Jon Shaw

Friends and supporters of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries gathered Sept. 30 to mark the tenure of Jon Shaw as dean of libraries and letters and to celebrate the legacy of Connie Vinita Dowell, M.L.S.’79, the Vanderbilt Libraries’ first dean. Read More

The 2026 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, will connect celebrated authors from wide-ranging genres with a vast community that shares their passion for creative expression. Many writers and performers with Vanderbilt ties will be featured at the annual literary festival, which returns to the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Tennessee State Museum, and Tennessee State Library and Archives Oct. 17–18. Admission is free. Read More

The complete papers of pioneering Colombian intellectual and cultural activist Manuel Zapata Olivella are now available to the public, and access has been expanded to the papers of his sister, master dancer and folklorist Delia Zapata Olivella, thanks to archival efforts by Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives. These materials give students, scholars and historians a more complete picture of the distinguished siblings’ lives and legacies. Read More

While digital technology may be a useful, enjoyable and integral part of campus life, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are inviting Vanderbilt community members to reconsider their relationship with screens this academic year, especially during their down time. The Heard Libraries, in collaboration with key university partners, are making 2026–27 the Year to Unplug—a sustained, institution-wide effort to cultivate a campus culture of reading, reflection and community. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries will celebrate the conversations that arise from books, reading and the exchange of ideas when they host a series of talks on Vanderbilt University’s campus this fall featuring prominent authors. The Vanderbilt Libraries’ author series will be held in collaboration with Parnassus Books and Dialogue Vanderbilt. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have launched a new web platform and improved database for the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, one of the most extensive and complete archives of television news in the world. The new system includes enhancements to the archive’s search capabilities, the option to browse by date, automatic delivery of loaned materials, single sign-on for Vanderbilt and sponsoring institutions, and more. Read More

Students from the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS, represented Vanderbilt University through technical demonstrations, professional networking, and award-winning innovation at the 2026 AWS Summit Washington, D.C. Read More

Vanderbilt University Librarian Jon Shaw, who has led the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries since 2022, has been reappointed for a five-year term and named dean of libraries and letters, effective July 1. Shaw is the inaugural Connie Vinita Dowell University Librarian, thanks to generous support from Dowell, M.L.S.’79, Vanderbilt’s first dean of libraries, and her husband, Stephen P. Miller. Their gift, made during Vanderbilt’s Dare to Grow campaign, reflects the couple’s ongoing commitment to the Heard Libraries and strengthens philanthropic momentum for the library dean’s role and strategic priorities.  Read More

The world’s preeminent scholars of early American history convened at Vanderbilt University June 11–13 for the Omohundro Institute’s 29th annual conference, hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. This premier gathering for historians and researchers who focus on American history through the early 19th century featured cutting-edge research, panels and workshops covering “Vast Early America”—that is, North America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic world. Read More

The collaboration reflects a shared commitment to advancing respectful, community-engaged research and supporting Indigenous knowledge preservation. Read More

Library professionals from across North America came together at Vanderbilt University May 27–29 for the 2026 Southern Library Support Staff Conference. This annual gathering, hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, is designed to offer all levels of staff at academic, public, school and special libraries an opportunity to learn, teach, share and develop connections with others in their field. Read More

Vanderbilt University computer science students have developed an accurate, reliable and cost-effective solution for segmenting and labeling television news broadcasts, making them more discoverable and accessible to researchers. This new tool, the first created through the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS, uses artificial intelligence to improve upon manual processes and may reduce costs up to 80 percent. Read More

In an age defined by information overload, viral narratives, and deepening political divides, Vanderbilt University’s McGee Applied Research Center for Narrative Studies is positioning itself at the forefront of media literacy education. Read More

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has announced a new collaboration with Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries that will provide digital preservation support for the world’s largest open-access repository of natural history materials. Through the agreement, the Heard Libraries will contribute cloud infrastructure expertise and technical leadership for BHL, which serves as a foundational resource for biodiversity science, taxonomy and conservation research, with more than 63 million pages dating from the 15th to the 21st century. Read More

Among the artifacts librarian Mary McSparran selected from Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives for a pop-up exhibit last fall were a NASA space suit and a journal listing books about UFOs. Neither would seem a likely choice for a literary salon, where the exhibit was on display, but this was no ordinary discussion of writers and their works. The gathering was part of a growing collaboration between Special Collections staff and Vanderbilt faculty, in which the curators and archivists play an active role in teaching by offering students access to unique materials that bring their coursework to life. Read More

The collected papers of celebrated humorist Roy Blount Jr. are now housed at Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Blount, a 1963 graduate of Vanderbilt, donated the collection in late 2024. 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

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 Faculty Senate will meet on Thursday, Sept. 18, from 4:10 to 5:30 p.m. in the Faculty Commons. The meeting will include a vote to possibly change rules of order regarding the Faculty Life and DEI standing committees. 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