Posted on February 28, 2010

Penn Libraries Receive $4.25 Million Gift

The Penn Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania have announced a gift of $4.25 million from an anonymous member of the libraries' board of overseers to create a special collections center with a renovated Rare Book & Manuscript Library as its centerpiece.

The gift, the largest ever to the Penn Libraries from a living donor, will support the first phase of a $15 million project to expand the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center into a special collections center. The redesigned center will showcase the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's collections, including more than 250,000 rare books and 800 medieval manuscripts. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin later this year.

The new center, which will feature additional classrooms, improved reader spaces, and a media lab, as well as consultation areas to help foster interaction between curators and scholars, is designed to encourage the use of special collections in both research and the curriculum.

"Because of this gift, we will have a multipurpose space in our Rare Book & Manuscript Library that is equal to the scholarship that our special collections inspire," said Penn President Amy Gutmann. "Students will now have a place where they can physically experience the past as part of their preparation for the future."