LIBRARIES AT PENN
A world of social work, social welfare, and policy knowledge at your fingertips
From the large Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center to special collections in social work, social policy, and nonprofit leadership, the University of Pennsylvania offers extensive library resources for students and scholars.
Search the Penn Library System
The Library’s online catalog, Franklin, is searchable both on and off campus.
Libraries for SP2 Students
SP2 students have access to libraries throughout the University system. Here are some that are particularly relevant and helpful to our students.
- The Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center is the University’s central social sciences and humanities library.
- Annenberg School for Communication Library has extensive collections focused on mass media effects, cultural studies, political and health communication, and communication in the developing world.
- Biotech Commons supports research, education, and patient care decisions for the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
- Fisher Fine Arts Library features collections covering architecture, city planning, historic preservation, history of art, landscape architecture, the studio arts, and urban design.
- Biddle Law Library houses American primary materials (cases, statutes, regulations, etc.) and secondary sources such as journals, scholarly monographs, loose-leaf services, and federal legislative histories.
- Center for Judaic Studies’ collections include Biblical and rabbinic literature, Jewish history and thought, and Judaica Americana.
- Wharton School Lippincott Library offers world-class resources focused on management and business, including access to data, journals, news, analyst reports, market research and more
Collections
SP’s core collections of databases, reference work, research guides, and e-resources offer a wealth of information around high-impact themes.
Other Resources
- The Interlibrary loan/document delivery service enables students and faculty to borrow books and request scans of journal articles which are not in the University’s collections
- Penn Libraries Chat allows students to ask Penn librarians for guidance and support.
- Schedule a research consultation with a librarian.
- Connect with the library’s social science subject specialists
News
Faculty & Research
04/23
Exploring sustainable development & the human impact of natural disasters
What factors allow people to prepare for and recover from natural disasters? Dr. Chenyi Ma, a research assistant professor at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), conducts interdisciplinary research that investigates the role of inequality in disasters’ impact and points to policy solutions.
News
Alumni
04/18
Alumni Q&A | Terri Broussard Williams, NPL ’20
An award-winning lobbyist, nonprofit executive, and public speaker, SP2 alumna and Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board member Terri Broussard Williams, NPL ’20, is head of state and local government relations at financial services firm Edward Jones.
News
Faculty & Research
04/10
SP2’s R. Jisung Park publishes “Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World”
In “Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World,” Dr. R. Jisung Park, an assistant professor at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), encourages us to view climate change through a different lens: one that focuses less on the possibility of mass climate extinction in a theoretical future, and more on the everyday implications of climate change here and now.
Contact Us
Sam Kirk
she/her/hers
Social Sciences Librarian, Penn Libraries
215 746 6052