The Tallman Science Today Collection honors Johanna Eleonore Tallman who, as librarian, developed the UCLA Engineering Library during the 1940s. Ms. Tallman was asked by Dean L.M. K. Boelter, in whose honor Boelter Hall was named, to assist Charles Eames, designer of the Eames chair, in preparing a display of interesting journal covers in varying fields including engineering, chemistry, geology and physics. Mr. Eames used her selections of more than forty journals in a film shown at the World’s Fairs in the 1960s and, as Ms. Tallman described it, the film began with a voice-over announcing, "And this is Science Today!" The Tallman Science Today Collection provides access to the latest thinking in many engineering and scientific areas that can be understood by library users regardless of their own field of study. The collection endowment supports the UCLA Science and Engineering Library’s acquisition, preservation, and processing of a range of basic materials in engineering and the sciences for students, faculty, and staff across interdisciplinary programs. Its holdings highlight new trends, controversies, and frontiers through popular or semi-technical discussions of scientific and technological concepts, enabling engineers and scientists to find useful facts in language that is vivid and understandable.
