Libraries | Penn Today

What’s That? Fisher Fine Arts Library windows

Shakespeare scholar and Penn lecturer Horace Howard Furness selected aphorisms for windows in the Fisher Fine Arts Library, a building his brother designed.

Top row, left to right: Camilla Z. Charles, Ali Shapiro Cudby, and Judith Browne Dianis. Bottom row, left to right: Richard David Feintuch, Stanley H. Greene, and Brett Andrew Perlmutter.

Nine honored at Alumni Award of Merit Gala

At the 2023 Alumni Award of Merit Gala, eight distinguished alumni will receive Awards of Merit, the Creative Spirit Award, and the inaugural Penn Alumni Social Impact Award, and Camille Z. Charles will receive the Faculty Award of Merit.

The young Ben Franklin statue on Penn’s campus.

An inauspicious arrival for the ambitious Benjamin Franklin

Penn’s founder arrived in Philadelphia on Oct. 6 300 years ago as a nearly penniless 17-year-old looking for a job as a printer.

The artwork “Bridges” by Robert Lugo in the Arthur Ross Gallery.

Art Matters

Art Matters: ‘Bridges’ by Roberto Lugo

A ceramic vase with the face of the artist’s father on one side and Benjamin Franklin’s on the other is on view in the Van-Pelt Dietrich Library Center.

Brigitte Weinsteiger appointed interim director of the Penn Libraries

Weinsteiger assumed the role on September 13, replacing Constantia Constantinou, who was appointed H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director in 2018.

Ashley Bryan holds up one of his books from a table in Penn’s Kislak Center.

The PZ project: Children’s and young adult literature on the rise

From picture books to 'The Poet X,' Penn Libraries are expanding and diversifying their holdings of books for young readers.

Who, What, Why

Who, What, Why: Literacy advocate Meresa García

The Penn Graduate School of Education student, who earned her bachelor’s from the College of Arts and Sciences in the Spring, talks about her work with the Penn Libraries Community Engagement team and her aspirations of becoming a teacher.

University of Pennsylvania buys medieval Hebrew manuscript collection

Penn has acquired a collection including scrolls and scroll fragments, manuscript leaves and manuscript fragments, complete and partial books, birth records from a Yemenite family and tefillin.

Universities, nonprofits step up to aid depleted Philadelphia public school libraries

Gina Pambianchi discusses the Penn Libraries’ efforts to support Philadelphia public school libraries.

four students standing next to table looking at printed materials with professor

Cultures of the book

In the Cultures of the Book course taught by Whitney Trettien, assistant professor of English, students “adopt a book” they select from the Penn Libraries collection, and their research projects are published on an academic website.

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