Engineers transform the world. They invent ceaselessly, creating and making use of technologies that are innovative and always new. But no matter what they devise, some aspects of their work never change. "You cannot name a famous engineer who built a car, who built an aircraft carrier, who put the man on the moon," as Eduardo Glandt, Dean of Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, points out. "Engineering is always—and will always be—a team effort." Which is why, when plans for a major overhaul of Penn's Engineering Library were conceived, spaces for collaborative learning were a priority.

Penn's engineering community has long enjoyed a library at the forefront of information provision. It offers a wealth of digital collections and computing capabilities, a distinctive information literacy program, and sophisticated, librarian-assisted research services. The challenge ahead is to create a physical library equal to these information resources—a space that both advances the teaching practices of the Engineering faculty and matches the caliber of education the school provides.

The new Engineering Library will accommodate the latest technologies and ways of learning. It will be a state-of-the-art facility featuring an electronic classroom, learning booths for informal discussion, and spaces for quiet study. In short, this will be a space in which the bio-, mechanical and electrical engineers, and the computer and material scientists of the future will flourish—exploring the tools of their trade, envisioning technologies we can scarcely imagine today.