DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE 

OF THE DIGITAL SMITHSONIAN

Smithsonian Institution

SUMMER 2014
Augmented reality and gamification. Crowdsourcing and new media. Norms for how we 

communicate have changed forever. We can now pluck information out of the cloud and download it 

onto one handheld device that serves as movie theater, newspaper and library combined. Wherever you 

are, technology enables us to bring the world to you; the Smithsonian can take individuals as far as their 

imagination can travel. If you are curious about how animals behave deep in the wild, the Smithsonian can 

show you. Budding astronomers can command real robotic telescopes that capture images in space. And 

scholars can study detailed 3-D scans from every angle, tracking the intricate patterns on an ancient fossil 

or the graceful curve of a Pergolesi side chair.

With the help of today’s technology, those who come to our museums can personalize their visit. Mobile apps 

help you plan your Smithsonian itinerary in advance, grow your knowledge while in the museums, and bring 

the promise of more learning home in your pocket. If these are the things we can do today, just imagine what 

tomorrow will hold. By the time the National Museum of Natural History opens its new fossil hall in 2019, 

schoolchildren could very well tour the exhibition with a T. rex avatar as their guide.

By digitizing our collections and adopting a wide range of interactive tools, the Smithsonian can engage billions 

of people worldwide and power collaboration across nations and disciplines. We can share our expertise and 

resources with K–12 schools and speed scientific discovery by giving scholars ready access to our collections. 

By purposing technology, we can better serve our founding mission — the increase and diffusion of knowledge. 

MANAGING THE DIGITAL ENTERPRISE

Clear on where we want to go, the Smithsonian has been actively investing in approaches that will get us there. 

At the same time, we are cognizant of the challenges involved. New technologies emerge daily and clamor for 

attention, and the 137 million objects in our collections — from the space shuttle Discovery to microscopic dust 

mites — range in composition and complexity. To gain Institution-wide synergy and focus, we have outlined a 

digital action agenda that sets priorities and involves respected partners. 
PRIORITY 1

Use technology to enhance the visitor experience 

Millions come to the Smithsonian each year to engage with real objects and share impressions 

with family and friends. Physical museums — staffed by extraordinary curators, scientists, 

educators and volunteers — also provide the content, expertise and collections that form the 

foundation of our digital outreach. The Smithsonian is bringing 20th-century buildings into 

the 21st century, implementing free, public Wi-Fi and positioning technologies to guide 

visitors through our museums, allowing them to see beyond exhibitions to objects not on 

display. New museums, like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, 

will blend the physical and the virtual, offering interactive digital experiences that can engage 

learners long after the school trip is over.

Q?rius

This new education space at the National 

Museum of Natural History engages tweens 

and teens in interactive experiences that 

inspire inquiry. Young people use real 

specimens to solve forensic mysteries, 

examine coral reefs and investigate the types 

of birds that wreak havoc on airplanes. By 

scanning QR codes as they explore, they can 

earn badges. Visitors can also record their 

activities, notes and drawings in a digital “field 

book” to use as a tool for continued discovery.

Learn More

Infinity of Nations App 

An app that bloggers call beautiful, simple and 

elegant, the National Museum of the American 

Indian’s Infinity of Nations, available in English 

and Spanish, turns users’ mobile phones into an 

electronic guide, elaborating on objects selected 

for their cultural and historical significance. 

Learn More
PRIORITY 2

Digitize the collections

The ongoing work of translating our collections into digital formats and making them 

available online is at the core of the Digital Smithsonian. It could take decades and tens of 

millions of dollars to digitize everything in our vast holdings. But we are approaching the 

problem strategically — setting priorities and partnering with corporations and universities to 

explore and implement the latest digitization technologies, even robotics. As we speed up the 

imaging process, the online Smithsonian Transcription Center is engaging the public in 

creating electronic records where only paper existed before.

Rapid Capture of 19th-Century Currency

In the 19th century, banks issued their own paper money; the U.S. Treasury 

collection of currency proof sheets is now held by the National Museum of 

American History. By optimizing digitization processes, curators captured 

in one week 12 times as many images as would have been possible using 

traditional methods. Smithsonian Transcription Center volunteers from 

around the world then helped create electronic records that, along with 

the images, were quickly made available to the public. Learn More

Whale “Graveyard” in Chile

Smithsonian researchers digging in 

Chile’s Atacama Desert made an 

amazing discovery — the fossilized 

skeletons of dozens of whales that 

had lain undetected for 6 to 9 

million years. Soon to be paved 

over to accommodate the widening 

of the Pan-American Highway, the 

at-risk excavation site was scanned 

in 3-D by a Smithsonian crew, 

digitally preserving the marine 

fossils for science and study. 

Learn More 
PRIORITY 3

Make Smithsonian digital content easy for the public to find and use

Those interested in Theodore Roosevelt, one of America’s most energetic presidents, will find 

relevant objects in many Smithsonian museums; President Roosevelt’s likeness is in the Portrait 

Gallery, his big-game specimens in the Museum of Natural History and his field notebooks in 

the Smithsonian Institution Archives. We want to make it easy for those who search online to 

find all Smithsonian resources on a related topic, whether that person starts out on one of our 

websites or comes to us through external partners, such as the Digital Public Library 

of America. 

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Virtual visitors to the nation’s design museum in New York 

City will find a veritable feast of options. Online exhibitions 

showcase Cooper Hewitt’s beautiful objects, from jewelry 

to textiles to furniture. One of the most popular features 

lets users search the entire collection by color, offering a 

palette of 118 hues from which to choose. Learn More

Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), 

created by a Smithsonian-led consortium 

of natural history and botanical libraries, 

is creating a “biodiversity commons,” 

where scientists can scan the millions 

of pages entered to date and find the 

taxonomic literature that resides in 

individual journals and museum 

collections. BHL puts everything in 

one place, saving precious time and 

facilitating discovery. Learn More
PRIORITY 4

Spark engagement and participation among learners everywhere

For centuries, people journeyed to museums to gaze at the world’s wonders, chosen and curated 

for them by subject experts. Today, we want to use technology to actively engage visitors, to 

incite children to learn inside and outside of the classroom, and to spark discovery in adults, 

offering online courses that draw from our collections and research. Ever-increasing website 

visits and social media mentions indicate that the public is ready, and new “digital volunteer” 

initiatives provide opportunities for people to serve as citizen scientists, contribute their own 

story of the American experience or unpack archival treasures through transcription. 

Leafsnap

An aid to amateur botanists, Leafsnap is a mobile app 

that employs visual recognition software in examining 

beautiful color photographs of tree leaves, flowers, fruits, 

seeds and bark to help users identify species from the 

American Northeast and stimulate interest in natural 

history among learners young and old. With each 

“snap,” the user is also providing valuable data to the 

Smithsonian-Columbia University-University of 

Maryland Leafsnap team. Learn More

Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey

When the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service launched the 

seven-city tour of “Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey” — an exhibition 

of Bearden’s collages that explore the theme of a heroic traveler 

searching for home — it introduced an accompanying free app. With 

the app, students can create their own collages using elements of 

Bearden’s works and then share their artwork via the “Black Odyssey 

Remixes” website. Learn More

ENVISIONING THE FUTURE

What will an increasingly digital Smithsonian ultimately allow us to do? We have the potential to share our 

knowledge with billions of people, and to bridge the opportunity gaps that have created such disparities in our 

culture. Technology unlocks a wealth of intellectual and physical resources and frees them to go to the places that 

badly need them, such as America’s schools, where they can enrich the curriculum and build an ethic of independent 

learning. A digital Smithsonian offers limitless potential and tangible rewards that we cannot even begin to imagine 

today. Its promise will evolve as technology does, and will keep the Smithsonian’s work and collections as relevant 

tomorrow as it is today, only with a much broader reach. 

Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Information: SI Building, Room 153, MRC 010, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Phone: (202) 633-1000 E-mail: info@si.edu Web: www.smithsonian.org