"Mission

The Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) encourages diverse audiences to explore and engage with member libraries' uniquely rich holdings and, through collaboration, strengthens these collections and the institutions that preserve them.

Vision

PACSCL is the most extensive and diverse collaboration among a region's libraries and archives in the United States. Its collections, in their depth and variety, comprise an internationally important body of unique and rare materials for students, scholars, and life-long learners of every background."

The Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library is both a lending library and a research facility, housed in an original 1888 reading room built for that purpose and recently restored by the Society. The library houses more than 70,000 volumes, three-quarters are in German. It is considered the largest private collection of German books in the United States (outside of universities)