Researchers, students, engineers, attorneys, and the general public with interests in science, engineering, and technology, as well as the historical or philosophical aspects of those topics, will all find materials of interest in the collections of the Linda Hall Library. The Library’s holdings are exceptionally strong in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and engineering. Other areas of strength include geology and the life sciences. The Library collects extensively in the history of science and the rare book collection includes many first and early editions of important scientific works.

The collections include long runs of journals, conference proceedings, reference works, government publications and technical reports, industrial standards, engineering society conference papers, U.S. patents, and monographs. The Library currently subscribes to over 10,000 journals and adds 3,750 monographs each year. Electronic databases and print indexes provide access to the scientific literature.

The Library has acquired several strong collections over the years including the collection of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780, portions of the Franklin Institute’s library, and the collections of the Engineering Societies Library. These and other acquisitions add to the depth of the collections. We are happy to accept your suggestions for the collections as well. We also welcome donations to the Adopt-A-Book Program to aid in the preservation of the collection.

Recent uses of the Library include:

• A student researching the U.S. space missions to the moon for a high school history paper.
• Attorneys using the Library’s older handbooks to find early definitions of technical terms for an intellectual property case.
• An engineering firm using the Library’s geological resources and technical papers in preparation for a civil engineering project.
• Pharmaceutical researchers using the chemistry literature.
• Molecular biologists using materials on bioinformatics, computer science, and mathematical modeling.

We welcome you to explore our collections when you are in the Kansas City area or via our catalog and web site. For more information about the Library's unique collections, please contact the Collections Department by calling (816) 926-8776 or via email.