Access to the College Green area of campus will be restricted until further notice. Current students, faculty, and staff with a valid Penn card, as well as Alumni Weekend attendees with name badges, may enter and exit Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center through the Rosengarten Undergraduate Study Center on the ground floor, and may enter and exit the Fisher Fine Arts Library through the 34th Street entrance to Meyerson Hall. See our Service Alerts for details.

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School Library Partnerships

We strive to understand what it means to rebuild and restore public school libraries consciously and intentionally—a weighty, meaningful responsibility that goes beyond stocking the shelves with books. Instead, this expansive project is about ensuring that students have access to books and library programming that speak to their experiences, honor their identities, and invite and empower them to fill in the gaps in the collections of stories around them. Our goal is to create a collaborative model for facilitating library spaces that allows volunteers and community members to navigate a complex system in the absence of librarians, while also developing a sustainable model that a certified librarian can easily take over in the future.

Photograph of a library staff showing a picture book to a classroom of young students

In our work we:   

  • Fund and manage the Integrated Library System (ILS), Follett Destiny (a digital catalog) in 17 elementary and 4 high schools throughout Philadelphia. Browse the collection at some of our partner schools.   
  • Revitalize collections with new, high quality, culturally responsive books.   
  • Work with the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) to provide access support and organize school library spaces   
  • Develop and provide training materials for a collaborative approach to utilizing the Follett Destiny system and maintaining library spaces.     
  • Beautify library spaces so they are appealing and exciting to young readers.

Resources for Collaboratively-Run Libraries

COMING SOON. Explore resources and training materials for teams, schools, and community spaces working to get libraries up and running.

A bookshelf filled with colorful books. Two large dividers are labeled "I" and "J".

Volunteer Opportunities

A person in a cozy sweater and beanie is engrossed in work, surrounded by an organized chaos of books, papers, and a laptop in a colorful library setting.

Join Our Roving Team

Help PLCE and WePAC provide behind-the-scenes support at school libraries all over Philadelphia. Volunteers help catalog books, correct records, and complete other vital organizational tasks.

Fill out our interest form