Early Arabic printed books from the British Library, online

The Penn Libraries have acquired the first major fulltext-searchable online archive of pre-20th century Arabic printed books. Early Arabic Printed Books From the British Library, 1475-1900, produced by Gale Cengage, presents Arabic printed texts and European translations of Arabic texts, approximately 7,000 volumes with 2.3 million pages, in three modules: Religion and Law : The … Continue reading →

Penn Libraries’ 2015-2016 Schoenberg Institute Graduate Fellow Explores Thai Manuscript Culture in New Exhibit

  The Penn Libraries is proud to announce the opening of “‘Siamese Sampler’: 19th Century Manuscripts of Scripture, Poetry, and Decree” in the Snyder-Granader Alcove on the sixth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. This exhibit highlights a sampling of the rich variety of Thai Manuscripts held at the Penn Libraries and will run from … Continue reading →

Japanese Naval Training Fleet Souvenir Books

The Penn Libraries Japanese Collection has acquired a unique and special collection of Japanese Imperial Navy training fleet souvenir publications, and they have arrived! These are scrapbook-like publications of photographs and other memorabilia, as well as a self-published history of the training fleet, about the fleet’s global travels between the late 1800s and early 1940s. … Continue reading →

Partnership with University of Pennsylvania Art History Class Produces Award-Winning Penn Libraries Exhibition Catalog

The Penn Libraries is proud to announce that the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts will receive a 2016 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab “American Book Prices Current” Exhibition Award for the 2015 exhibition catalog, “The Image … Continue reading →

The Penn Libraries Announces “Victorious Secret” Exhibit Opening and Artist Talk

10/16/2015 Press Contact: Sara Leavens lesara@upenn.edu Philadelphia, PA, October 16th 2015—On Tuesday, October 20th and Wednesday, October 21st, 2015, The Penn Libraries will host artist Angela Lorenz and debut its exhibition of her “Victorious Secret: Entertaining Notions of Elite Ideals for Women, 300 AD” project. The life-sized mosaic panels of “Victorious Secret” feature competitive female … Continue reading →

HathiTrust update adds 384,000+ e-books to Franklin: Catalog

The Penn Libraries have refreshed our HathiTrust records in Franklin: Catalog this morning, adding direct URLs for more than 384,000 HathiTrust e-books through new records and links added to existing records for print books in the Penn Libraries collections to reflect online availability in the HathiTrust Digital Library. This update, the first since our initial … Continue reading →

Construction Project: Van Pelt-Dietrich Fifth Floor

This summer, the Penn Libraries will begin the construction of the last phase of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. The construction project will take place on the fifth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. The project will provide two structural benefits to the Libraries and the Penn community: a secure, … Continue reading →

Black Drama, Second Edition – fulltext published and unpublished plays

The Penn Libraries have purchased Black Drama, Second Edition, a large online fulltext collection of plays by African and African-diaspora playwrights. Black Drama, Second Edition, produced by Alexander Street Press, contains fulltext for 1,462 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 233 playwrights from North America, Anglophone Africa, the Caribbean, and … Continue reading →

Eugene Ormandy Home Movies Debut on Streaming Video

In September of 2013, the Penn Libraries received from Doris Gundert Balant a gift of 47 home movies from the family of Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985). This past fall the films were reformatted to digital video, helping to prolong the life of the originals, while simultaneously providing broad access to their content. Now … Continue reading →

Penn Libraries Receives Gift of Historic German-American Newspapers

The Penn Libraries’ historic collection of research material on German immigrants to Pennsylvania recently grew to include a set of nine German-language newspapers published in Philadelphia at the turn of the twentieth century. A generous gift of the German Society of Pennsylvania, this collection features some of the most notable German-language newspapers in the country. … Continue reading →