Linda Hall Library Seeks Fellows Among Science, Technology Historians
Kansas City, Mo. (PRWEB) October 03, 2016 -- The Linda Hall Library has opened applications for its 2017-18 Fellows program, which includes the launch of a new 80/20 Fellowship.
The Library is among the world’s leading independent research libraries dedicated to science, engineering, technology, and their histories. The current Fellows program, which began in 2012, provides opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral researchers and independent scholars to conduct in-depth research among the Library’s renowned primary- and secondary-source collections.
The Library’s pilot program for the 80/20 Fellowship addresses one of the prevailing concerns in higher education about the high number of students trained in PhD programs versus the small number of available tenure-track jobs. The 80/20 Fellowship gives pre-doctoral students the opportunity to enhance their skill sets. Fellows will conduct research during a 10-month academic year, spending approximately 80 percent of their time on their primary dissertation research and 20 percent planning, curating, and installing an exhibition about their project, under the mentorship of the Library’s vice president for public programs.
“From a broad perspective, today’s doctoral students are tomorrow’s educators, community leaders, and public intellectuals, whose dissertation projects will turn into books, lectures and creative projects,” said Tania Munz, the Library’s vice president of research and scholarship. “Innovative opportunities like the Linda Hall Library’s 80/20 Fellowship give young scholars a chance to spend time in the collections and to think and work differently as they engage with the wider public.”
The Linda Hall Library holds more than 500,000 monograph volumes from the 15th century to the present, and 48,000 journal titles related to science, technology, engineering, and their histories, with complete runs that date back to the 17th century. The Library’s collections are exceptionally strong in the engineering disciplines, chemistry and physics. It also has impressive holdings related to natural history, astronomy, environmental and earth sciences, life sciences and mathematics.
In addition to its own collection, the Library is well situated to offer access to additional academic resources. Although not part of the University of Missouri system, the Library is surrounded by the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, and is located one block from the UMKC Miller-Nichols Library and Learning Center. Other nearby resources include: the Clendening History of Medicine Library, Spencer Art Reference Library, and the Kansas City Public Library.
“Within the Library, we foster an active intellectual community. There are a number of research scholars who can help refine projects and point Fellows in the right direction,” Munz said. “In addition, there are outstanding resources within the Kansas City area that will also strengthen scholarly projects.”
Applications for the Fellowships, which range from one week to a full academic year and come with a stipend, are online at http://www.lindahall.org/fellows. The application deadline is Jan. 16, 2017.
About the Linda Hall Library
The Linda Hall Library is among the world’s foremost independent research libraries devoted to science, engineering, technology, and their histories. Founded in 1946 through an endowment by Linda and Herbert Hall, the Library is a not-for-profit, privately funded institution, and is open to the public free of charge. Scholars, technologists, engineers, researchers, academic institutions and businesses, nationally and internationally, use the Linda Hall Library’s collections to investigate, invent, and increase knowledge. The Library’s holdings range from rare books to private papers, including extensive collections in diverse areas such as the physical sciences, engineering, natural history, astronomy, aeronautics, infrastructure studies, and mathematics. In addition to these resources, hundreds of people attend the public programs presented by the Library and the LHL Foundation throughout the year to expand their awareness and understanding of science and technology. To learn more, visit http://www.lindahall.org.
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Elaina Boudreau, BELA Communications, +1 (913) 660-0548, [email protected]
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