About the Library

History

The Museum's Lyman Library can be found in the Green Wing, Level 3. The Library's bright, open space overlooks the Charles River Basin with an impressive view of the Boston skyline, offering an ideal location for teachers to discover more about the world of science.

The library has its origins, along with the Museum, in the Boston Society of Natural History, which was founded in 1830. One of the society's first priorities was to establish a library, and it did so a year later. It was a "society" library, formed by private citizens who pooled their books and financial resources to create a library that no single person could have afforded. The library, like the Museum, is still a privately supported institution. As part of the Museum's goal to improve STEM literacy in grades K - 12, the Lyman Library is now dedicated to educators for use as a multimedia resource center and professional development space.

At present, the Educator Resource Center (ERC) houses a collection of 17,000 titles, pre-school through adult. The collection also includes journals related to science and technology; videos and DVDs on a wide range of topics; and an extensive collection of reference files related to science topics, Planetarium shows, Omni films, and exhibits. All of these holdings can be found in the online catalog.

The primary focus for the collections in the ERC is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, in order to support interdisciplinary inquiry and exploration as it occurs in the Museum, the library collection also includes titles related to language, sociology, psychology, archeology, the arts, literature, geography, and history.

The goal of the ERC is to promote opportunities for interest in and understanding of science and technology as defined by the mission statement of the Museum. This goal guides the staff in developing the library collections and resources, networking with other departments within the Museum, and setting standards for in-house service, for both regular clientele and one-time visitors. It also reaches beyond the Museum walls -- as the library for the Museum of Science, Boston, its staff fields reference questions from literally all over the United States, and occasionally from abroad, by mail, telephone, and email. Each request for materials or information is an opportunity to promote the mission of the Museum.