There are three weeks left to see the Living Library exhibition!

The exhibit will be open through September 14. Visitors should come to the welcome desk of the History of Science Collections on the 5th floor of Bizzell Memorial Library. Admission is free. Individuals need no appointment; instructors and group leaders may contact Carilyn Livesey, Outreach Coordinator, to reserve the Exhibit Hall for exhibit-based instruction and group tours. See our Visit Us page for contact information and directions. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and noon to 4 on Saturdays (except for gamedays, when the exhibit will be open until an hour before kickoff).

Visitors will be supplied with iPads containing an interactive guidebook to the exhibit, including photographs of additional pages of the works on display. If you have an iPad, the guidebook may be downloaded for free from either of two places:

• Living Library interactive iBook at the iBookstore.
• Living Library at iTunes U (includes the iBook in a course context)

See the Exhibit Hall page for a suggested activity using the iPads for class instruction.

Galleries in this exhibit include:

• Ancient astronomy, including the first published edition of Ptolemy’s Almagest.
• Egypt, including a star map from the ancient temple of Dendera.
• China, including the memoirs of Matteo Ricci and the first map of China published in Europe.
• Medicine and the life sciences, including a 16th-century study of body ornamentation and an 18th-century guide to midwifery and family medicine.
• Charles Darwin, including an autographed letter.
• Technology, including a photograph of Thomas Edison in the scrapbook of his daughter’s wedding.
• Bonus: several display cases have been recently added, featuring treasures from the history of Geology.

This exhibit features a remarkable variety of subject areas and chronological time periods. Authors represented include Hildegard of Bingen, Galileo, Johann Kepler, Maria Merian, Buffon, William Smith, Tycho Brahe, Francesco Hernandez, Maria Cunitz, Anna Comstock and many more.

More than half of the volumes in the History of Science Collections were acquired after 1976, when a catalog of holdings was published. None of the more than 100 beautiful works on display were included in that catalog. The History of Science Collections of the University of Oklahoma Libraries is a living library, and that means exciting prospects lie ahead.