The Wolbach Library has recently uploaded educational materials to the Smithsonian Learning Lab, which is a platform that connects educators with lesson plans and collections from many Smithsonian museums and libraries. Educators can search by age level, subject, or Common Core State Standards. The collections published by the Wolbach Library…

Hi all, Sam and Nico here, the researchers behind Star Notes. We hope you are all doing well. You have all finished up the pages for Dorrit Hoffleit, which is so exciting! We’ve worked through the notebooks of a few astronomers already, and we’re glad to have such a dedicated…

The Wolbach Library wishes good health to everyone during this global crisis. Happy election day! Highlights… How much water is there on the Moon? Dr. Katie Mack’s new book The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) hypothesizes about the end of the universe;   PBS SpaceTime investigates if the past and future exist; FermiLab…

Hi everyone!             Sam and Nico here, the researchers behind Star Notes. We hope you are all doing well. There are now over 5,000 volunteers on our project! This is a major milestone for us. We’re lucky to have so many dedicated contributors from around the world.             We’re in…

The Wolbach Library wishes good health to everyone during this unprecedented global crisis. Highlights… The 2020 October night sky features two full moons and views of Mars and the Andromeda galaxy; How Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s discovery of Cepheids helps astronomers measure distance; Spanish land-imaging mission SEOSAT-Ingenio soon to be launched;…

Today, the Wolbach Library has started publishing online educational collections on the Smithsonian Learning Lab platform. Project PHaEDRA is an initiative by the Wolbach Library, in collaboration with partners, to catalog, digitize, transcribe, and develop the metadata of over 2500 logbooks and notebooks produced by the Harvard Computers and early…

Hi everyone!             Sam and Nico here, the researchers behind Star Notes. We hope you are all doing well as the summer comes to a close. It’s been 8 months since the launch of our project, and we’re very grateful for everyone who assists with Star Notes. We appreciate your…

The Wolbach Library wishes good health to everyone during this unprecedented global crisis. Highlights… Why auroras can appear like pearl necklaces; Musician Beck uses NASA images and artificial intelligence to create cosmic art; Building a Venus rover with no electronic components; See Mars and Venus in the September sky; Fermilab…

*With this blog series, we also hope to instigate meaningful conversations about our institution’s history. We therefore invite you to comment on our posts and share your thoughts with us. Franklin Edward Kameny decided at four-years-old that he was going to be a scientist. It was another year or two…

Background I came to the CfA in 2015, and in 2017 I became Head Librarian here. At that time, I decided I wanted to update the library’s mission. I also wanted to make explicit the library’s priorities (what we do) and guiding principles (how we do it). However, at the…