Linda Hall Library Offers Virtual Rare Book Sessions for STEM Courses

KANSAS CITY, Miss.– The Linda Hall Library — an independently funded research library dedicated to science, engineering and technology — today announces availability of its new Virtual Rare Book Sessions. In collaboration with educators, the Library will tailor rare book presentations to enrich STEM curriculum for high school, undergraduate and graduate coursework.

The Virtual Rare Book Sessions invite educators to incorporate the Library’s notable collection into coursework with topics related to the Library’s collecting areas from astronomy, math, engineering and natural history to microscopy, electricity, printing, and scientific exploration.

“Our new Virtual Rare Book Sessions represent another step forward in bringing science to life in relevant, engaging ways for educators and students in both our Kansas City metropolitan community and around the world,” said Lisa Browar, president of the Linda Hall Library. “In addition to our online public programs and digital exhibitions, the Virtual Rare Book Sessions offer a unique opportunity for educators to bring our vast science collection into the virtual classroom to engage students in science with a broader social, historical and cultural context.”

How to Schedule a Virtual Rare Book Session

Sessions are approximately one hour and include a short history of the Library, an overview on how to use the Library’s collection, and an interactive look at selected rare books from the Library’s world-renowned history of science collection. Sessions can be scheduled Monday through Friday, 9 AM – 4 PM Central at no charge. To schedule, visit https://www.lindahall.org/virtual-book-session or contact the collections team at co*********@*******ll.org

Largest Science Collection in the World

With over 39 miles of shelves with more than 1.5 million volumes, the Linda Hall Library preserves and makes available the largest collection of rare science, technology, and engineering works in the world. The Library’s History of Science Collection includes books from the fifteenth century to the present, including first editions of many landmarks of science and technology (including rare books from Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Marie Curie, among others).

The collection also has significant holdings in astronomy, geology and paleontology, natural history, engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences. Other scientific publications, such as star atlases and encyclopedic works of early natural history, are also well represented.

Linda Hall Library Digital Exhibitions in the Classroom

In addition to Virtual Rare Book Sessions, educators can incorporate the Library’s Digital Exhibitions into related coursework. The exhibitions feature the Library’s collection of rare books, photographs, manuscripts and artwork and include source links to the Library’s digital archives. Each exhibition is enriched with video presentations by renowned science experts who have presented at the Library. Educators and students can access the Library’s Digital Exhibitions on the Linda Hall Library’s website (http://www.lindahall.org/online-exhibitions/) at no charge:

• Blade and Bone: The Discovery of Human Antiquity
• Centuries of Civil Engineering
• Drawn from Nature: Art, Science, and the Study of Birds
• Flying Machines: A History of Early Aviation
• Ice: A Victorian Romance
• Napoleon and the Scientific Expedition to Egypt
• Out of This World: The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas
• Paper Dinosaurs 1824-1969
• Ribbons Across the Land: Building the U.S. Interstate Highway System
• The Atomic Age
• The Face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo
• The Grandeur of Life: A Celebration of Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species
• The Land Divided, The World United: Building the Panama Canal
• The Transcontinental Railroad
• Thinking Outside the Sphere: Views of the Stars from Aristotle to Herschel
• Voyages: Scientific Circumnavigations 1679-1859
• Vulcan’s Forge and Fingal’s Cave
• Women’s Work: Portraits of 12 Scientific Illustrators from 17th to 21st Century

By the end of 2020, the Library plans to add Digital Exhibitions including “Nature’s Fury: The Science of Natural Disasters”; “Connecting the Dots: The Science of CSI”; and “Mapping the Moon: Lunar Cartography from Galileo to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.”