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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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June 2020

June 2020

Just Launched: Muftiships Web Archive

Posted on June 2020 by Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation
A screen capture of the Office of His Eminence, Al-Sayyid Ali Al-Husseini Al-Sistani, one of the most senior clerics in Shia Islam

The Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation is pleased to announce the launch of the Muftiships Web Archive. Developed by librarians within the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, the archive preserves the websites of Muftis (Muslim legal experts) and leading jurists from the Islamic world. 

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Librarians at Large: Ancil George Delivers Commencement Speech to Lea Elementary

Photo of Ancil George

“I know that a virtual graduation is less than ideal, and the state of the world beyond Lea Elementary School may have us all on edge and in fear of what the future may bring.” At the end of a tempestuous final semester, the graduating eighth grade class of Henry Charles Lea Elementary School were counseled by their commencement speaker: Ancil George, Penn Libraries’ retired Community Outreach Librarian

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Judaica Digital Humanities Launches the Digital Second Edition of Judaica Americana

Posted on June 2020
Judaica books

Judaica Digital Humanities at the Penn Libraries is excited to announce the launch of the Digital Second Edition of Judaica Americana. This bibliographic database draws from Robert Singerman’s Judaica Americana, the award-winning, magisterial two-volume bibliography of American Jewish publications before 1900. Visitors can search the database’s 9,600+ bibliographic entries

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Diversity in the (Virtual) Stacks: Antiracism Resources

Posted on June 2020
Cover of Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist

In recent weeks, unjust, unfair, and unwarranted acts of violence against the Black community have galvanized the United States — and the world — into protest against the insidiousness and perpetuity of racism in American society. These protests have been a clarion call for individuals to examine their own racial conditioning. 

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Diversity in the (Virtual) Stacks: Antiracism Resources

Posted on June 2020
Cover of Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist

In recent weeks, unjust, unfair, and unwarranted acts of violence against the Black community have galvanized the United States — and the world — into protest against the insidiousness and perpetuity of racism in American society. These protests have been a clarion call for individuals to examine their own racial conditioning. 

...Continue reading

Justice Now: 1960s Protest Drawings by Ashley Bryan

Posted on June 2020 by Lynne Farrington
Drawing by Ashley Bryan of police protestors

The author, artist, and humanitarian Ashley Bryan, whose archive was recently acquired by the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, responded to Civil Rights protests about police brutality in the 1960s with a series of drawings, made from his studio overlooking Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. 

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Diversity in the (Virtual) Stacks: Juneteenth

Posted on June 2020 by Nick Okrent
Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration, June 19, 1900, Texas

The Emancipation Proclamation — the executive order which abolished slavery in the Confederacy — went into effect on January 1, 1863. However, the news was kept from enslaved African Americans living in Texas until June of 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with 2,000 federal troops.

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Diversity in the (Virtual) Stacks: Juneteenth

Posted on June 2020 by Nick Okrent
Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration, June 19, 1900, Texas

The Emancipation Proclamation — the executive order which abolished slavery in the Confederacy — went into effect on January 1, 1863. However, the news was kept from enslaved African Americans living in Texas until June of 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with 2,000 federal troops.

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Return to Campus: Phased Service Availability

Posted on June 2020
Van Pelt Library exterior

Find the latest service updates for the Penn Libraries.

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Diversity in the (Virtual) Stacks: Sexual Minorities

Posted on June 2020 by David Sean Azzolina
Marsha P. Johnson

If you were to go into a library fifty years ago and browse the card catalog, under the subjects “homosexuality” and “lesbianism” you would find a card that read, “see also sexual perversion.” Under “sexual perversion,” another card would suggest that you also consult “homosexuality” and “lesbianism.” It wasn’t until 1973, in fact, that the American Psychiatric Association ceased to classify homosexuality and lesbianism as pathologies.

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Diversity in the (Virtual) Stacks: Sexual Minorities

Posted on June 2020 by David Sean Azzolina
Marsha P. Johnson

If you were to go into a library fifty years ago and browse the card catalog, under the subjects “homosexuality” and “lesbianism” you would find a card that read, “see also sexual perversion.” Under “sexual perversion,” another card would suggest that you also consult “homosexuality” and “lesbianism.” It wasn’t until 1973, in fact, that the American Psychiatric Association ceased to classify homosexuality and lesbianism as pathologies.

...Continue reading

28,000 New EBooks: 20 Years of University Press Titles

Posted on June 2020 by Lauris Olson
University Press logos

The Penn Libraries have added more than 28,000 ebooks from a dozen major university presses as part of our efforts to support off-campus scholarship and learning. Our new acquisition is the centerpiece of our collections responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Our purchase from the De Gruyter University Press Library covers all titles published from 2000 through the 2022 frontlists for these presses

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28,000 New EBooks: 20 Years of University Press Titles

Posted on June 2020 by Lauris Olson
University Press logos

The Penn Libraries have added more than 28,000 ebooks from a dozen major university presses as part of our efforts to support off-campus scholarship and learning. Our new acquisition is the centerpiece of our collections responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Our purchase from the De Gruyter University Press Library covers all titles published from 2000 through the 2022 frontlists for these presses

...Continue reading

28,000 New EBooks: 20 Years of University Press Titles

Posted on June 2020 by Lauris Olson
University Press logos

The Penn Libraries have added more than 28,000 ebooks from a dozen major university presses as part of our efforts to support off-campus scholarship and learning. Our new acquisition is the centerpiece of our collections responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Our purchase from the De Gruyter University Press Library covers all titles published from 2000 through the 2022 frontlists for these presses

...Continue reading

28,000 New EBooks: 20 Years of University Press Titles

Posted on June 2020 by Lauris Olson
University Press logos

The Penn Libraries have added more than 28,000 ebooks from a dozen major university presses as part of our efforts to support off-campus scholarship and learning. Our new acquisition is the centerpiece of our collections responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Our purchase from the De Gruyter University Press Library covers all titles published from 2000 through the 2022 frontlists for these presses

...Continue reading

28,000 New EBooks: 20 Years of University Press Titles

Posted on June 2020 by Lauris Olson
University Press logos

The Penn Libraries have added more than 28,000 ebooks from a dozen major university presses as part of our efforts to support off-campus scholarship and learning. Our new acquisition is the centerpiece of our collections responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Our purchase from the De Gruyter University Press Library covers all titles published from 2000 through the 2022 frontlists for these presses

...Continue reading

Featured (e)Books: Pride 2020

Libraries icon with colors of Philadelphia Pride Flag

June 2020 marks the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the 50th anniversary of the first official Gay Pride march in the United States. The groundwork for that first march through Manhattan was, in fact, laid in Philadelphia during the preceding decade. 

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Better Care for COVID Patients Through Virtual Reality

Two medical personnel standing next to virtual reality camera

Kevin Ching, a physician at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, realized that the knowledge hard-won by medical workers in New York City might save lives elsewhere, in areas of the country that haven’t yet been impacted by the pandemic.

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Better Care for COVID Patients Through Virtual Reality

Two medical personnel standing next to virtual reality camera

Kevin Ching, a physician at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, realized that the knowledge hard-won by medical workers in New York City might save lives elsewhere, in areas of the country that haven’t yet been impacted by the pandemic.

...Continue reading

The Penn Libraries Stands Against Racism

Posted on June 2020
The Penn Libraries stands against racism, white text on black background

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Their deaths are evidence of the hatred, ignorance, and inequities that have blighted our society for the last four centuries. Our nation mourns their lives. We grieve the complacency and the systemic racism to blame for their untimely deaths, as well as the deaths of so many other Black Americans. And we resolve to contribute to ensuring a just future for communities of color.  

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