Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries

Hands-on learning at its best! Read how the Heard Libraries led a recent initiative at Ida B. Wells Elementary that fostered creativity, cultural understanding and STEM skills through the art of quilting.

Want to learn more about the plesiosaur cast and the history of evolutionary studies at Vanderbilt? Visit the new exhibit in Central Library—Celebrating 150 Years of Evolution at Vanderbilt—now on view in the second-floor gallery.

As generative AI tools like ChatGPT are rapidly altering the research landscape, Vanderbilt librarians Alex Carroll and Joshua Borycz are helping students navigate this tricky terrain without undermining their academic integrity and learning. Carroll and Borycz have developed a framework to guide students in responsible AI use, incorporated into their existing information literacy instruction. Learn how their approach led to significant increases in students’ likelihood to use AI tools for research and demonstrated that even brief educational interventions can shape students’ understanding of AI’s capabilities and limitations in this Research Solutions case study. https://lnkd.in/ew6mWVwp

Director for Collection Strategy Julie Glascock is featured in this Charleston Hub blog post on the evolving role of academic librarians, where she discusses the importance of embracing new technologies and the “explosion” of open access content being made available to researchers and the public via transformative agreements. Julie, thanks for leading the charge for the Heard Libraries in this exciting area! https://lnkd.in/eG37f4Aq

Archivist James Thweatt and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ History of Medicine Collections are featured in an inspiring new video from Vanderbilt University Medical Center celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Department of Medicine. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/eMeCVreF

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries' leadership in Open Access is removing financial and structural barriers to the publication of groundbreaking research, writes Vanderbilt University Librarian Jon Shaw in this op-ed for the Association of Research Libraries. A study published in "Nature Cell Biology" by Vanderbilt and University of Texas Southwestern researchers uncovered the existence of biological structures called “blebbisomes,” which act like autonomous communication centers by traveling between cells, relaying signals and performing tasks typically confined within cell boundaries. This discovery redefines our understanding of how cells communicate and holds significant promise for future breakthroughs for cancer diagnostics, immunotherapy, targeted drug delivery and regenerative medicine. “The world was able to engage with this research the moment it was published because Vanderbilt made the article openly accessible,” Shaw writes. “No subscriptions, no paywalls, just science—immediately available to researchers, clinicians, educators and innovators around the world, online at the source, for free.”

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries partnered with the Digital Preservation Coalition to host the inaugural DPC Members Forum and Networking Event in the Americas April 24–25 at Vanderbilt University. Digital preservation professionals from the Southeast and across the globe convened in Nashville to build their professional networks and share insights into the challenges of digital preservation at their institutions.  https://lnkd.in/ediBVvBe

Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries hosted talks by two international scholars of Jewish history and culture on April 10. Markus Krah, executive director of the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin, and Caroline Jessen, research associate at the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture in Leipzig, Germany, discussed the life and legacy of German-Jewish philanthropist and publisher Salman Schocken. https://lnkd.in/edAHEdsP

Join the Heard Libraries on April 10 for Giving Day during I⚓ VU Week! Your gift can help provide students with greater access to education, fund new ideas and innovations, and strengthen the bonds that unite us all. Let’s #DareToGrow and empower the next generation. #VU4Life https://lnkd.in/g35_kjww

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries welcomed UC San Diego professor Sara E. Johnson for Vanderbilt’s 18th annual Black Atlantic Speaker Series lecture on Feb. 27. She gave a fascinating talk about the life and writings of Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, an influential 18th- and early 19th-century lawyer and French politician best known for his publications on Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti) and Martinique. Johnson spent nearly a decade researching her acclaimed book, “Encyclopédie noire: The Making of Moreau de Saint-Méry’s Intellectual World,” published by The University of North Carolina Press. The Black Atlantic Speaker Series was launched in 2007 by Jane Landers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of British abolition. Since then, the series has hosted leading figures in the fields of history, literature, slavery studies and the digital humanities to speak at Vanderbilt during Black History Month, often at the Heard Libraries. Landers also directs the Slave Societies Digital Archive, which is housed at the libraries. Pictured (left to right): Jane Landers, Sara E. Johnson and University Librarian Jon Shaw.