Jean And Alexander Heard Libraries

Vanderbilt University faculty, postdocs and staff who use REDCap, the secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases, should set up new projects within the university’s dedicated REDCap instance beginning Nov. 18. This new instance, which is supported by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, is exclusively for university users and retains the same look and functionality as the version previously accessed through Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Central Library and Divinity Library will be closed beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21, through Sunday, Nov. 30, for scheduled facility maintenance. The libraries’ regular operating hours will resume on Monday, Dec. 1. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have partnered with Amazon Web Services to launch the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS. This initiative, the first of AWS’s cloud innovation programs to be housed in an academic library and focused on archival preservation, was celebrated Oct. 27 at a ribbon-cutting event and reception on the Vanderbilt campus. Read More

New exhibits in three campus locations celebrate the Immersion Vanderbilt program and highlight hands-on learning projects created by former undergraduate students in collaboration with the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More

Family, friends and colleagues of Sen. Lamar Alexander gathered at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives Oct. 22 to celebrate his distinguished career and the digitization of the Lamar Alexander Papers by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More

The Heard Libraries are broadening the slate of creative and instructional technology resources available to students, faculty and staff. This includes hiring Vanderbilt’s first-ever librarian for this area, expanding the Gear2Go technology lending program, and bringing the state-of-the-art Studio 608 fully within the purview of the libraries’ Teaching and Learning team. Read More

Wolters Kluwer Health and Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have announced a new collaboration that will help support medical breakthroughs and improve access to scholarly research. The agreement, which is an expansion of Wolters Kluwer’s read-and-publish offerings in North America, will run through 2028. Read More

Eight decades of Vanderbilt University history are commemorated in a new exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Dare to Grow, 1945–2025 is on view in the Central Library fourth-floor lobby through mid-February 2026. The exhibit explores Vanderbilt’s remarkable growth in faculty, facilities, enrollment and the quality of its students amid national and international crises, recessions, pandemics and other disruptions from postwar to present day. Read More

VUIT will offer walk-up support at a new Tech Hub in Vanderbilt’s Central Library beginning Monday, Oct. 13. The Central Library Tech Hub is located on the south end of the main service desk in the fourth-floor lobby. The Tech Hub is designed to offer quick, in-person assistance with university-owned devices for issues such as VUnetID problems, wireless connection issues, email setup, and software access. Read More

Premium access to Overleaf Professional, an online tool designed to make scientific and technical writing simpler and more collaborative, is now available to Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff free of charge, courtesy of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More

Power of Suggestion: The Hypnotism Library of Dr. Albert Moll, curated by History of Medicine Collections curator Chris Ryland and archivist Jim Thweatt, is on view at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives through mid-February 2026. The items in the exhibit are drawn from a multilingual collection offering a unique perspective on the history of hypnotism as well as its relationship to animal magnetism, psychotherapy, mesmerism, sleepwalking, criminology, and even yoga. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have received a prestigious National Leadership Grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The award, valued at more than $121,000, was made through the IMLS’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. Read More

The 2025 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, will connect faculty, students, alumni and others with university ties to a vast community that shares their love for creative expression. The festival, now in its 37th year, will be at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Library and Archives Oct. 18–19. Admission is free. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries will host a pair of events on Wednesday, Sept. 17, to celebrate Constitution Day.  The primary purpose of Constitution Day is to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and to promote a deeper understanding of this foundational document and its significance to American government.  Read More

The Buchanan Library Fellows program supports hands-on student learning opportunities that build desirable skills and deepen students’ understanding of resources and services in the Vanderbilt libraries. With a focus on undergraduate instruction, the program connects faculty and professional librarians with students to work on experiential library projects, then present their work at the end of the fellowship. Read More

The life, music, writings and visual art of jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef A. Lateef will be celebrated Sept. 12–13, when Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music hosts the Yusef Lateef Symposium. The two-day conference will include panel discussions, viewings of the Yusef A. Lateef Collection housed at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, a film screening, visual art displays and live music performances. Read More

A new exhibit at Vanderbilt’s Central Library traces the evolution of the manifesto as a literary and artistic form, showcasing the bold declarations of poets, painters and provocateurs who reshaped modern culture. Revolution and the Arts: Manifestos from Symbolism to Surrealism is now on view outside the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies study room on the eighth floor of Central Library. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives has completed a long-term project to fully digitize the Lamar Alexander Papers, which document the life and work of a significant figure in Tennessee and U.S. political history. Read More

Philip Walker, director of Vanderbilt’s Annette and Irwin Eskind Family Biomedical Library and Learning Center, has been elected chair of the National Library of Medicine’s Board of Regents. Walker will serve a one-year term beginning Aug. 4. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries will mark the centennial anniversary of the landmark Scopes trial with a new exhibit at Vanderbilt’s Central Library. Celebrating 150 Years of Evolution at Vanderbilt is on view in the Central Library second-floor gallery until mid-November 2025. Read More