Experience the library — virtually
Away from campus for the summer? There’s still plenty the Penn Libraries can do for you! Access databases off-campus, use our virtual computer lab, borrow e-books and audiobooks on Libby, and more!
Explore all our services
Set up a meeting with a subject specialist or curator to talk about creating assignments, finding relevant scholarly resources and services, connecting with experts across campus, and using special collections in the classroom.
Interested in using VR and AR technologies in the classroom? Need advice on the best way to create educational materials in formats like videos or podcasts? Our instructional technology specialist can help.
Set aside books, films, or sound recordings for class use through our Course Reserves service and make articles or book excerpts available electronically on Canvas.
We make a variety of spaces available to faculty and instructors for semester-long courses and one-time reservations. See room descriptions to find out which space offers the setup and technology for your needs.
Many required texts are in the Libraries’ collections, and you can borrow books for the entire semester. Additional resources are available to students who participate in Penn First Plus or identify as first-generation students.
Work with a librarian to arrange a library orientation for a cohort of students, faculty, or staff, either for a general introduction or to focus on specific, disciplinary resources. We offer tours and orientations throughout the year.
Librarians can help students understand how to sift through and identify credible scholarly works through consultations, workshops, and research guides.
Our library locations offer large tables in quiet study areas, lounges with soft furniture, reservable rooms and booths for groups, assigned study carrels, and more. Explore spaces with a variety of seating and technology to suit your needs.
We make a variety of tools available that facilitate the process of writing research papers at any level. Platforms like NoodleTools, PowerNotes, and LaTeX can help you organize your notes, create outlines, and more.
Find information, support, and workshops on citation management tools, which help you keep track of articles and books as you find them, tag and annotate them, and easily create citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or other writing software.
Bioinformatics leverages computational tools and methodologies to decipher the complex language of biological data. Through the Penn Libraries, researchers can get individualized support and access biological data repositories, data visualization software, and secondary literature.
Identify how your research shapes policy, patents, and the work of your peers with guidance from a librarian. This influence can be measured via references in citations, social media, legislation, and more.
Get support in understanding open access, copyright, citation best practices, Creative Commons licenses, choosing a journal or other publication venue, preprints, publisher contracts, author profiles, and plagiarism.
Investigate options for making your research publicly accessible by working with a discipline-specific subject librarian, attending workshops in the Support for Publishing workshop series, or reading online materials created by the Libraries.
What is copyright and how do you get it for your own work? What does it mean when something is under copyright, and how does that affect your teaching and scholarship? We can help you understand copyright law and related topics like fair use, the public domain, and open access.
Find resources to guide you through the process of revising your dissertation for publication, choosing a publisher, copyright, and more.
Find the equipment, software, and spaces you need, including dedicated recording studios for music and spoken word.
Our collection includes loanable electronic musical instruments accessible to novice and master musicians alike. Find synthesizers, mixers, a laptop preloaded with digital audio software, and even a theremin to fuel your creative projects.
Through the Common Press Studio, students, faculty, and staff can attend workshops and book studio time, and faculty can arrange studio tours, workshops and other immersive experiences for classes.
3D print or scan objects for an academic project—or just for fun! When you submit your scanning or printing request, staff will review your project to make sure it will scan or print correctly and will work with you to choose file format and material options that best suit your needs.
The Penn Libraries' global collections encompass hundreds of languages and scripts across a broad range of subject areas, preserving the rich cultural and scholarly record from Africa, East Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and South Asia. Read about some of our recent acquisitions and resources.
Penn is home to the largest library collection of Frisian-language literature outside of Europe, including more than 1,300 Frisian books
Penn’s Indo-Caribbean postcard collection is now hosted by dLOC and by the Libraries, making the material more discoverable
Pragda Stream features films that represent a range of cultures of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, with selections in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Indigenous languages.
For Coffee With a Codex on July 17, Dot Porter will bring out a 15th century Italian manuscript of treatise De spiritu et anima, erroneously attributed to St. Augustine (actually written by Alcherus of Clairvaux).
Learn and practice the basics of letterpress printing and typesetting! This orientation is required as a prerequisite for working on independent projects at Common Press.
For Coffee With A Codex on July 24, Curator Dot Porter will bring out a copy of the text On calculation with integers and fractions, written in Baghdad in A.H. 590 (1194).