Smithsonian Libraries

Laura J. Snyder to Deliver 2011 Dibner Library Lecture

The Smithsonian Libraries will hold the 2011 Dibner Library Lecture on Tuesday, December 6 at 5 p.m. in the Smithsonian Castle Commons. The lecture is free and open to the public.

This year's guest lecturer is author Laura J. Snyder, Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University in New York City. At the Smithsonian Libraries event, Snyder will speak on “The Philosophical Breakfast Club and the Invention of the Scientist.”

 

Snyder is a Life Member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge, and served as President of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science in 2009 and 2010. Her most recent book, “The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends who Transformed Science and Changed the World” (Broadway Books, 2011), was a Scientific American Notable Book, an Official Selection of the TED Book Club, and winner of the 2011 Royal Institution of Australia Poll for Favorite Science Book. She is also the author “Reforming Philosophy: A Victorian Debate on Science and Society” (University of Chicago Press, 2006). 

 

Begun in 1992, the Dibner Library Lectures feature a distinguished scholar who has made significant contributions to his or her field of study. Previous lecturers include British historian Richard Holmes and Harvard University professor Joyce E. Chaplin. Since 2000, the Dibner Library Lecture has become available in published form. The lectures are also posted online at http://www.sil.si.edu/libraries/Dibner/programs.cfm. The lecture series and its publication are made possible by the generous support of The Dibner Fund.

The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, one of the Smithsonian Libraries’ 20 locations, opened in October 1976. The library's core collection of 10,000 rare books and 1,600 manuscript groups came to the Smithsonian from the Burndy Library, founded by Bern Dibner in Norwalk, Conn., at the time of America’s bicentennial celebrations. The collection includes premier scientific texts spanning the 13th to the early 20th centuries and has grown to form one of the cornerstones of the Smithsonian Libraries' collections. For 35 years, this library has provided vital primary sources to scholars, curators and members of the scientific community.

 (Photo courtesy of Ms. Snyder)

New Internship Program

The  Libraries announces a new, paid internship program for graduate students interested in working in research and museum libraries. The program covers specific areas, including special collections and preservation, technical services, digital projects and research, reference and reader services. The Libraries will award up to two paid summer internships each academic year.

Candidates interested in special collections and preservation will work in the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology at the National Museum of American History, where they will learn about processing, research, preservation and exhibition preparation. Candidates interested in the Libraries’ technical services will work in the serials unit of the Cataloging Department located in the National Museum of Natural History, gaining valuable cataloging and metadata skills, assisting with electronic journal issues and solutions and working on various special projects relating to electronic resources and collections. Candidates interested in digital projects will work in the Digital Services Division, also located in the Natural History Museum, increasing access to the Libraries’ collections through Smithsonian Research Online, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Libraries’ web site and other digitization projects. Candidates interested in research, reference and reader services will work in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library, in New York City, where they will address cataloging, advanced bibliographic searching, library move planning, weeding, and connecting to digital content.

Qualified applicants must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, hold a 3.0 GPA in their major, demonstrate interest in the research and museological activities of the Smithsonian Institution and Libraries and show solid writing, analytical and computer skills. Interns may receive up to $500 dollars per week for a maximum of six weeks. Applications for summer 2010 internships will be accepted on a rolling basis until June 15. For more information, application guidelines and complete program details, visit http://www.sil.si.edu/galaxy.cfm?id=3.21, or contact Special Project Manager Vicki Avera via email: averav@si.edu.

—Liz O'Brien

Image: "Portrait of Jean de Montreal," from Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

17th Dibner Library Lecture Today!

As part of the Libraries' two-day symposium, “The Era of Experiments and the Age of Wonder: Scientific Expansion in the 17th – 19th Centuries” today and tomorrow, March 5 British historian Richard Holmes will give the 17th Dibner Library Lecture. Holmes, whose latest book, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (2008), was shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction. Holmes is an award-winning biographer of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Samuel Coleridge, and in The Age of Wonder he examines the life and work of the scientists of the Romantic Age who laid the foundations of modern science.

This celebration marks the reopening of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, one of the Libraries’ two facilities for rare books and manuscripts. The Dibner Library is located in the National Museum of American History. For more information and a program schedule, visit www.sil.si.edu or call 202.633.1522.—Liz O'Brien

Richard Holmes, c. Stuart Clarke

Smithsonian Libraries Hosts Symposium on Scientific Expansion

Mark your calendars!

The Libraries will host a two-day symposium titled “The Era of Experiments and the Age of Wonder: Scientific Expansion in the 17th–19th Centuries” March 4 and 5 in the National Museum of American History. This celebration marks the reopening of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, one of the Libraries’ two facilities for rare books and manuscripts.

Guest lecturers include British historian Richard Holmes, Harvard University professor Conevery Bolton Valencius and the Smithsonian Institution’s Under Secretary for Science Eva J. Pell. The 17th Dibner Library Lecture will be given by Holmes, whose latest book, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (2008), was shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction. Holmes is an award-winning biographer of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Samuel Coleridge, and in The Age of Wonder he examines the life and work of the scientists of the Romantic Age who laid the foundations of modern science.

Valencius is affiliated with the Department of History and Science at Harvard University and her book, The Health of the Country: How American Settlers Understood Themselves and Their Land (2002), won the 2003 George Perkins Marsh Prize for the best book in environmental history. Pell is a distinguished plant pathologist with a strong background in environmental science. Before coming to the Smithsonian, Pell was senior vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at Pennsylvania State University.

The Dibner Library is located in the National Museum of American History. For more information and a program schedule, visit www.sil.si.edu or call 202.633.1522.—Liz O'Brien