Linda Hall Library

Since I have an interest in pursuing science reference librarianship, I decided to evaluate the website for the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology, which is one of the most interesting libraries I’ve ever heard of.  It is a privately-owned, independently-funded library that focuses on the sciences, but is free and open to the public.  It is located in Kansas City, Missouri, on a 14-acre arboretum.

 The home page of the website is neatly designed, with blocks of text advertising different areas of the website to explore.  There is also a navigation bar at the top of the page that remains fixed no matter what links you click on, which I found helpful.  This navigation bar also includes a search function, either for the whole site or the OPAC.  As you click around the site, there are many hyperlinks within the text of the various pages.  Following all of these can be a bit confusing and overwhelming, since they just lead you to one place after another, but it is equally easy to simply go through all the links in the navigation bar.  Another helpful feature of the navigation is that, when you click on a tab in the bar, any links underneath it also appear on the left side, so you can track your progress within the site.

 The library is involved in many different things and offers many events and features to the public, including tours of the library and grounds, document delivery across the country, library instruction sessions for students, a cosmology theater, lecture series, and, of course, an OPAC.

 As mentioned before, the OPAC can be searched from the home page, but this is only as a keyword search.  A more in-depth treatment of the holdings can be found under the Collections tab in the navigation bar.  There is a general summary page for the entire holdings, and then specific pages for Science, Engineering and Technology, and the History of Science.  This last collection is a special collection of rare books with its own rooms and rules about visiting.  Some images of the rare books are also available for use and download on the library’s website, which is very helpful to the user.  The History of Science Collection has also been the focus of several online exhibits through the website.

 The OPAC itself is called LEONARDO, and is actually the combined catalog of the Linda Hall Library and the catalog for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is surprising and somewhat incongruous, at least to me.  There is an extensive FAQ section that is quite helpful in navigating the catalog.  The default search setting on the OPAC is for General Keyword, though that can be changed to all the expected settings, such as Author, Title, Subject, Call Number, etc.  There are some settings, however, that surprised me, including Journal Keyword and All Journals Alphabetical, Subject Keyword (a function that the UT OPAC used to have and one that I personally miss), Series Keyword and Series Alphabetical, and Shelf Title Keyword (I’m not really sure what this means).

 All of these options were readily available on the LEONARDO home page, though there is also a tab labeled Search to click on.  Here, you have the same screen as the home page, but another set of tabs appears, giving the options for Basic, Advanced, or Power searches.  The page tells you which search function you’re using, and what the differences between the searches are: “Basic Search allows you to perform a keyword or an alphabetical search. Advanced Search allows you to perform multiple keyword searches and limit/sort your results. Power Search allows you to use operators with keyword searches and limit/sort your results.”

 To test the system and see what kind of results I got, I performed a general keyword search for “supernova” and got 29 results.  These results are initially sorted in alphabetical order by title, though they can be resorted by author or publication date (though relevance would have been nice, too), and can also be limited by location, type of material, and language.  The record showing the holding gives the following information: title, author, publication date, location, collection, call number, and whether there is more than one copy.  There is also a feature to add a record to a personal list, which is connected to the accounts card-holders can create on the website.

 Overall, I find this website to be well-maintained and fairly user-friendly.  It nicely allows both serendipitous browsing (by following the myriad hyperlinks embedded in the text) and a more controlled, thorough path (by going through all the links in the navigation bar).  It is clear that the website is an important part of this institution and receives a good amount of funds to keep so up-to-date.  The OPAC is not the focus of the website, but it achieves its mission of helping patrons find the items they’re looking for in the library.