science and Technology, Anthropology, Philately and Postal History, African and Asian Art, American Art and Portraiture, Aviation and Space Exploration, Botany and Horticulture, Decorative Arts and Design, Tropical Biology, Museology, and Native American and African American History and Culture.