Office of the Chief Information Officer

Building the Digital Smithsonian

The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) equips members of the Smithsonian community with the technology tools, services, and applications they need to carry out their responsibilities effectively. OCIO manages a state-of-the-art data center in Herndon, VA, supporting Smithsonian facilities and staff in Washington, New York, Cambridge, MA, the country Panama, and other locations around the world. Beyond ensuring robust day-to-day operations, OCIO professionals partner with subject matter experts throughout the Institution to deliver leading-edge technology solutions in areas of strategic importance.

OCIO has played a key role in the development and delivery of the “Digital Smithsonian,” making our vast collections, research, and educational resources accessible online to millions of people around the world. Over the past decade, OCIO has dedicated significant resources to the digitization of collections and research data and to making our digital assets accessible to the public via the web, social media, in-museum technologies, etc.

Our Priorities

  • Empower all Smithsonian staff members with the technology solutions they need to do their best work.
  • Deliver enterprise solutions that respond to the organization’s complex and ever-evolving requirements.
  • Safeguard the Smithsonian’s information resources and operations by implementing a robust IT security program.
  • Expand central and unit capability to create and manage digital content from collections.
  • Enable the full, coordinated sharing of Smithsonian cultural, scientific, and information resources with the public.
  • Create a technology environment that supports and strengthens the Institution’s scientific research enterprise.

Our Public Projects

Digitization Program Office Website

Digitization Program Office

The Digitization Program Office was founded to “integrate digitization into the core functions of the Smithsonian.The scale and diversity of Smithsonian collections presents a unique digitization challenge. The Digitization Program Office meets the challenge by establishing metrics that track digitization progress across the Smithsonian; by running pilot and production digitization prototype projects in our museums; by investigating cutting-edge technologies such as 3D digitization in their application to our collections and scientific research; and by investigating additional tools and techniques such as robotic and conveyor belt capture to further increase productivity.

Smithsonian X 3D Website

Smithsonian 3D

With only 1% of our collection on display in Smithsonian museum galleries, digitization affords the opportunity to bring the remaining 99% of our collection into the virtual light. All of these digital assets become the infrastructure which allows not just the Smithsonian, but the world at large to tell new stories about the familiar, as well as unfamiliar, treasures in our collections.

Collections Search Center Website

Collections Search Center

The Smithsonian Collections Search Center is an online catalog containing a digital record for most major collections in our museums, archives, libraries, and research units. There are over 17.4 million records of museum objects, archives, and library materials including more than 7.5 million online images, audio, videos, and blog posts.

DAMS screen showing folders and images.

SI Digital Asset Management System

The SI Digital Asset Management System (SI DAMS) serves as the Smithsonian’s enterprise digital media repository and provides trustworthy storage, management, access, delivery, and preservation. SI DAMS works as an underlying mechanism to ensure the stewardship of the Smithsonian’s digital media assets in order to support the Institution’s essential mission—the increase and diffusion of knowledge.

Screen capture of the Research Computing projects website page

Office of Research Computing

Smithsonian Research Computing as part of the Office of the Chief Information Officer is working to build an e-research infrastructure that supports all aspects of the research life-cycle from project planning through analysis, publishing and long term data management. 

Screen capture of the Smithsonian Music website homepage

Smithsonian Music

A dynamic new initiative, Smithsonian Music, is bringing together these rich resources from throughout the Institution’s museums and research centers to provide unique musical opportunities and increase access to the nation’s collections. 

The Office of the Chief Information Officer supports this program by serving on the Smithsonian Music Executive Committee to help encourage collaboration between music enthusiasts and scholars across the Institution by providing collaboration tools, developing and maintaining a website and providing resources to operate to generate content on a day-to-day basis.