August 2007

Posted August 31, 2007

SPUTNIK FIFTY YEARS LATER

New Exhibition Commemorates the Year the Space Age Began


Kansas City, Missouri, August 29, 2007 — On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union astounded the world by announcing that it had placed an artificial satellite into Earth orbit. This first “simple satellite,” named Sputnik, changed our world and initiated the race to space. A new exhibition, The Year the Space Age Began: An Exhibition Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Launch of Sputnik, opening at the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology, examines seventeen satellites from both the Soviet Union and the United States, plus related events, and shows how the pressures of public opinion developed into a single year of unprecedented advances in rocketry. The exhibition opens on Thursday, September 6, 2007, at 6:00 p.m. with a reception in the library’s Main Reading Room followed by a talk at 7:00 p.m. by Roger Easton, design engineer with Project Vanguard. Easton is also known as the ₀�father” of the Global Positioning System %(GPS). Reservations are not required but a call to 816-926-8772 will allow planners to prepare seating.

The successful launch of Sputnik shattered the American public’s perception of the country’s scientific superiority and pushed forward an agenda that accelerated the pace of the U.S. space program. The remarkable tales of successes and failures during the first year after the launch of Sputnik I laid the foundations for un-manned and manned missions in the future. Sputnik I carried batteries and a radio transmitter, allowing the first scientific experiments beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Two additional Sputniks orbited with massive satellites. The United States responded with the Vanguard and Explorer satellite programs, making discoveries and innovations of their own. On October 1, 1958, one year after the launch of Sputnik 1, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created. These events fueled the American public’s support of the race to primacy in space exploration and became a scientifically fruitful competition of the Cold War.

The exhibition examines the satellites of both the Soviet Union and the United States and other events that took place from October 1957 through October 1958. The exhibition uses references from both the popular press and scientific literature, and includes realia and sound.

Other events associated with the exhibition include “Sputnik Night,” Thursday, October 4th, at 6:30 p.m., during which visitors may look for satellites through a telescope on the library’s roof%2, launch a “satellite” with a catapult, take a gallery walk, and more. On Monday, October 15, from 6:00-7:30 p.m., visitors may join a discussion of the book, Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, by Paul Dickson. This program is part of the library’s Periodic Roundtable Discussion Group.

The Year the Space Age Began will be on display in the east exhibition gallery just inside the Library’s main entrance from September 6 – December 14, 2007.
Viewing hours are during regular library hours: Monday, 9:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday, 9%:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The library is located at 5109 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri.

The Linda Hall Library is the world%E’s largest privately funded library of science, engineering and technology open to the public. For more information about the library or the exhibition see the library's web page at www.lindahall.org or contact Kathy Alshouse at 816-926-8727 or Eric Ward at 816-926-8753.

Posted August 1, 2007

Eliseo Fernandez Celebrates 40 years at the Linda Hall Library

Reference Librarian Eliseo Fernandez celebrated 40 years of service at the Linda Hall Library on August 1, 2007. Fernandez, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and later studied at Columbia University in New York City before moving to Kansas City and joining the Linda Hall Library staff. "Eliseo is one of the great treasures of our staff", said Mary Moeller, Linda Hall Library Chief Operating Officer. "He is a wonderful combination of great intelligence, insight, humor, and kindness", she added.

Throughout his library career, Fernandez has been actively involved with many scholarly pursuits and has received numerous awards for scientific journalism. In addition, he taught physics for 18 years as an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and, in 1996, founded the Charles S. Peirce Center for Philosophy and History of Science. This past June, he presented a lecture at the Seventh Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

%"I am honored to have Eliseo on my staff", said Scott Curtis, Head of Reference. "His deep thought and wealth of life experiences provide me with a perspective that transcends the daily routine and helps me to focus on what is truly important. His active commitment to scholarship in the field of philosophy of science is commendable and worthy of emulation."

"The use of computers has been the biggest change at the library over the past 40 years", Fernandez said. "It has completely changed the way we do business and how we relate to each other in both positive and negative ways". He is most proud, however, not of his library work or scholarly pursuits, but of his three grown daughters.