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.

In 2011, long-time benefactors and Libraries Board of Advisors members Lawrence J. Schoenberg (C’53, WG’57, PAR’93) and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg donated a major collection of 280 Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, valued at over $20 million. To promote the use of this and other manuscript collections at Penn, the Libraries created the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) and established the position of the Schoenberg Curator. 

The Schoenberg Curator collaborates with SIMS staff, faculty, and scholars to achieve the Institute's mission: to bring manuscript culture, modern technology, and people together to bring access to and understanding of our intellectual heritage locally and around the world. Simply put, SIMS acts as a think-tank for manuscript studies in the digital age.