Reading period access: From April 30 to May 14, access to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center and the Fisher Fine Arts Library will be limited to PennCard holders and other Penn affiliates. Find more information.

The Tobias Wagner Fund was created with the stroke of a pen 130 years ago.

Today, the income from the fund is tracked by a computerized spreadsheet program. The books bought with it are entered on a globally accessible database. The circulation librarian who checks out the books uses a bar-code scanner.

None of this was anticipated by Miss Elizabeth Rhoads, who founded the fund in 1874. But she knew her gift would always benefit the Penn Library...and it continues to do so.