The Charles Patterson Van Pelt Library, also known as the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center and Van Pelt, is the primary library at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The building was designed by architects

Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson H2L2 (for three decades, officially Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson) is an architecture firm in Philadelphia founded in 1907 by Paul Philippe Cret as The Offices of Paul Philippe Cret. In 1923, John Harbeson became Cret's partner, along ...

, and built in 1962. It has a gross area of . In addition to being the primary library on campus for social sciences and humanities, it also houses the Lippincott Library of the

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, the Ormandy Music Library, and the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Van Pelt Library houses strong Area Studies collections in African, Japanese, Latin American, Chinese, Middle East,

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, and Judaica and Ancient Near East Studies. The Henry Charles Lea Library is located on the 6th floor of Van Pelt Library. The library holds the Weigle Information Commons, located on the west side of the 1st floor. Grecian with a massive

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

, but screened by brick panels with small windows that resemble an old French library, the Van Pelt Library is a major presence on the campus. A large

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

sculpture, '' The Button'', sits at its southern entrance.

History

The Van Pelt Library was constructed in 1962 after Penn's library outgrew the Frank Furness Building (which now houses Fisher Fine Arts Library). In 1966, the Dietrich wing was added to the building, and the building's official name was changed to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center to reflect the addition. The Lippincott Library for the

underwent a major renovation in 1967. In 1990, the Goldstein Undergraduate Study Center was added to the basement level, and during the school year, this area is available 24/7 to Penn students from when the library opens on Sunday morning through to Friday evenings. In 2006, the Weigle Information Commons was constructed. The Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, a newly reconfigured 27,000 square-foot space opened in 2013. This major renovation included a completely renovated 6th floor with gallery space, meeting rooms, the Horace Howard Furness Shakespeare Library, a glass-walled pavilion, and spaces for study and events, and an expansion of special collections stacks to Van Pelt's 5th floor. The annual A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures in Bibliography are held at the Kislak Center.

Area Studies

Van Pelt Library also houses all the specialized Area Studies within the library system, namely East Asia, Middle East and

. The bibliographers for Africa, Latin America and Judaica are also based in the same building.

Weigle Information Commons

The David B. Weigle Information Commons (WIC) is a technology hub located in the library. WIC offers services such as video recording rooms, videoconferencing, "data diner booths", group study rooms, and photo, video, and music editing software. WIC was built in April 2006 on the 1st floor (west) of Van Pelt.

References

External links

Official websiteVan Pelt Library Facebook Page
{{authority control Library buildings completed in 1962 Libraries in Pennsylvania University and college academic libraries in the United States University of Pennsylvania campus Walnut Street (Philadelphia)

History

Area Studies

Weigle Information Commons

See also

References

External links