Want to visit a library at another Ivy League university or pick up a book from a nearby college? The Penn Libraries participates in several reciprocal borrowing programs that allow students, faculty, and staff to borrow physical materials on-site at member libraries. Many libraries require you to bring a borrowing letter with you, so be sure to check the requirements first and request a letter at the Van Pelt Circulation Desk ahead of time.
Faculty, staff, and students can visit and borrow physical materials at the following Ivy Plus/BorrowDirect member libraries: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and University of Chicago, Yale.
Faculty, staff, and students can visit and borrow physical materials at PALCI member libraries. Note that in some cases, reciprocal borrowing privileges are only available to faculty and graduate students. You must pick up a reciprocal borrowing letter at the Van Pelt Circulation Desk before you go.
The Penn Libraries has individual agreements with a number of academic libraries in the Philadelphia area:
Faculty and graduate students may visit and borrow materials from Drexel, St. Joseph’s, and Villanova University Libraries.
Faculty may visit and borrow materials from Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Libraries.
Before visiting, you must pick up a reciprocal borrowing letter at the Van Pelt Circulation Desk.
Are you a student, faculty, or staff member at another PALCI or Ivy Plus library? Learn how to visit and borrow materials from the Penn Libraries.