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Diversity in the Stacks: Central American Political and Social History

Posted on by Brie Gettleson
Two books are stacked on a table. The top book says "Los indígenas también queremos ser guatemaltecos..." and shares author name of Alberto Esquit Choy.

Recognizing the importance of Central American Studies, the Penn Libraries recently acquired a substantial collection of ephemera, books, and audiovisual materials from the region. 

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Penn Libraries Establishes Lecture Series on Global Subjects

The pavilion in the Kislak Center has a full audience, with some people clapping.

The newly endowed Park-Choi Lecture Series supports the Penn Libraries’ ongoing commitment to meaningful engagement with individuals, institutions, and communities through scholarship support and programming.

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University of Pennsylvania Libraries Announces Brian Vivier as Inaugural Director of the Center for Global Collections

Posted on
Brian Vivier

In his new role, he will provide strategic vision, leadership, and oversight for the Center in building world-class distinctive global collections and engaging programming. 

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Making Science Labs Safer at the University of Pennsylvania

Posted on by Rebecca Ortenberg
A computer screen showing a spreadsheet on the left and a page from the PubChem website on the right. Most of the text is unreadable, but on the PubChem website you can see warning symbols in red boxes.

It’s the job of Penn's Office of Environmental Health and Radiation Safety (EHRS) to develop, implement, and manage the systems that keep the university's many science labs as safe as possible. But in the last few years, the team has begun turning to chemistry librarian Judith Currano as a vital partner in these processes. 

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Summer Featured Books and DVDs: For the Love of Food

Posted on by Amanda Alexander
DVDs lined up in a row with "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" in the front

Some of us eat to live, and some of us live to eat. For some of us, making and eating food can also be a rich source for cultural analysis and storytelling. This month’s featured materials show some of the many ideas and values food can represent. 

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New eBook Subscription: Harvard Business Publishing Collection

Posted on by Cynthia Cronin-Kardon
Covers of three books from the eBooks package: Collision Course, Compassionate Leadership, and Beyond Collaboration Overload.

Just in time for summer reading season, the Penn Libraries has subscribed to the Harvard Business Review ebooks package from EBSCO.

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Books on the Move: Changes in the Van Pelt Stacks

Posted on
A masked individual moves books from a shelf to a rolling cart

Through Summer 2023, the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center stacks are undergoing a multi-phase refresh and reorganization.

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Diversity in the stacks

Diversity in the Stacks: Highlights from the Penn Sexuality Collection

Posted on by David Azzolina
The cover of the first issue of the magazine Blue on the front cover, showing a man with dark hair looking at the camera in a sultry manner

The Penn Sexuality Collection will add materials to the Penn Libraries that fall outside the usual purview of academic libraries, helping to make the Libraries a destination for sexuality researchers. 

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Rebuilding Rare Books in a Virtual Space: A Conversation with Curator Dot Porter

Posted on by Rebecca Ortenberg
Two people stand at the edge of the frame reaching out towards a large book sitting in a box in the middle of the table

We recently sat down with curator Dot Porter to talk about how she tries to bring very old books to life in the digital world.

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June Featured Books and DVDs: Pride Month

Posted on by Amanda Alexander
DVDs in top row are Moonlight, The Celluloid Closet, Ammonite, and Pariah. Bottom row is Rock Hudson's home movies, The Signifyin' Works of Marlon Riggs, A Fantastic Woman, and Welcome to Chechnya.

Penn’s LGBT Center will be kicking off their Pride activities with a Queer Dance Class on Friday, June 3 , and will be hosting special events throughout the month. In the meantime, LGBT Center staff provided the Penn Libraries with the following recommendations, each of which offers an an inspiring and enriching reading or watching experience

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December 2019

$12M Gift Transforms Penn Libraries’ Judaica Holdings

Source: Jewish Exponent
Published:

Renowned African American author and artist is honored with a new archive at Penn

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Published:

Penn Libraries receives $12M gift for Jewish American studies

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal
Published:

Gifts to Penn Libraries enrich Judaic scholarship and digital humanities

Source: Penn Today
Published:

December 2019

16,764 Oxford University Press Ebooks (and Counting)

Posted on December 2019 by Lauris Olson
Photo of Oxford University Press

Penn readers may now view and download 16,764 scholarly Oxford University Press ebooks available in the Oxford Scholarship Online ebooks collection. Oxford Scholarship Online brings together Oxford University Press-imprint titles in 20 subject areas, published from 1963 through today. OSO's strengths are in philosophy, religion, history political science, law, and literature

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US Municipal Governments Survey Datasets: Smart Cities, Sustainability, Immigrant Communities, and More

Posted on December 2019 by Lauris Olson
ICMA Datasets icon

The Penn Libraries have expanded our collection of ICMA research survey datasets, adding 18 new surveys to our existing holdings. The International City/County Management Association conducts national surveys of all U.S. counties and ~8,000 U.S. municipalities with populations of 2,500 or greater on topics of interest to local governments.

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Cabinet Papers of the Stormont Administration (Northern Ireland), 1921-1972

Posted on December 2019 by Lauris Olson
CAB 4/1413/2. Cabinet meeting invitation

The Penn Libraries have acquired the digitized archival collection, Northern Ireland : A divided community, 1921-1972. The collection presents the Cabinet Conclusion files of the Northern Ireland Government, the devolved executive for British administration in Northern Ireland following the partition of Ireland in 1920.

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Penn Libraries Partners with Casalini Libri, @Cult to Develop Linked-Data Discovery Interface

Posted on December 2019
Photograph of colored computer code

For researchers, navigating the breadth and depth of resources contained in library catalogs demands both time and patience. To address the fact that discovery information resources are becoming increasingly complex, the Penn Libraries is working on a radical project to connect information more seamlessly through a linked-data discovery interface.

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Sensing Climate with Librarian Margaret Janz

Bethany Wiggin and Margaret Janz holding signs at climate lecture

“I’ve always been a nature nerd,” says Margaret Janz, who was trained as a science librarian and currently serves as the Scholarly Communications and Data Curation Librarian at Penn. When the College of Arts and Sciences organized the 1.5* Minute Climate Lecture Series this past September, Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH) Director Bethany Wiggin invited Janz to co-present

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Book Art: Zoe Leonard Sculpture on Display at Penn's ICA

Zoe Leonard's sculpture, a stack of 27 books

The University of Pennsylvania-affiliated Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) has no permanent collection. Instead, the ICA features rolling exhibitions of innovative artists both established and emergent. It was famously the first museum to present a solo Andy Warhol show and has hosted works by a miscellany of high-profile artists

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Sex & Sexuality: Material from the Kinsey Institute Library

Posted on December 2019 by Nick Okrent
Good Time: A Revue of the World of Pleasure

Sex & Sexuality is a collection of primary source materials which explore changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century. This unique collaboration with the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections presents correspondence, research papers and records spanning the tenures of the first three Institute directors; Dr Alfred C. Kinsey (1947-1956), Dr Paul H. Gebhard (1956-1982) and Dr June Reinisch (1982-1993).

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Reading Period/Exam Access in Effect at Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center & Fisher Fine Arts Library

Posted on December 2019
Big Ben inner clock face

The reading period/exam access policy for the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center and the Fisher Fine Arts Library will be in effect from December 10 – 19, 2019. Access to VPDLC and FFAL during this period is limited to to individuals who hold one of the following credentials: 

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Student Spotlight: Jiaqi Song

Jiaqi Song in Henry Charles Lea Library

Jiaqi Song was born on one continent (Asia, in Beijing), grew up on another (Europe, in Rome), and now attends college on a third (North America, in Philadelphia). Fittingly enough, he’s a second-year student in Wharton’s Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business. 

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Diversity in the Stacks: East Asia Comics Collection

Triptych of East Asian comic book covers

Language learners make up a large proportion of Penn Libraries patrons who might be interested in our foreign-language collections. However, academic monographs and document collections from the 19th century may strike many as too intimidating for reading practice. 

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Gifts from Arnold and Deanne Kaplan, Totaling $12 Million, Enrich Judaic Scholarship and Digital Humanities at the Penn Libraries

Posted on December 2019
Lithograph of bakers preparing matzoh

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries has received a series of gifts from Arnold and Deanne Kaplan, including the world’s first endowed position in Judaica digital humanities, totaling $12 million. The Kaplans’ contributions also comprise an in-kind gift of collections of Americana and Early American Judaica, research fellowships, and an endowment for continuing acquisitions.

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