Announcements

BGS Students, please see the updates below from the Penn Libraries and contact Manuel de la Cruz Gutiérrez with any questions you may have:

Manuel de la Cruz Gutiérrez, PhD, MLS
Director of Data & Innovation Services
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LIBRARIES 
Biomedical Library
3610 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-746-2459
@MDelaCG
orcid.org/0000-0001-8796-941X

---

DELIVERY AND PICK-UP OF LIBRARY MATERIALS 

Beginning July 7, we will launch the following services for physical books located in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, the Libraries’ Research Annex (LIBRA), Fisher Fine Arts Library, and the Museum Library.

FacultyExpress will provide home delivery of books (Books by Mail) and digital delivery of articles and book chapters (Scan & Deliver) for all tenured and tenure-track Penn faculty members. 

The Scan & Deliverservice will be available for current students, faculty, and staff. The service will have a cap of five articles per day from our own and other collections. In adherence with US copyright law, we can scan and deliver articles and book chapters (but not entire books) from our collections for members of the Penn community.

Books by Mail will be available for current Penn students and staff (and faculty through the Faculty Express Service), within North America. International requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Register

In addition, we will also offer a new service, Pickup@Penn,that will make it possible for members of the Penn community to request books and pick them up outside Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. This will include books requested before March 12, which are currently on our hold shelves, and circulating books and personal materials in offices and carrels in Van-Pelt Dietrich Library Center.  

Please note: For health and safety reasons, the libraries will remain closed to all but a limited number of library staff beyond the designated Pickup@Penn location. 

At this time we continue to have access to digital editions in copyright from other libraries’ collections through the Hathi Trust’s Emergency Temporary Access Service. Please note that this expanded access to digital materials in copyright through the Hathi Trust is temporary, and we will not have access in perpetuity to digital materials in copyright beyond the Penn Libraries collections.  

PURCHASE OF DIGITAL CONTENT 

• We continue to purchase available digital content (e.g., e-books, streaming video) to support teaching and research. Please let me know if you have purchase requests or recommendations by emailing me directly or filling out a purchase request form.

If you are teaching a course in the fall semester and have chosen your required texts, be sure to share this information with me so that I can investigate the possibility of purchasing digital editions for our collections. 

ACCESS TO SPECIAL COLLECTIONS MATERIALS 

• Access to special and non-circulating physical collections remains suspended. The Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts will return to limited on-site operations later this summer.
• Students, faculty and staff will continue to receive reference services online now, as we work toward re-introducing reprographic and digitization services in August.

REFERENCE, INSTRUCTION, AND CONSULTATION SERVICES 

As your subject librarian, I am available to work with all of you—undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty—throughout the summer and into the fall. I can answer reference questions, provide research assistance, advise on purchase and delivery of digital materials, and troubleshoot access to our electronic resources.

• Use our chat service Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. 
• Schedule video consultations by appointment. 

Email me any time.

I am also available to assist students who may be working on research or course work over the summer and into the fall—whether we will be working in person or virtually.

A full summary of current services is available on our Virtual Support page. You will find additional information about forthcoming services in our Phased Re-Start FAQ.  Over time, as public health guidance and building logistics allow, we will introduce additional services, and I will continue to share updates. 

If you have questions about any of these services, please let me know. You may also contact our access services staff at vpcircdk@pobox.upenn.edu.