The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries made exceptional progress in expanding our reach and impact this past academic year. Guided by a strategic plan with Discovery Vanderbilt serving as our North Star and in alignment with the university’s overarching goals, we further expanded our role as a crucial
University Librarian Jon Shaw welcomed guests to Special Collections and University Archives in June for the announcement of a new partnership between Vanderbilt University and the Québec government. Photo by Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt University.
hub for research on campus, providing indispensable resources for faculty and fostering innovative collaborations that significantly advance institutional endeavors. We amplified student learning through targeted classroom instruction, immersive experiences, contemplative spaces, and thought-provoking events that together empower our young scholars to excel and thrive.
Beyond campus, our efforts saw exciting results in newly formed external partnerships that extended our engagement to communities and organizations on local, regional and global scales. These partnerships have afforded opportunities for academic and cultural exchange while strengthening our ability to preserve the world’s heritage and disseminate knowledge far and wide.
Integral to all these initiatives is our systemwide assessment program, which allows us to measure outcomes and ensure that we are serving the Vanderbilt community as effectively as possible. This report demonstrates this analytics-driven, evidence-based approach and establishes a baseline for us to evaluate ourselves against in the year ahead. In subsequent reports, we will assess our progress toward strategic goals that extend our impact even further, from developing our users’ data literacy skills and embedding librarians at critical points in the research lifecycle, to improving our physical and virtual spaces and proactively engaging with our community on campus and our partners beyond it.
We look forward to sharing these updates and remain grateful for the university’s ongoing support.
University Librarian
Measuring Our Outcomes
DATABASE USAGE
Compared to our peer institutions, we have maximized our database usage—leading the way with nearly 30 percent more interactions than Princeton in second place—while keeping our collections expenditures among the lowest. The datasets shown are courtesy of the Association of Research Libraries’ latest available survey results.
ACCESS TO OUR COLLECTIONS
The Rev. James M. Lawson Papers, which were fully digitized and made available to the public in December 2023, demonstrate the international reach of our distinctive collections. To date, there have been 16,698 item requests from 132 countries, making it the most accessed collection in our JSTOR digital library this spring, as scholars from around the globe learn about the esteemed civil rights leader’s life and legacy. Find out more about the Lawson Papers under Telling Our Stories below.
RESEARCH CONSULTATIONS
The Heard Libraries provided nearly 13,000 consultations this past year in support of the university’s academic enterprise, from teaching students to map potential toxins in groundwater and capture 3D images of rare artifacts to instructing students on responsible uses of AI technology. The consultations ranged from appointments, such as with Special Collections and the Digital Lab, to assistance with database searches, systematic reviews, curriculum design, and GIS software applications, among many other examples.
SPACE USAGE
We welcomed 1,153,441 visitors to our libraries this past year, a 9 percent increase compared to the previous year. This increase is the result of ongoing efforts to maximize usage of our spaces, from creating more inviting study areas and classrooms to hosting a variety of engaging events and exhibitions.
INFORMATION RESOURCE INTERACTIONS
We offer consistent and comprehensive support to students and faculty throughout the academic year in our role as an information resource hub and center for collaboration and contemplative study. Here, our impact is shown in three key areas of interaction: classroom instruction, online research guide views, and visits to our physical spaces.
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Our Impact Across Campus
“Information, and access to it, are critical to the success of graduate students in biomedical engineering. The Science and Engineering Library staff have brought an ever-evolving level of information expertise that has proven invaluable to the graduate students in the departmental professional development course. At the end of the semester, many students have commented in their course evaluations on the utility and high impact of these lectures.”
—Rick Haselton, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering
“Since 2020, [Librarian for Geospatial Data and Systems] Stacy Curry-Johnson has been supporting the work of undergraduates and high school students from the Vanderbilt School of Science and Math who are on our Grundy County Environmental Justice Project. Each year she helped students map potential toxins and create storyboards, and this year we added a timelapse feature related to reporting violations. I could go on and on about the value that Stacy contributed.”
—Brooke Ackerly, Professor of Political Science, College of Arts and Science
“When we launched the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab in late 2023, the Law Library was our single greatest collaborator in getting new courses and programming off the ground quickly. By proactively preparing faculty through workshops, bringing in the latest technology resources, and introducing new courses like AI in Law Practice, library staff made critical contributions that continue to make VAILL’s innovative work possible.”
—Caitlin Moon, Lecturer in Law, Law School
“The HOD capstone teaching team and students are incredibly grateful for the invaluable assistance and support provided by our librarians, Jennifer Castle and David Golann, for the Map the Systems research process and project development. Their expertise in navigating complex research databases and identifying relevant resources significantly enhances student engagement with and understanding of the unique subject matter.”
—Kristen Tompkins, Senior Lecturer in Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College
“The Owen librarians have exceeded the expectations of faculty and students in their support of the learning objectives of Accelerator. They have prepared research guides for the three projects, taught a class about how to use library resources, set up office hours to answer student questions, graded bibliographies, and created a highly coveted award for the team with the best research. They have done all this with joy in their hearts and love for the students.”
—Cherrie Wilkerson, Associate Dean for Young Professional Programs, Owen Graduate School of Management
“The libraries have played a pivotal role in further developing Vanderbilt’s Play Nicely program, a free multimedia program that helps educate parents about healthy discipline strategies. [Digital Lab Director of Projects and Partnerships] Cazembe Kennedy has done an incredible job coordinating the development of the updated version in multiple languages. Because of work by Cazembe and others at the libraries, any English-, Spanish-, or Arabic-speaking parent with internet access can efficiently learn how to address early childhood aggression.”
—Dr. Seth Scholer, Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
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Telling Our Stories
Our work at the Heard Libraries is framed by four strategic objectives:
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Bolster faculty research and deepen engagement with student experiential learning.
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Integrate knowledge discovery through our physical and virtual services and staff activities.
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Partner with faculty to make the libraries a locus for interdisciplinary and trans-institutional initiatives.
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Engage locally, regionally, and globally in creating access, disseminating knowledge, and preserving cultural memory.
These objectives are integral to the stories we tell.
A new partnership between the government of Québec and Vanderbilt University will boost opportunities for academic and cultural exchange.
The Heard Libraries have fully digitized the Rev. James M. Lawson Papers, giving scholars a more complete picture of the distinguished activist’s life and legacy.
Embedding librarians at critical points in the research lifecycle is a guiding mission of the Heard Libraries and the focus of the libraries’ Research Engagement Committee.
The Heard Libraries hosted bestselling author and Vanderbilt alumnus James Patterson in April for a wide-ranging conversation moderated by former NBC News anchor John M. Seigenthaler.
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