Jean And Alexander Heard Libraries

The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt has awarded nearly $80,000 over the past academic year to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff pursuing community-facing arts-based projects. This is triple the impact of previous iterations of this program, spurred by new application procedures, outreach and project development methods. Creative Inquiry Grants, named for the Curb Center’s goal of elevating art as a mode of inquiry, award up to $2,500 per applicant and the use of Curb Center space and resources to the stewards of a variety of important projects. Read More

The influence of Vanderbilt University writers on acclaimed author Flannery O’Connor—and the extensive reach of O’Connor’s work on literature and beyond—are the subjects of a new Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries exhibit. Read More

“Stitched Stories: A Children’s Literature and Quilting Journey” took place over six weeks and brought upper-elementary students together with members of the Zuri Quilting Circle, a collective of local Black women quilters who use fabric to tell stories about their lives and traditions. The students read and discussed four picture books about quilting before designing their own quilts and learning hands-on techniques to assemble and sew them. Read More

Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff who enjoy free online subscriptions to The New York Times courtesy of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries can now access The Athletic and fully access Games alongside other features. Read More

The many contributions of LGBTQ people to the political, social and cultural fabric of Middle Tennessee are explored in a new exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. 'Alive with Pride: LGBTQ Existence and Resistance in Middle Tennessee' is on view in the Central Library fourth-floor lobby through September 2025. An opening reception for the exhibit will be on Tuesday, June 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and a series of curator talks will be held at Central Library on three Saturdays—July 12, July 19 and Aug. 9—this summer. Patrons are invited to view the exhibit from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each session, with guided tours scheduled at 11 a.m. and at noon. Read More

University leaders, faculty, students and invited guests gathered at the McGee Applied Research Center for Narrative Studies to celebrate its new home at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Central Library. The interdisciplinary center promotes media literacy by providing essential resources to evaluate the objectivity of news coverage, digital media and other narratives.  Read More

Digital preservation professionals from the Southeast and across the globe convened at Vanderbilt University for the inaugural Digital Preservation Coalition Members Forum in the Americas. The April 24–25 gathering, hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, supported the university’s goal of engaging a global community of scholars on campus and bringing their expertise to bear on the world’s most pressing problems. Read More

The cast of a plesiosaur, a large marine reptile that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, that was once a centerpiece of Vanderbilt’s natural history museum from the 1870s has been unearthed in the basement of Branscomb Quad. Read More

A new student-curated exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries explores the exciting world of book arts, with a focus on the intersection of art, craftsmanship and literature. Read More

Generative AI will play a key role in three new campus projects being developed thanks to early-stage funding from the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Digital Lab. The Digital Lab’s 2025 seed grant projects will be celebrated in a public showcase this fall.  Read More

With the impressive jazz collections at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Vanderbilt students and faculty can delve deep into the history of jazz and the lives, music and impact of its pioneering musicians. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries hosted talks by two international scholars of Jewish history and culture on April 10 in the Central Library Community Room. Markus Krah, the John H. Slade Executive Director of the Leo Baeck Institute–New York/Berlin, and Caroline Jessen, a research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture–Simon Dubnow in Leipzig, Germany, discussed the life and legacy of German-Jewish philanthropist and publisher Salman Schocken. Read More

The U.K.-based Biochemical Society and Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have announced a read-and-publish agreement to support the open sharing of research and knowledge across the molecular biosciences. This agreement enables Vanderbilt-affiliated authors to maximize the readership, dissemination and citation of their research through the guarantee of uncapped, fee-free open access publishing in journals published by Portland Press, the Biochemical Society’s publishing arm. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are now offering online subscriptions to The Atlantic magazine free of charge for Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff. Published since 1857, The Atlantic features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. Read More

A reimagined space at the Peabody Library will provide student, faculty and staff groups on campus a serene setting in which to meditate, reflect and practice mindfulness. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have announced an open access agreement with Springer Nature, a global leader in research publishing. The agreement, the first of its kind in North America, enables Vanderbilt-affiliated authors to maximize the dissemination and citations of their research without incurring article processing charges when publishing in Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, and 38 other Nature hybrid journals that are part of the publisher’s portfolio. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have announced a read-and-publish pilot agreement with the JAMA Network, a collection of peer-reviewed medical journals published by the American Medical Association. This open access agreement, the first of its kind for the JAMA Network in North America, enables Vanderbilt-affiliated authors to maximize the discoverability, readership and citations of their research without incurring article processing charges in most JAMA Network publications. Read More

As MNPS works to address low literacy rates among its students, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have stepped forward to partner on novel solutions. Some of those solutions have included having Vanderbilt students serve as library ambassadors in Metro schools and bringing in community partners—like independent booksellers Parnassus Books and Book’em—to help. Read More

Subscriptions to Bloomberg.com, a leading source for international business, financial and economic news, are now available free of charge for Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff courtesy of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More