Jean And Alexander Heard Libraries

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

Vanderbilt University will host an acclaimed multimedia art exhibit celebrating more than 100 years of influential Black writers—from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights era—at several campus locations this spring.  Read More

The agreement, signed by university and Canadian officials during a Dec. 3 ceremony at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives, marks the second five-year collaboration between the two organizations and reaffirms their shared commitment to advancing academic collaboration and fostering innovative research. The new collaboration establishes the Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chair at Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science, with the recipients working closely with the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries.  Read More

From integrating literacy into music education to empowering teens to lead a more balanced digital life, seven innovative projects have been awarded funding through the fall 2024 cycle of the Community Engagement Collaboration Fund. Faculty and staff from 11 of Vanderbilt’s schools, departments and centers have joined forces with local nonprofits, schools and other community stakeholders to bring these initiatives to life.   Read More

A three-year read-and-publish agreement between Oxford University Press and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries is elevating the visibility and impact of Vanderbilt University research by expanding access to OUP’s broad portfolio of academic journals. Under the agreement, which is effective through 2026, Vanderbilt-affiliated authors can publish open access in hundreds of OUP’s hybrid journals without incurring article processing charges. Read More

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., a global media company that publishes more than 100 peer-reviewed academic journals, today announced a three-year read-and-publish agreement with Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Effective from 2025 through 2027, the open access agreement is the first of its kind that Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. has signed with a North American institution and will enable Vanderbilt-affiliated authors to maximize the discoverability, readership and citations for their research without incurring article processing charges. Articles submitted by Vanderbilt authors Jan. 1, 2025, or later will be eligible. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries will celebrate 2024 Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day with a series of events Nov. 18–21—including hands-on workshops, exhibits and discussions of rare maps, and a campus scavenger hunt—highlighting the significance and artistry of historical maps and map making. Read More

Walter Isaacson, the acclaimed author of the biographies Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and professor of history at Tulane, will speak at Vanderbilt University on Thursday, Dec. 5, in conversation with John M. Seigenthaler, former news anchor and correspondent for NBC and MSNBC. The discussion will range from mis/disinformation to the art of historical biography to Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Elon Musk.  Read More

Since her appointment last September as the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ first curator of community histories, Sarah Calise has been steadily expanding Vanderbilt’s LGBTQ+ collections. The process has been equal parts nuts-and-bolts archival work—assessing, collecting, organizing and preserving historical items that document the LGBTQ+ experience in Nashville and Middle Tennessee—and dedicated relationship building. Read More

Vanderbilt University secured four National Endowment for the Humanities grants totaling $330,696 to support projects ranging from Yiddish literature to the preservation of Special Collections. The grants highlight Vanderbilt’s leadership in humanities research and were facilitated by the university’s Research Development and Support team. Read More

Roschke, a renowned expert in media literacy and misinformation, has been named the inaugural executive director of the McGee Applied Research Center for Narrative Studies at Vanderbilt University beginning Oct. 15. Roschke will also hold a faculty appointment in the Program in Communication of Science and Technology in the College of Arts and Science. Read More

A new exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries celebrates the rich world and colorful characters created by popular 20th-century British writer P.G. Wodehouse. “Blandings, Jeeves, and Psmith: The Worlds of P.G. Wodehouse,” curated by Special Collections and University Archives, commemorates the formal dedication of the P.G. Wodehouse Collection at Vanderbilt University. The exhibit is in the fourth-floor lobby of Central Library in wall cases stretching from the Reading Room to Suzie’s Food for Thought Café. Read More

Studio 608, a creative space located in the Central Library, provides Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff with opportunities to explore new modes of narrative storytelling through audio. The state-of-the-art studio can be used to record interviews, conversations, panel discussions and other formats that capture the diverse perspectives and experiences of the university community. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries announce the 2024–25 McCord Graduate Library Fellowship, an opportunity to work under the mentorship of Vanderbilt professional librarians or archivists. The fellowship is designed to enhance the learning experience for graduate and professional students, providing a unique opportunity to engage in inquiry-based and experiential learning related to a variety of topics in libraries and the information sciences. Read More

Embarking on a new research project often brings unexpected discoveries—some intriguing, some novel, but rarely a find of a lifetime. Such a remarkable discovery occurred when university archivist and associate director Kathy Smith stumbled upon a pile of plaster, hidden away for 60 years in a dim, cluttered closet of the Branscomb Quad basement. This plaster turned out to be the long-lost Crampton’s Plesiosaur Cast from the 1870s, missing for nearly six decades. Read More