Specialized Libraries and Special Ways

At various times, The Magic Library Card! has tried to make the point that Libraries abound, not just as community public Libraries, but as specialized Libraries, too. Sometimes, the specialized Library even offers both a physical museum that you may visit and a searchable collection. The Science History Institute: Museum & Library in Philadelphia does offer both.

Its specialization is that it tells the stories behind the science. At its web site (https://www.sciencehistory.org) the Institute says of itself: “Science is all around us. It shapes who we are and what we do, from the clothes we wear and the phones we carry, to the food we eat and the water we drink. But science has a past—a rich and often surprising past that reveals the origins of ideas and innovations that impact our daily lives.

“The Science History Institute collects, preserves, interprets, and shares that past by exploring lesser-known and sometimes overlooked stories from the history of science and technology. And we don’t just mean discoveries made in laboratories. We dive deep into the history of scientific successes and failures, with a focus on expanding knowledge and broadening our understanding of how science and society intersect.”

The Institute’s Library is a research Library: “The Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History is an independent research library encompassing the history of chemistry and related sciences, technologies, and industries. Our library houses more than 150,000 print volumes, including rare books and manuscripts, archival materials, modern books and journals, and historical photographs.” Though, you must make a research appointment. It is not a walk-in.

And, although the digital collection is but a small part of the entire collection, the catalogue is accessible on-line.

I learned of this little gem of a museum and Library as a result of attending a webinar offered through the American Chemical Society (ACS). The webinar has a tease of a title: “The Chemistry of Romance, Flavor, and Drink: Roses, Chocolate, and Wine.” It was organized by the Science History Institute and co-produced with the ACS. It remains available for viewing at the ACS Webinars library site, but not for the general public, only for ACS members with premier membership status.

Here lies a difference in specialized Libraries that deserves mention. The Science History Institute works to make its collection accessible to the public . The ACS, on the other hand, often restricts access to membership only, and to top-paying memberships at that.

The webinar about “Roses, Chocolate, and Wine,” for example, has a lot in it that would be helpful to high schoolers interested in chemistry and looking to understand how a deep academic dive into chemistry leads to an interesting career in chemistry. But they would have to have ACS membership for access, which is not likely as a high schooler.

Nevertheless, it is through the ACS that I found this Science History Institute, and that enabled me to add my name to its subscriber list. You may do that now, too. And maybe “Roses, Chocolate, and Wine” will be publicly offered there as well at some future point in time.