Archived Content
Linda Hall Library holds approximately twelve million volumes, including more than 48,000 journal titles (including more than 3,700 current titles), conference proceedings, reference works, government publications, and technical reports; 200,000 industrial standards and engineering society conference papers; and 363,244 monographs. Its earliest publication was printed in 1472. The serial holdings of the Linda Hall Library are registered in the PAPR database.
Linda Hall’s scientific journal collection is particularly deep and significant. The collection has both subject and language strengths including; engineering, physics, and chemistry, and European and Asian languages. A detailed collections assessment by the University of Arizona’s Stephen Bosch found that the combined serial and monographic holdings of Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and Linda Hall compared favorably with the combined titles held by the twenty largest ARL libraries and with the combined titles held by the libraries from universities representing the top ten Science, Technology, and Engineering programs in the US.
The scope of the Linda Hall Library’s collections was originally determined by the library trustees to “cover the fields of basic science and technology.” That was defined as everything in the Dewey 500-600 ranges with the exception of clinical medicine, surgery, dentistry, and business services. However, psychology and psychiatry were also designated as collecting areas, with the exception of educational psychology and educational testing and measurement.[1]
The holdings were built through subscriptions to current STE journals, exchange programs with foreign academies, such as the Russian Academy of Sciences, and through purchase of the holdings of several major historical collections:
- The library collection of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a scientific collection of 50,000 volumes focusing on the physical sciences and mathematics.
- Part of the library of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, including almost 600 early serial titles.
- Most of the collection of the Engineering Societies Library, which comprised the libraries of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Institute of Mining Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, adding rich, historical depth to the journal and monograph collections, especially with material published before 1950.
Holdings Data and Disclosure
Linda Hall’s archived holdings of serials are included in the PAPR database, and provide gap information about Linda Hall’s serial titles to the volume level.
Records for all titles in Linda Hall’s collections are found in LEONARDO, its online catalog. The library hosts Leonardo and shares it with the Spencer Art Reference Library (of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, also in Kansas City, Missouri).
Validation of Holdings
Linda Hall Library holdings are validated at the volume level.
Agreements and Commitments
The Linda Hall Library has a strategic partnership with the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), to preserve and develop historical research collections comprising American and foreign scientific and technical publications, and to make the combined 50,000 journal titles available electronically through on demand digitization and traditional document delivery to all CRL-member libraries. (Linda Hall offers fee-based document delivery services through a number of international and national lending programs, including OCLC, ARIEL and RAPID.)
In 2015 CRL and Linda Hall Library concluded an agreement to cooperatively develop their serial holdings in the fields of science, technology and engineering. The partnership agreement provides CRL the right of first refusal should LHL decide to divest of any of the archived journal holdings. The terms of the partnership are described on the CRL website.
History and Stakeholders
The Linda Hall Library is a not-for-profit, privately funded research library. Its archived serials holdings are available to researchers on the Library’s premises, and to researchers at CRL libraries through document delivery.
Its mission statement, adopted by the Board of Directors on December 11, 2010, reads as follows.
The Linda Hall Library is a guardian of the collective intellectual heritage with regard to science, technology, and engineering disciplines; a destination for advanced research and scholarship, and a center for public education in the sciences. Additionally, the Library’s grounds are maintained as an urban arboretum that is open to the public for education and enjoyment.
The Linda Hall Library opened in 1946. It was founded by bequest of Herbert Hall, a Kansas City businessman. In his will Hall left six million dollars to establish “… a free public library for the use of the people of Kansas City and the public generally…”
On Hall's death in 1941 five individuals named by him were authorized as trustees of his estate, who in 1945 elected to build a library that concentrated on science and technology. The Library was created on Hall's 21 acre estate located in Kansas City adjacent to the UMKC campus. The grounds of the library are a 14-acre arboretum. Originally the Halls’ Georgian house and garage were used for the library, with an additional stack wing built onto the garage to accommodate new acquisitions.
The Library’s first director, Joseph C. Shipman, was a librarian and chemist who served in the position from 1945 to 1973. By 1953 the original buildings were filled to capacity and a new library building was planned. The new building was a four-level structure of reinforced concrete with two levels of underground stacks and a brick and stone façade to match the existing house. The new building was completed in 1955.
In 1964 the Hall home was demolished to accommodate a new library wing. The new wing added an auditorium, an exhibit hall and additional stacks space for the growing collection, and opened in March 1965.
In 1978 the Library added another four-story addition to the library that included a stack annex, staff offices, and public reading room. In 2006, the Library again expanded its stack area with a new addition to the existing stack building. The addition had a concrete slab foundation, to accommodate the weight load of multiple floors of compact shelving. It added 16 miles of shelf space, estimated to provide fifty years of growth for the collection.[2]
Organization, Decision-making and Planning
Linda Hall Library is a private trust, created from a bequest left by George Hall. It is governed by a Board of Trustees. The current board largely draws from the Kansas City business community.
In 2015 the Chair of the Board was Marilyn Bartlett Hebenstreit. She is the daughter of Paul D Bartlett Jr., a trustee of the Linda Hall Library, and granddaughter of Paul D. Bartlett, cousin of Herbert Hall and the first elected chairman of the Linda Hall Library Board of Trustees in 1941. Bartlett senior led the creation of Linda Hall under the conditions established by the Hall bequest, and served on the Board until his death in 1964.
The Library is headed by a president, who has historically been chosen from the research library community. Linda Hall is a member of the Independent Research Libraries Association (IRLA), a group of privately-supported research libraries with common goals, including the preservation of library collections.
Program Funding and Support
In 2015 the Linda Hall Library had an endowment of $211 million and operating expenditures of $9.6 million. In 2013 Linda Hall reported total assets of $246,410,497. In the same year, nearly $4 million of the annual budget was spent on collections, a significant portion of which was for current journal subscriptions.
CRL compensates the Linda Hall Library annually for costs connected with the administration and maintenance of the archived collections, digitization of historical materials, and documen delivery service of those collections to CRL libraries.
Storage and Maintenance
Print collections are the primary focus of the Linda Hall Library. Despite converting many paper documents to digital, the Library’s policy is to maintain the originals[3]. Print serials are non-circulating and are able to be used by registered patrons on the Library premises only. Digital copies of serial articles are available through Interlibrary Loan.
Linda Hall’s collection facility is modern and well maintained. The library building now comprises 220,000 square feet of library space and includes over 32 miles of shelving. The journal collections are maintained in a secure, closed stack environment, with monitored climate control appropriate to the longevity of paper-based collections, and with fire suppression.The target average temperature for the storage environment housing LHL regular serial and moinograph collections is 55 degrees Fahrenheit and the target average humidity is 55%. Rare materials are maintained in a separate space with special environment and security.
Linda Hall continues to take print donations.A webpage details the criteria for donations. In December 2018, they estimated their capacity to be around 65%.
Risks and Limitations
The validation of serial holdings is minimal to date, although the collection has been well curated over many years, is used on the library premises under supervision and does not circulate.
The Library is also operated as a private trust, which tend to be less transparent than publicly traded and non-profit corporations.
[1] See Shipman, Joseph. “Linda Hall Library.” College and Research Libraries, April 1955.
[2] See Lahey, Michelle. “Linda Hall Library,” Structure Magazine, September 2006, p.29.
[3] See Pfannenstiel, Brianne. "Linda Hall Library bets on print over digital" Kansas City Business Journal. October 22, 2014. Online at http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/2014/10/linda-hall-library-be... viewed 9/29/2015
