Contact a librarian for more information about these Yale libraries.

Libraries

The Kline Biology Tower, incorporating the Kline Science Library on its concourse level and research laboratories and a dining hall among its other 13 levels, was dedicated on October 28, 1966. The building, part of the Kline Science Center, was a gift of C. Mahlon Kline (Ph.B. in Chemistry from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, 1901), with funds also coming from grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation (Ambler, S., "The Kline Biology Tower", Yale Scientific Magazine 1967 XLI(4):19). Describing this extraordinary development, in a letter dated April 28, 1964, Mr. James T. Babb [University Librarian] writes to Mr. Charles Taylor, Acting Provost, "John Ottemiller [Associate University Librarian] did most of the negotiating, both with the architect Mr. Johnson and the Science Department, with regard to the including of a library in the Biological Sciences building".

The collecting at KSL today is done in the areas of general science, biology, chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, and molecular biophysics and biochemistry. The original collection included items from the Osborn Zoological Library, the Osborn Botanical Library, the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory Library, the Peabody Museum library, and the library of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics. Materials from the History of Science Collection were integrated in 1992/1993. A number of endowments enables the library to collect materials in natural history, marine life, botany, limnology, and physical science.

Sterling Chemistry Library

The Sterling Chemistry Library serves as the working collection for faculty and students in the Chemistry Department. Library materials in chemistry go back to Professor Benjamin Silliman's 1846 appointment in chemistry, pharmacy, mineralogy, and geology, and today include chemistry journals, electronic data, spectral data, and handbooks of data on properties of inorganic and organic compounds. The Sheffield Scientific School continued to collect chemistry publications. The current Sterling Chemistry Library was part of the original architecture of the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, completed in 1929.

At Yale libraries, general inorganic, organic, biochemistry, and physical chemistry areas are collected. The journals of the Chemical Society (London) and the American Chemical Society are held and the book collection at neighboring Kline Science Library includes some older materials, with works from the mid-eighteenth century by Lavoisier.

Engineering & Applied Science Library

The Engineering & Applied Science Library supports present and anticipated teaching and research in the Faculty of Engineering (Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering), the Department of Computer Science, and programs in applied mathematics and operations research. Publications employing technical and theoretical approaches are the core of the collection. At the end of the 1950's, there were six departments in the School of Engineering: Industrial Administration, Metallurgy and Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. Each was in a separate building, usually with a small library and shop facilities.[1] In addition, there were two libraries in Strathcona Hall: Transportation and Bureau of Highway Traffic.

Industrial Administration was separated from the Department of Engineering in 1960. The Dodge Committee of that year recommended establishment of a Department of Engineering and Applied Science (E&AS). In the 1965 planning for Becton Center, the E&AS Library Committee favored a central library facility with a minimum capacity of 40,000 volumes, up from the original plan for 27,500 volumes (the library quickly reached the 75,000 volume mark and continues to increase[2]).

The Computer Science Department was established in 1969 in Dunham. Raymond W. Southworth, Chemical Engineering, was one of the first at Yale to learn to use a digital computing machine. In 1962 he taught the first course created specifically for the new E&AS Department, a freshman course in use of a digital computer for numerical computations.[3] He and Samuel Deleeuw wrote the textbook, "A Digital Computation and Numerical Methods" (McGraw-Hill, c1965), for the course.

Becton Center, designed by Marcel Breuer, is named in honor of Henry P. Becton, a major donor to the building fund and a prominent industrialist and civic leader in New Jersey. Mr. Becton, who graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1937, was a member of the fund raising committee and the Yale Development Board. Becton Center was opened on the midwinter Alumni Day, February 21, 1970 and the E&AS Library was moved to Becton in December of 1970.[4]

[1] Engineering at Yale, W. Jack Cunningham, Transactions, The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 51, December 1992, p. 60
[2] Review of the Breuer Building Library Plans, October 30, 1967, Memo to the EAS Library Committee Members.
[3] Engineering at Yale, W. Jack Cunningham, Transactions, The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 51, December 1992, p. 117.
[4] Ibid., p. 111.

School of Forestry and Environmental Studies: Henry S. Graves Memorial Library

This is considered one of the oldest and largest collections on forestry and natural resource publications in the world. The initial collection of German forestry books was purchased by the School's first dean, Henry S. Graves, and the library was begun by Dean Graves in 1900. On April 11, 1953 the library became officially named the Henry S. Graves Memorial Library, in honor of the late Dean Graves. Frances Mary Bolton served as librarian from 1924 to 1966.

The library was located for a time in Marsh Hall, from 1923 to 2008 in Sage Hall, and in January 2009 it moved to Kroon Hall. The historic strength of the collection is in its forestry and forest science holdings. Since 1972, when the School of Forestry became the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the library's collection areas have broadened to include natural resources management and environmental sciences.

Geology Library

The Geology Library is located on the third floor of Kline Geology Laboratory. The building was the first of the new buildings constituting the projected Science Hill complex, a gift of C. Mahlon Kline (Ph.B. in Chemistry, Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, 1901). The dedication took place on September 27, 1963.

In 1963 a number of related collections, including the geology libraries in Kirtland Hall, the geology and paleontology holdings of the Peabody Museum Library, a selection of geological books from Sterling Memorial Library, and the Brush Mineralogical Library were brought together to form the Geology Library. Other gift books benefitted the library as well. On page 10 of Harry D. Scammel: a recollection and appreciation (New Haven: Davenport College, Yale University, 1987) is noted, "the library was the happy recipient of substantial portions of sometimes exhaustive personal libraries, including those of Alan Bateman, Richard Foster Flint, and more recently, John Rodgers and Brian Skinner."

The library collects materials in the fields of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, paleontology, meteorology, and oceanography. Special collections include most Yale University dissertations on geology since 1963 and a large collection of U.S. Geological Survey maps.

Mathematics Library

The Mathematics Library acquires books and journals in the area of pure mathematics, mostly at the graduate and research levels. The collection of conference proceedings and symposia is considered noteworthy and that of monographs strong. When Professor Shizuo Kakutani, now Eugene Higgins Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, came to Yale in 1951, he started the library collection. In 1983, the first items were moved out of the Mathematics Library and into the Seeley G. Mudd Library, to alleviate overcrowding. Today the library serves undergraduates and researchers in math, economics, statistics, theoretical physics, mechanical engineering, and computer science.

Ornithology Library

The core of the Ornithology Library collection was donated by William Robertson Coe (1870-1955). In 1961 Yale University Press published, for the Yale University Library, Ornithological Books in the Yale University Library: Including the Library of William Robertson Coe. This work was compiled by S. Dillon Ripley and Lynette L. Scribner and lists items added to the Ornithology Library through 1955.

At one time the Ornithology Library was housed in Bingham Laboratory. It is now housed in the new Environmental Sciences Facility. The collection numbers over 5,500 book titles and includes extensive holdings of major ornithological journals and proceedings of international meetings. Among the library's special collections are five copper plates used for Audubon's Birds of America and copies of Felix de Azara's Apuntamientos para la historia natural de los paxaros del Paraguay y Rio del la Plata … (Madrid: Impr. De la Viuda de Ibarra, 1802-1805) and Charles Lucian Bonaparte's Geographical and Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and North America (London: J. Van Voorst, 1838).

Herbarium Library

The library at the Peabody Museum's Herbarium collection was started by collections of Daniel Cady Eaton (1834-1895) and one of his students, Alexander William Evans (1868-1959). Certain materials from Kline Science Library are kept at the Herbarium to better serve the needs of hands-on researchers in botanic classification and identification especially. The library's holdings include some 19th century titles and works by Asa Gray. When construction is completed in 2001, the new Environmental Sciences Facility will house the Herbarium Library.

Librarians
Directors of the science libraries: The history of science librarians since the creation of a Yale "science library" goes as follows:

John Harrison,
John was a graduate of the University of Michigan (1961 or 1962) His first professional position was at Harvard University and he came to Yale as the first librarian of Kline Science. He was instrumental in building the original collection and actively involved in the planning of the library. He also served as Acting Director of the Medical Library after the resignation of Stanley Truelson and was appointed Associate Librarian for Public Services following the retirement of Gordon Kenefick. At Arkansas John had a primary responsibility for building the collection which he did with his usual gusto, continuing to have an office there for several years after his retirement.

Dick Dionne,
Howard Keith (acting),
Katherine Branch,
Carol Jones (acting),
David Stern.
Kari Swanson (acting)
Andrew Shimp (acting).

Other science librarians include:

Joe Murphy, General Science Librarian & Instruction Coordinator
Lori Bronars, Science Librarian and Reference and Database Coordinator
Kari Swanson, Coordinator of Automation and Technical Services
Andrew Shimp, Engineering and Mathematics Librarian
Carla Heister, Forestry and Environmental Studies Librarian
Britta Santamauro, former Cataloging and LSF Coordinator Librarian
Kathrine C. Aydelott, former ELI/Davis Grant Course Support Specialist
Nisa Bakkalbasi, former Science Librarian and User Education Coordinator
Rochelle Smith, former Forestry and Environmental Studies Librarian
Jennifer Kostelnik, former Chemistry and Science Librarian
Kimberly Parker, former Chemistry and Geology Librarian
Carol Jones, former Technical Services and ILL Librarian
Joe Miller, former Forestry and Environmental Studies Librarian
Katie Bauer, former ELI Interface Implementation Librarian
Cindy Zwies, former Cataloging and LSF Coordinator Librarian
Bob Michaelson, former Science Librarian
Elizabeth E. Ferguson, former Science Librarian
Jill Newby, former Science Librarian
Linda Hawkes, former Science Librarian
Mary Ellen Cunningham, former Science Librarian
Karen Denavit, former temporary Science Librarian
C.J. Wong, former temporary Science Librarian
Jill Coghlan, former temporary Science Librarian