Not only does the State Library of Pennsylvania have extensive collections of printed books, but it also offers items in audio, video, and digital formats, access to databases, and programs and events to meet community needs. Libraries offer knowledgable and professional staff to assist with research as well as staff who work to select, catalog, organize, and preserve physical and digital collections. This work happens in purpose-designed, public-access spaces where people can meet and gather to share what they have learned.
The State Library of Pennsylvania has been building its collections since Benjamin Franklin selected its first set of books in 1745. The library provides research services to government employees and has a long history of collecting and organizing materials in broad subject areas in the fields of public administration, economics, political science, statistics, education, public services, as well as North American, United States, and Pennsylvania history.
Library staff are trained professionals who can support and guide researchers and learners of all ages.
Libraries play a vital role in community engagement and outreach. The State Library of Pennsylvania offers a comprehensive schedule of monthly events designed to enrich the lives of Pennsylvanians. Regular events include Lunch and Learn programs on various topics, book club meetings, and even a fiber arts craft night. Libraries aim to plan events that meet the needs of their communities, to broaden curiosity, and to inspire education, information, and the creation of new innovations.
The State Library of Pennsylvania's unique materials capture the interest of researchers from across the state and around the world. We are pleased to digitally provide a selection of our vast and varied holdings. The State Library of Pennsylvania is the official depository for all published documents produced by Pennsylvania state agencies. The historical collection spans from the 1700s to the present. Documents include annual reports, audits, maps, newsletters, reports, studies, plans, and statistical compilations created for the research or informational use of the public.
The Genealogy and Local History collection at The State Library of Pennsylvania is one of the most utilized collections:
The Genealogy and Local History collection consists of indexes, genealogies, state and county histories, family histories, regimental histories from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, city directories, atlases, land warranty maps, ship passenger lists, and compilations of church and cemetery records.
The collection also includes Federal Census records for Pennsylvania from 1790 to 1930 on microfilm, and agricultural and business censuses.
Many older items in our collection have been digitized and are available in the PA Photos and Documents Collection at the Pennsylvania POWER Library website.
Many additional resources are made available via subscription access to online databases and services for on-site or state government employee access.
Law
The State Library of Pennsylvania Law Library has an extensive collection consisting of the laws, regulations, and higher court decisions of the U.S. government and all fifty states. The State Library also subscribes to many government, law and code electronic resources. Online access to these resources is available in the Main Reading Room or via remote access to active State Government employees with a current State Library card. The laws and administrative codes of all fifty states are available in the State Capitol Universe database. The law collection is especially strong in current and historical Pennsylvania law materials, and includes Pennsylvania appellate court records and briefs, legal treatises and periodicals, and Pennsylvania county court reports.
The State Library of Pennsylvania began collecting books with its official founding in 1745 and continues to build its unique collection of materials by, for, and about Pennsylvania. Our rare and special collections include several groupings.
Assembly Collection
The core of the State Library's Rare Collections Library is the Original Assembly Collection which numbers over 400 extant volumes. These books were purchased by the Pennsylvania Assembly, beginning in 1745 for the legislators' reference in governing the Commonwealth. This collection contains primarily law books, but also dictionaries, books on architecture, philosophy, history and religion.
Pennsylvania Imprints
Rare books published by presses in Pennsylvania cities large and small, between 1685 and 1865. These imprints include: (1) religious tracts, works of piety and sermons, (2) almanacs, (3) political tracts and legislative proceedings, (4) reports of social welfare, abolitionist, women's suffrage and other societies, (5) works of history and geography, especially school textbooks, and (6) juvenile books.
Miscellaneous Rarities
The State Library's collection of rare works also includes a wide variety of non-Pennsylvania imprints, dating from the incunabula period of the 15th century through the 20th century. The earliest volume in the collection is Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber chronicarum) (1493). This varied collection—much of it published by European presses—ranges from William Penn's plea for religious toleration, Christian liberty as it was soberly desired in a letter to certain foreign states upon occasion of their late severity of their inhabitants, merely for their different persuasion and practice in point of faith and worship towards God (London, 1675), and George Whitfield's pamphlet on The enthusiasm of Methodists and papists compar'd (1749) to Louis Agassiz's Contributions to the natural history of the United States of America (1857).
The Pamphlet Collection
Another important rare collection, especially valuable for the study of Pennsylvania's social and intellectual history in the 19th and 20th centuries, is the Pamphlet Collection of some four thousand volumes. Examples from this important rare resource include Dorothea Dix's Memorial soliciting a state hospital for the insane (1845), A report of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States and the judges thereof , in the case of Dred Scott versus John F.A. Sanford (1857), and an Address upon the late Joseph Leidy, a eulogy (the famous University of Pennsylvania paleontologist) offered by William Hunt (1892).
The State Library of Pennsylvania STEMLab provides science, technology, engineering, and math programming and education to children, adults, librarians, and teachers in Pennsylvania. Staff offer programs to learn various technologies and information on chemistry, biology, forensics, anatomy & physiology, robotics/circuitry, microbiology and more as well as the scientific method for such enterprises. The STEMLab staff test various types and pieces of equipment and procedures and provide training and curriculum that follow NSTA curriculum standards. The programming space includes items available for libraries and educators to borrow to be used with local community programs.
