The purpose of this project is to provide support to spectroscopy users and to insure the efficient usage of beam time. This includes personnel support in the form of technical assistance from on site staff on a daily basis, and consultation and/or collaboration with the Director (Dr. Chance) on a weekly basis. Improvements to the sagittally focusing monochromator (described below) have led to direct improvements in the quality of XAS data recorded at X9B. Also, it has Hled to XAS users utilizing the focusing crystals (as opposed to the Hflat crystal set) 66% of the time currently. The use of a focused Hbeam results in a smaller beam size at the specimen. Vacuum beam Htransport tubes have been used resulting in more of the X-ray beam Hbeing delivered to the specimen and less of the beam scattering elastically off the sample holder: thus the ratio of the fluorescence HX-ray signal to elastically scattered background has been improved. HBecause of the improved data quality and the transparency of usage of Hthe dynamically focused beam most of the XAS users now collect data in Hthis mode. Additionally, the smaller beam sizes at the specimen means Hsmaller quantities of precious materials are required.