Linda Hall Library
Linda Hall Library Main Reading Room
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| Country |
 United States
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|---|---|
| Type | Special library |
| Established | 1946 |
| Location | 5109 Cherry Street Kansas City, Missouri |
| Coordinates | 39°1′59″N 94°34′44″W / 39.03306°N 94.57889°WCoordinates: 39°1′59″N 94°34′44″W / 39.03306°N 94.57889°W |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Books, journals, and pamphlets |
| Size | 500,000 |
| Website | http://www.lindahall.org/ |
The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a 14-acre (5.7 ha) urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of science, engineering and technology in North America" and "among the largest science libraries in the world."
Established in 1946 through the philanthropy of Linda (1859–1938) and Herbert F. Hall (1858–1941), of the Hall-Bartlett Grain Co., the library has achieved global recognition and stature. The library is open to the public with individual researchers, academic institutions and companies from Kansas City and around the world using the library’s extensive research-level collection. Though not affiliated with its neighbor, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, many students and faculty from UMKC and other local colleges and universities utilize the library each day.
The library's William N. Deramus III Cosmology Theater shows images of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA science missions. These images are delivered via ViewSpace to the library with daily updates (via the Internet) that provide the library with new content for visitors.
"The Tazza", one of the largest pieces of malachite in North America, stands as the focal point in the center of the main reading room, which features parquet wood floors, paneling and bookshelves of oak, and large windows that overlook the south lawn.
The library's collection numbers over 2 million items. It was initially established by the purchase of the 62,358 books and other items—assembled by John Adams before he became president—that had belonged to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It includes academic journals, academic conference proceedings, reference works, publications by the government, and technical reports, industrial standards, engineering society conference papers, U.S. patents, and monographs. In 1995, the Engineering Societies Library (ESL) was transferred to Library, an acquisition equal in significance to the Academy collection, and greater in terms of the number of volumes received. The ESL collection added depth to both the journal and monograph collections, containing publications of many engineering societies, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
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