The Penn Libraries consists of fourteen libraries. Each of our twelve departmental libraries has unique assets available to you, whether you are studying dentistry or design. Our main library, the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, also supports many schools and disciplines and houses the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts. Explore our snapshot profiles below to learn three highlights of each library and a fact you should know about each one.
Fisher Fine Arts Library
Top 3 Things:
- Over two million searchable images in our Artstor collections
- The Common Press, a letter press and book arts studio
- Experienced staff to help answer questions!
You Should Know: Our Materials Library has a searchable database over 3,000 samples from Vanta Black to seaweed-based insulation - and is continually updated!
Annenberg Library, Annenberg School for Communication
Top 3 Things:
- History of the Field of Communication Archives, including papers from the International Communication Association.
- The Television Script Archive includes two large collections: prime time scripts (1976-the mid 1990s) and soap opera scripts (1954-1998).
- Helpful, friendly service finding what you need for a paper or a presentation.
You Should Know: The Television Script archives includes all of Miami Vice, several hundred pilots, and many made-for-TV movies.
Lippincott Library of the Wharton School
Top 3 Things:
- Key business publications like WSJ and Harvard Business Review
- Business FAQ, a 24/7 knowledge bank of answers to your research questions
- Document Delivery for Wharton students to request digital delivery of articles and chapters
You Should Know: We can help you locate business and economic datasets, consult about statistical procedures, and support analysis and visualization in Excel, R, and other software.
Otto E. Albrecht Music Library and Eugene Ormandy Music and Media Center
Top 3 Things:
- We loan musical instruments and equipment.
- When the Music Library is physically open, record in our podcast studio.
- Borrow or stream music and videos for study or pleasure.
You Should Know: We regularly host performances in the library and exhibits online, most recently on ancient Persian flutes.
Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
Top 3 Things:
- The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica
- Holy Land Collections at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
- Medieval manuscripts from the Dropsie collection of Judaica and Semitica
You Should Know: You can transcribe medieval fragments through the Scribes of Cairo Genizah Project. Our downtown Philadelphia location, with its Rare Book Room (8,000+ printed books & 500+ manuscripts in 13 languages) and Archives Room (50+ collections), holds the original fragments.
Chemistry Library
Top 3 Things:
- Search for chemicals by drawing their pictures (structures or sequences)!
- Learn to effectively search the chemical literature
- We teach students to use the information that they retrieve ethically in their own work and the rationales behind the rules.
You Should Know: Learning to search for chemical information is a part of many undergraduate classes.
Biomedical Library
Top 3 Things:
- Learn about bioinformatics.
- Access evidence-based medicine resources.
- Consult with our experts in visualization, systematic review, nursing, and more.
You Should Know: In our 3D printing lab, we have printed everything from model hearts to dental implants, from drone wings to PPE.
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts
Top 3 Things:
- From Shakespeare's First Folio to draft storyboards for The Simpsons, you can use our materials.
- Explore the John Mauchly Papers. He invented the world's first electronic computer ENIAC right here at Penn.
- Check out the beautiful Henry Charles Lea Library.
You Should Know: Visit our new "Discovering Marian Anderson" site. Explore the digitized scrapbooks, diaries, photographs, sheet music, and recordings of famous opera singer and icon of African American history Marian Anderson.
Math/Physics/Astronomy Library
Top 3 Things:
- Learn LaTeX, the typesetting language for math and scientific articles, dissertations, and homework.
- Learn research techniques for specialty resources like MathSciNet.
- Learn about scholarly publishing including authoring papers, submitting manuscripts to arXiv and journals, and the peer-review process.
You Should Know: Need more practice to do well in class? We can identify additional problem sets for your particular course or lesson.
Penn Museum Library
Top 3 Things:
- Our Anthropology collections include the collection of Daniel Garrison Brinton, one of founders of American Anthropology.
- We have one of the premiere collections of published archaeology in the world.
- From archeological site data to citation, expand your research world with Museum Library Workshops and Exhibits.
You Should Know: Located in the Penn Museum, the quiet, studious Museum Library offers over 180 seats in a variety of styles, from ergonomic office chairs to comfy lounge chairs to graduate-student carrels.
Center for Research Data and Digital Scholarship
Top 3 Things:
- Learn GIS and mapping
- Do digital storytelling with Omeka and Scalar
- Get help with research data management
You Should Know: We can help you build a digital humanities project; learn how to find, manage, munge, and visualize data; create a scholarly podcast, journal, or website; and increase the impact of your research!
Van Pelt Library Access Services Department
Top 3 Things:
- With PickUp@Penn, select library books online and pick them up at the library.
- Books by Mail is great if you are unable to come to the library.
- To see what you have requested or checked out, and to renew books, use Your Library Account.
You Should Know: In normal times, if you want it and we don't own it, we'll try to borrow it for you from other institutions.
Leon Levy Dental Medicine Library
Top 3 Things:
- We have the oldest dental book in Old German and in Spanish.
- Classes on database searching, bibliographic managers, and evidence-based dentistry methodologies
- A beautiful and serene reading room is one of the quietest spaces on campus.
You Should Know: We host fun activities such as our dental spelling bee (a foodraiser for our library's student food pantry), virtual book club, and Halloween events such as the Weredogs of PDM (featuring therapy dogs) and our Malpractice or Murder escape room.
Veterinary Libraries
Top 3 Things:
- Explore our veterinary anatomy software and collections, including dog anatomy flashcards.
- At our Kennet Square campus, you can visit The Horseshoe Museum at duPont Library.
- VetLexicon portal puts clinical veterinary literature at your fingertips.
You should know: Our veterinary anatomy computer-based learning programs and atlases allow you to examine, in 3D, a pig's stomach, a cat's skeleton, and much more.