diff --git a/IPython/html/static/notebook/js/menubar.js b/IPython/html/static/notebook/js/menubar.js
index af04c8f..ee01a41 100644
--- a/IPython/html/static/notebook/js/menubar.js
+++ b/IPython/html/static/notebook/js/menubar.js
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ define([
             notebook_path
         ) + "?download=" + download.toString();
         
-        var w = window.open()
+        var w = window.open();
         if (this.notebook.dirty) {
             this.notebook.save_notebook().then(function() {
                 w.location = url;
@@ -332,6 +332,7 @@ define([
         this.events.on('kernel_ready.Kernel', function(event, data) {
             var langinfo = data.kernel.info_reply.language_info || {};
             that.update_nbconvert_script(langinfo);
+            that.add_kernel_help_links(data.kernel.info_reply.help_links || []);
         });
     };
 
@@ -374,11 +375,49 @@ define([
         var that = this;
         
         // Set menu entry text to e.g. "Python (.py)"
-        var langname = (langinfo.name || 'Script')
-        langname = langname.charAt(0).toUpperCase()+langname.substr(1) // Capitalise
+        var langname = (langinfo.name || 'Script');
+        langname = langname.charAt(0).toUpperCase()+langname.substr(1); // Capitalise
         el.find('a').text(langname + ' ('+(langinfo.file_extension || 'txt')+')');
     };
 
+    MenuBar.prototype.add_kernel_help_links = function(help_links) {
+        /** add links from kernel_info to the help menu */
+        var divider = $("#kernel-help-links");
+        if (divider.length === 0) {
+            // insert kernel help section above about link
+            var about = $("#notebook_about").parent();
+            divider = $("<li>")
+                .attr('id', "kernel-help-links")
+                .addClass('divider');
+            about.prev().before(divider);
+        }
+        // remove previous entries
+        while (!divider.next().hasClass('divider')) {
+            divider.next().remove();
+        }
+        if (help_links.length === 0) {
+            // no help links, remove the divider
+            divider.remove();
+            return;
+        }
+        var cursor = divider;
+        help_links.map(function (link) {
+            cursor.after($("<li>")
+                .append($("<a>")
+                    .attr('target', '_blank')
+                    .attr('title', 'Opens in a new window')
+                    .attr('href', link.url)
+                    .text(link.text)
+                    .append($("<i>")
+                        .addClass("fa fa-external-link menu-icon pull-right")
+                    )
+                )
+            );
+            cursor = cursor.next();
+        });
+        
+    };
+
     // Backwards compatability.
     IPython.MenuBar = MenuBar;
 
diff --git a/IPython/html/templates/notebook.html b/IPython/html/templates/notebook.html
index cfc6de9..dbefa0a 100644
--- a/IPython/html/templates/notebook.html
+++ b/IPython/html/templates/notebook.html
@@ -246,17 +246,9 @@ class="notebook_app"
                         {% set
                             sections = (
                                 (
-                                    ("http://ipython.org/documentation.html","IPython Help",True),
-                                    ("http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/ipython/ipython/tree/2.x/examples/Index.ipynb", "Notebook Help", True),
-                                ),(
-                                    ("http://docs.python.org","Python",True),
+                                    ("http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/ipython/ipython/blob/2.x/examples/Index.ipynb", "Notebook Help", True),
                                     ("http://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown","Markdown",True),
-                                    ("http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/","NumPy",True),
-                                    ("http://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/","SciPy",True),
-                                    ("http://matplotlib.org/contents.html","Matplotlib",True),
-                                    ("http://docs.sympy.org/latest/index.html","SymPy",True),
-                                    ("http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/","pandas", True)
-                                )
+                                ),
                             )
                         %}
 
diff --git a/IPython/kernel/zmq/ipkernel.py b/IPython/kernel/zmq/ipkernel.py
index 0143d12..b06a268 100644
--- a/IPython/kernel/zmq/ipkernel.py
+++ b/IPython/kernel/zmq/ipkernel.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import traceback
 from IPython.core import release
 from IPython.utils.py3compat import builtin_mod, PY3
 from IPython.utils.tokenutil import token_at_cursor, line_at_cursor
-from IPython.utils.traitlets import Instance, Type, Any
+from IPython.utils.traitlets import Instance, Type, Any, List
 from IPython.utils.decorators import undoc
 
 from ..comm import CommManager
@@ -70,6 +70,37 @@ class IPythonKernel(KernelBase):
         comm_msg_types = [ 'comm_open', 'comm_msg', 'comm_close' ]
         for msg_type in comm_msg_types:
             self.shell_handlers[msg_type] = getattr(self.comm_manager, msg_type)
+    
+    help_links = List([
+        {
+            'text': "Python",
+            'url': "http://docs.python.org/%i.%i" % sys.version_info[:2],
+        },
+        {
+            'text': "IPython",
+            'url': "http://ipython.org/documentation.html",
+        },
+        {
+            'text': "NumPy",
+            'url': "http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/",
+        },
+        {
+            'text': "SciPy",
+            'url': "http://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/",
+        },
+        {
+            'text': "Matplotlib",
+            'url': "http://matplotlib.org/contents.html",
+        },
+        {
+            'text': "SymPy",
+            'url': "http://docs.sympy.org/latest/index.html",
+        },
+        {
+            'text': "pandas",
+            'url': "http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/",
+        },
+    ])
 
     # Kernel info fields
     implementation = 'ipython'
diff --git a/IPython/kernel/zmq/kernelbase.py b/IPython/kernel/zmq/kernelbase.py
index 7b59656..396d1d5 100755
--- a/IPython/kernel/zmq/kernelbase.py
+++ b/IPython/kernel/zmq/kernelbase.py
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ class Kernel(SingletonConfigurable):
     # This should be overridden by wrapper kernels that implement any real
     # language.
     language_info = {}
+    
+    # any links that should go in the help menu
+    help_links = List()
 
     # Private interface
     
@@ -457,6 +460,7 @@ class Kernel(SingletonConfigurable):
             'implementation_version': self.implementation_version,
             'language_info': self.language_info,
             'banner': self.banner,
+            'help_links': self.help_links,
         }
 
     def kernel_info_request(self, stream, ident, parent):