Linda Hall Library
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."[1] It is the "largest independently funded public library of science, engineering and technology in North America"[2] and "among the largest science libraries in the world."[1]
Not to be confused with Linen Hall Library.Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology
5109 Cherry Street
Kansas City, Missouri, 
United States
1946
Books, journals, and pamphlets
500,000[1]
Collections[edit]
The library's collection numbers over 2 million items.[4] 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.[1] 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 the 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 Electronics Engineers.[4]
The library's distinguished History of Science Collection contains more than 50,000 volumes, including first editions of many landmarks of science and technology. Some of the oldest books date to the fifteenth century. The oldest book in the collection is a 1472 printing of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia (Natural History).[4]
A number of works can be accessed online, including:
The collection includes other important scientific works (many written in Neo-Latin and other languages), including: