A new way to communicate science to the public: The creation of the Scientist Library

Science in the twentieth century became divided into specialized branches and became closed off within the specialist community. To bring science back into Japanese society, we developed the Scientist Library as an attempt to transmit the personality and research of individual scientists. Our goal was to show the present state of science as a whole. The Scientist Library features 88 biologists, and has been accessible to the public on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM since 1997. Our evaluation indicated that showing the "scientist as a person" is effective as a tool for communication of science. We also found that the Scientist Library allows scientists to express themselves.