To facilitate and encourage use of the collection, the Library offers fellowships, sponsors lectures and conferences, regularly mounts exhibitions for the public, and publishes catalogues, bibliographies, and other works that interpret its holdings. Throughout the year, the Library sponsors lectures on a variety of subjects related to the collection. Every Wednesday, with a few exceptions, a Fellow or scholar speaks on his/her subject for the JCB community. Recent talks have treated topics as diverse as the role of Loyalists during the American Revolution, Caribbean New Orleans, Africans in Lisbon, and Simon Bolivar.

All events take place in the Reading Room of the John Carter Brown Library unless otherwise noted and are subject to change.