Manuscripts of the Dibner collection in the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

One of the most unusual archives documenting the history of science and technology is the Burndy Library in Norwalk, Connecticut. The collection was assembled by Bern Dibner, an inventor and electrical engineer. In 1975 at the request of the Smithsonian Institution a selection of more than 11,000 books and manuscripts from this library were given to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries to form a nucleus of a national library of science. This volume is an annotated catalog of 1,614 groups of manuscripts presented by Dibner. The manuscripts mostly deal with Western science and technology. They date from the 13th-century to 1979 and include such names as Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, and Newton, as well as Shockley, Bardeen, and Van Allen. The manuscripts are listed by author and then chronologically by the first piece in the lot. Although the notes are descriptive solely of the manuscript or of the lot, an index lists subject areas covered by the manuscripts, titles of books referred to, and recipients of correspondence. Few of the items in the collection may contribute to new research, but since the collection has been made public and photocopies are available, general readers and students now have the opportunity to personally inspect manuscripts composed by some of the great scientific and technical minds. Recommended for college and large public libraries.-R.J. Havlik, University of Notre Dame