Reading period access: From April 30 to May 14, access to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center and the Fisher Fine Arts Library will be limited to PennCard holders and other Penn affiliates. Find more information.

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Alumni and Friends Book Fund

The University of Pennsylvania Library is one of the nation's great academic research centers. The continued excellence of the Library is essential to the University's research mission; its undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs; its ability to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students; and its worldwide scholarly community.

The Alumni and Friends Book Fund provides an endowment for the continuing acquisition of resources--books, manuscripts, journals, recordings, photographs, films, and electronic resources.

Benjamin Franklin had a vision of a center for "tools for improvement": "That a House be provided for the Academy...that the House be furnished with a Library...with Maps of all Countries, Globes, some Mathematical Instruments, and Apparatus for Experiments in Natural Philosophy, and for Mechanics; Prints of all Kinds, Prospects, Buildings, Machines, &c."

The generosity of generations of Penn Library Alumni and Friends keeps Franklin's vision alive. Consider continuing the tradition by making a gift now in honor or memory of a special person by visiting the Support Us button on our website.