The Newberry fosters a deeper understanding of our world by inspiring research and learning in the humanities and encouraging conversations about ideas that matter.

Reference librarians work with all readers and offer orientation, in-depth bibliographical instruction, and specialized assistance as needed.

Recent speakers include: Rebecca Makkai, Chicago-based author of The Great Believers; Tiya Miles, Professor of History at Harvard University and author of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake; Jill Wine-Banks, MSNBC Legal Analyst; maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound; Elizabeth Ellis (Peoria Nation of Oklahoma), Associate Professor of History at Princeton University; Mike Amezcua, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University and author of Making Mexican Chicago; and poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib.

[30] Beginning in 1944 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Newberry began hosting researchers from different disciplines and backgrounds for both short- and long-term fellowships.

[31] These fellows form a close community during their time at the Newberry and continue to build their relationships with one another and with the library long after they leave.

Examples of recent books by former Newberry fellows include:[34] The library offers a series of content-based professional development seminars for teachers.

Poole saw the Newberry as a blank canvas on which he could project his ideas, which included and perhaps found their most impassioned articulation in the design and construction of libraries.

Poole favored a number of reading rooms with open shelving of materials that could be easily accessed by patrons; Cobb preferred the majestic grandiosity in vogue in Europe and the centralization of collection items.

Poole's influence with the library's trustees coerced Cobb to temper the grand staircase he had envisioned and to accommodate open shelving.

Over time, however, the open shelving would put too much strain on the Newberry's staff and the security of its collections, and the library would convert to a centralized storage system.

Two en bloc acquisitions made during his tenure, the private collections of Henry Probasco and Count Pio Resse, yielded notable rarities in music and early printed specimens (incunables), as well as Shakespeare folios and editions of Homer, Dante, and Horace.

"[45] The award itself is a scale-sized model of the full-sized Virginio Ferrari sculpture created in 1987 called Umanitá that greets visitors as they enter the Newberry Library.