By the Numbers - Penn Libraries

Penn Libraries is an enormous enterprise with more than a dozen facilities on campus alone, as well as several commons, centers, and associated libraries.

The Libraries serve the entire Penn community with a huge print and electronic collection; early printed materials on philosophy, literature, science, and more; and access to databases that scholars can use when researching everything from biology to business. The Libraries also host exhibitions and contain numerous study and teaching spaces.

Current Vice Provost and Director of Libraries H. Carton Rogers is preparing to step down in June of 2018, so we thought the time was right to take a peek inside Penn’s sprawling library system.

    • 7,778,224

      Number of print and electronic volumes used in 2016.

    • 109

      Class sessions held in the Lea Library in 2017. This library is located on the sixth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library and was moved in its entirety after the death of prominent Philadelphian Henry Charles Lea in 1909.

    • 2,254,963

      Total images of special collection manuscript pages posted on OPENN, as of June 30, 2017.

    • 375

      Number of student workers in the Libraries for the 2017-18 school year.

    • 1,485,076

      In-person visits to the Libraries in 2016.

    • 3,209,396

      Number of digitized manuscript pages in the Libraries’ collection. In 1990, that number was zero.

    • 551

      Class sessions held in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts from July 2016 through June 2017.

 

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