Penn Libraries Receives $5.5 Million Donation From Jay I. Kislak and the Kislak Family Foundation

Via Business Wire:

This November, the Penn Libraries will celebrate the official naming of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, the final capstone in its $17 million capital campaign to renovate the 5th and 6th floors of the Van Pelt – Dietrich Library Center. The new, 27,000-square-foot space is named for Jay I. Kislak and his family. Mr. Kislak is an avid collector of books and artifacts and a longtime supporter of the University. A graduate of the Wharton School in 1943, he is the first of three generations of his family to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania.
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The $5.5 million Kislak gift to the Penn Libraries represents the largest cash contribution from an individual donor in the Libraries’ history. It also marks the completion of the Penn Libraries’ $17 million capital campaign to complete a major overhaul of the 5th and 6th floors of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. As part of its renovation plan, the newly named Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts has expanded its footprint and scope, now encompassing the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Furness Memorial Shakespeare Library, the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection and the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies.
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The Kislak Center has been specially redesigned to allow several different groups to interact with objects of study simultaneously, increasing the use of primary resources in the University’s curriculum and access to the Libraries’ resources for the larger scholarly community.

More about the Donation and Center

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