The children of a disabled miner stand in the doorway of their home in this photo used by President Lyndon Johnson to publicize his War on Poverty program.

Procter Reagan and his son Terry stand outside their home in the Dogwalk community in Fentress County, Tenn. He is staring at two reporters who have just walked up the hill with his son Charles, who had been held in a Nashville jail for months without charges.

Unforgettable images of coal miners and their families in Appalachia have been donated by award-winning photojournalist Jack Corn to Vanderbilt’s Special Collections, bolstering the libraries’ collected works of journalists and providing a vivid historical reference for this important social era.

Corn’s works helped explain the lives of the Appalachian people to the rest of the country before the era of the Internet. His image of three children on the porch of a dilapidated home became the face of President Johnson’s War on Poverty, helping Americans see the people behind the severe poverty and desolation that plagued the region.

“This is an important chapter in history, and people ought to know about it,” Corn said. “Donating these photographs to the Vanderbilt Library is the right thing to do. I want people to understand this small niche of history.”

Albert “Ab” Newberry with his two sons Albert Ray and Bobby in Crawford, Tenn., by noted photojournalist Jack Corn.

With a framed portrait of John F. Kennedy at his side, Ed Marlowe, paralyzed from a roof fall in a coal mine, gazes out his window to see who is approaching the house.

“Jack’s photographs document an important part of the nation’s history, a part that many would like to sweep under the rug,” said Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell. “His collection will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, sociologists and art historians.”

“Jack Corn’s exceptional talents and insights bring to light the lives of those miners whose hard work heated our homes, even while their families paid a terrible price,” Provost Richard McCarty said. “These dramatic images tell the story more clearly than any text I could imagine.”

Children made do with what they had for playground games. Outside the one-room Buffalo School, Shirley King plays “jump stick” as Wayne Overton holds the branch.

Coal miners in Wise, Va., head into the elevator at shift change. Each carries a federally mandated water jug and a lunch pail.

Corn’s photography career began at The Tennessean, his hometown paper, where he rose to chief photographer and worked with John Seigenthaler and Jim Squires. Corn later became director of photography for the Chicago Tribune and then photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University.

“As a journalist, I teamed with Jack Corn on many assignments and came to understand his unique ability to capture—in a flash with a single photograph—the essence of a human interest story that I had struggled to write,” said Seigenthaler, chairman emeritus of The Tennessean and founder of the First Amendment Center. “So often, the written word seemed wasted beside Corn’s work. Viewers of this collection will see art that bespeaks joy, pain, anger, elation, dejection, faith—and so much more. His photographs now enrich the life of the Vanderbilt library as they once enriched the newspapers in which they were published.”

Corn began documenting life in Appalachia through newspaper assignments and then on his own. In 1973, he participated in Documerica, a monumental photodocumentary project to record changes in the American environment. For the project, Corn focused his lens on the plight of the American coal miner. He later wrote, “I submitted a plan to photograph the effects of coal mining on both the environment and the people who mined the coal.”

Assisting in curating the Corn exhibit was senior Emily Cook, the library’s first Heard Fellow. The fellowship program is for seniors and graduate students interested in participating in strategic library projects, and it is one of the important ways that the library reaches out to students for input.

Renovated with students in mind, the Central Library earned top marks as a “best study spot” in a recent Vanderbilt Hustler article.

Student input was an essential component in developing future plans for the university’s library system, including Central Library’s major renovation in 2010. That input was reflected in a recent Vanderbilt Hustler article published just before final exams on the best study spots in the campus library system.

Central Library was rated No. 1 for its wide variety of spaces. The fourth, sixth and eighth floors offer large areas for studying, and alcoves tucked under stairwells offer quiet spaces. The new Food for Thought café is also popular, providing a boost of caffeine and sandwiches during study sessions.

“The libraries, particularly Central, are now viewed as destinations for studying, gathering and learning outside the classroom,” Student Body President Adam Myer says. “Every student, regardless of study habits and preferences, is able to find his or her ideal study spot. Whether students want to hide away in the stacks or have a group study in one of the rooms, these spaces assist us in more ways than words can describe.”

The Peabody Library, with its proximity to the first-year residence halls of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt, is a popular spot for freshman. With open space on the first floor and the reading room in the basement, Peabody works well for studying with large groups or just in teams of two.

The Biomedical and Science and Engineering libraries were cited as great spaces to be productive. The article notes that the Biomedical library provides a good atmosphere to get down to work, while the 24/7 aspect of Science and Engineering appeals to late-night workers.

The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library at the Blair School of Music was noted for being quiet and comfortable. A bit off the beaten track, it offers solitude for students. Access to the library’s extensive CD collection was also noted as a plus.

A senior faculty member in the Divinity School who has spent a lifetime adding to the scholarly record has given his working collection to Vanderbilt University.

Jack M. Sasson, the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible, has donated a large part of his personal library to the Divinity Library. Sasson’s collection reflects more than 50 years of scholarship in Assyriology and Hebrew scripture, as well as his extensive editorial work on a number of scholarly journals and reference tools. Sasson was editor-in-chief of Scribner’s award-winning multivolume Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (1995) and authored commentaries on Ruth and Jonah, the latter for the Anchor Bible. The highly productive scholar is a frequent lecturer at conferences and museums.

Sasson’s collection includes more than 2,600 volumes with titles dating from as early as 1801 and as recently as 2011. Among the volumes are works such as C.H.W. Johns’ An Assyrian Doomsday Book, or Liber Censualis of the District Round Ḫarran, a 1901 publication found in only 15 libraries worldwide. “The collection represents significant resources in the areas of Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East that will be of interest to scholars around the country,” said James Hudnut-Beumler, dean of the Divinity School and Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History. “Vanderbilt scholars will be fortunate to have these materials at close hand.”

Hurst was the first full-time music writer for The Tennessean, the first Nashville contributing editor for Country Music Magazine and originated the country music beats at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune. In 1981, the Maryville, Tenn., native was the first recipient of the Country Music Association media achievement award. In 2001, he won Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism in the category of lifetime achievement. His twice-weekly country music column was syndicated nationally for more than two decades, and he has written several books on country music.

Special Collections rendering

The results of a summer-long renovation of Special Collections will be a boon for researchers from Vanderbilt and beyond. With more study space, a welcoming entrance and better light, exploring the university’s treasure trove of collections will be a vastly improved experience.

“As secondary material becomes available online, the libraries’ archival collections become increasingly important to scholars,” Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell said. “There is no substitute for holding a 15th century book of hours or a signed first edition of Ulysses in your hands to fully understand the author’s intention. We are thrilled to be able to share these rich sources of firsthand experience, the first draft of history, with the scholarly community in a renewed facility that protects and promotes them.”

Each year, Special Collections supplies primary resource material to a variety of local, national and international scholars. Vanderbilt’s collections contain strengths in journalism and news reporting, politics, literature, performing arts and Latin American collections.

“By drawing acclaimed scholars to Special Collections, we raise awareness of these vital resources and bring Vanderbilt further into the national discussion,” Dowell added.

The project, along the 21st Avenue side of the second floor, will enlarge the research space by relocating offices and repurposing existing square footage. Raised ceilings and pendant lighting will provide a more comfortable environment. Significant display areas for exhibits will be added, complementing the display spaces added during the 2010 renovation.

“Primary source materials—the unique and rare letters, photographs, prints and ephemera that Special Collections preserves and makes accessible—give students the means to develop critical thinking skills and create new scholarship,” said Bill Hook, library associate dean and one of the two project managers for the renovation. “The university understood this in 1941 when they called the original Special Collections ‘The Treasure Room.’”

Special Collections has a depth and richness that attracts scholars nationally and internationally but increasingly Vanderbilt’s faculty are featuring its materials in their classes. “Now these treasures—from Delbert Mann’s annotated script of the Oscar-winning film Marty to letters from Patsy Cline and a reporter’s notes from the Watergate hearings—will be housed in beautiful and usable spaces which will invite students to explore the magical stories of those who made history,” Dowell said. “Thanks to our library’s generous donors, our visitors will find welcoming spaces and along with that, inspiration.”

At Vanderbilt Law School, Larry R. Reeves is now the associate dean and director of the Alyne Queener Massey Law Library and associate dean, law, of the Vanderbilt University Libraries. He was also appointed associate professor of law. Nancy Godleski is the new assistant dean for collections, responsible for coordinating collection development activities for eight campus libraries as well as directing activities for the library’s off-campus storage facility (annex) and interlibrary loan/document delivery service.

Reeves

“Larry Reeves brings an impressive amount of administrative and teaching experience to Vanderbilt,” said Chris Guthrie, dean of the Law School.

“I look forward to the contributions he will make to Vanderbilt’s Massey Law Library and to our J.D. and LL.M. programs.”

Reeves had been the associate director of the George Mason University Law Library in Arlington, Va. He earned his law degree at Temple University, his master’s at Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science and his bachelor’s from the University of Oklahoma.

Before joining George Mason’s law library, he was a reference librarian, coordinator of first-year legal research, and an adjunct associate professor of law at Fordham Law School in New York, where he developed and taught a required first-year course, Basic Legal Research, trained other librarians to teach the course, and taught Advanced Legal Research. He has also served as a reference librarian in the law libraries of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn, N.Y. He served on an advisory board for the program in Law Librarianship at the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science.

“We are fortunate to attract leaders like Nancy and Larry, who bring such diverse and successful experience to our already strong leadership team.

I know that they will guide our libraries to new achievements,” Dowell said.

Godleski

Godleski began her library career at Vanderbilt in 1994, spending two years as a history bibliographer and reference librarian. Most recently, she was an account executive with ProQuest Government Information Services (formerly LexisNexis Library Research Solutions). Prior to that, Godleski was the Kaplanoff Librarian for American History and American Studies at the Yale University Library. She holds master’s degrees in library science and history from Indiana University-Bloomington and earned her bachelor’s from Hanover College.

Also, three leaders in the dean’s administrative group have assumed new responsibilities. Jody Combs, formerly assistant dean for information technology, has been promoted to associate dean of libraries. He manages the newly reorganized Library Digital Services group, including the Television News Archive and OAK. Combs is also involved in strategic initiatives.

Bill Hook, formerly assistant dean, is now associate dean. He is the interim director of Central Library and continues as the director of the Divinity Library. Six of the eight libraries in the Heard System—Central, Divinity, Management, Music, Peabody, and Science and Engineering—report through him.

Jean T. Klockenkemper has been named executive director of finance and administration for the libraries. She joined the library as director of financial affairs in 2010, and in her new role she will add oversight of human resources and physical facilities to her areas of responsibility.

Vanderbilt University’s Central Library has been awarded a gold certification for its environmentally friendly 2010 renovation from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

The recognition makes the Central Library the first Vanderbilt campus renovation to achieve this high honor. Vanderbilt University has a total of 12 LEED-certified buildings.

“We are thrilled that the renovation exceeded our initial sustainability goals and the recognition speaks to the dedication and commitment of the entire planning team,” said Connie Vinita Dowell, dean of libraries at Vanderbilt.

The library’s Green Team paired with its renovation partners to host a celebration in March. Participating groups included the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Management, Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility (SPEAR), Vanderbilt Student Government and university architects.

“One of the most sustainable aspects of the renovation was the restoration of the building to its original grandeur while meeting the needs of today’s students,” said Keith Loiseau, university architect. More than 30,000 square feet were renovated on four floors of the 70-year-old library building. Goals included making the space more attractive and inviting to library users while addressing the needs of students in the 21st century. The improvements included bright and spacious study areas, refurbished grand reading rooms, new classrooms, a café, galleries with interactive exhibits and a large multipurpose space suited for community events. The $6 million renovation was designed by Nashville architects Gilbert McLaughlin Casella.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally recognized benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED certification signifies that a building is environmentally responsible and a healthy place to live and work.

As part of its LEED-Gold certification, the renovation achieved credits for installation of an Encelium lighting system that is 30 percent more efficient; recycling of 75 to 80 percent of demolition waste; placement of recycling containers in 25 locations throughout the building; installation of dual-flush/low-flow toilets, low-flow faucet fixtures and a high-efficiency variable flow refrigerant HVAC mechanical system; and using recycled content in 10 percent of the new furniture and furnishings.

The campus celebrated the award on March 29 with tours of the building’s green enhancements and cake on the library lawn patio.

Bill Christie, the Frances Hampton Currey Professor of Finance and professor of law, donated printing plates from The Wall Street Journal’s Sept. 12, 2001, edition to Special Collections.

It is amazing that The Wall Street Journal was published the day after 9/11 at all. Its newsroom and corporate headquarters were directly across the street from the devastated World Trade Center, and the newspaper’s staff was evacuated after the first plane crashed into the north tower on Sept. 11, 2001. They were left to improvise reporting on one of this country’s most tragic moments.

Christie

The incredible efforts of those reporters and editors are now part of Vanderbilt Special Collections with William Christie’s donation of printing plates from the Sept. 12, 2001, edition. They were on display at the Central Library during the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.

“These remarkable printing plates give us a firsthand look at how the country came to grips with the terrible tragedy of 9/11. Their value for the library’s Special Collections is significant as historical icons and as records of the related story of news reporting that is a strength of the collections,” said Connie Vinita Dowell, dean of libraries.

A sales representative from The Wall Street Journal gave the plates to Christie, who at the time was dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management. Christie, now the Frances Hampton Currey Professor of Finance and professor of law, had remarked how impressed he was that the Journal’s staff was able to publish the Sept. 12 edition despite great challenges.

“I was thrilled and amazed to see the actual plates that were used to roll the paper off the press. It was phenomenal and I was incredibly honored to receive them,” he said. “As the anniversary of 9/11 approached, I thought they probably could have a much higher value than sitting in my office, so I gave them to Vanderbilt Special Collections.”

The Acorn Chronicle is published semi-annually by the Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University. Address inquiries to the library, 419 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203-2427, (615) 322-4782, or by email to acornchronicle@vanderbilt.edu.

The Acorn Chronicle, Spring 2012 © 2012 by Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

Dean of Libraries: Connie Vinita Dowell

Editor: Jan Read

Contributors: Princine Lewis, Ann Marie Deer Owens

Art Director: Donna D. Pritchett

Graphic Designer: Keith A. Wood

Web Edition Design and Development: Christopher D. Craig

Visit us on the Web at library.vanderbilt.edu or vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle

The tradition of collecting and storing written knowledge can be traced back more than 5,000 years, long before Aristotle taught the kings in Egypt how to arrange a library. From the Greek academy to the Age of Enlightenment, the academic library has served as the literal and academic center of the evolving modern university.

But the center is shifting. Libraries have had to change more in the last 20 years than they did in the 200 years prior. To include the expanding universe of digital resources while maintaining and updating physical resources, libraries must rethink how they will continue to be the heartbeat of modern universities.

Watkins

This challenge was the focus of a recent panel discussion for members of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust’s academic programs and student affairs committees. Board of Trust member Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., MD’70, opened the meeting, titled Research Libraries in the Age of Google. “Libraries today are an archive of academic richness, a center for research and a community hub for the university. Today’s libraries have to focus on not losing anything and acquiring a whole set of other things,” he said. “Vanderbilt’s libraries have done a good job adjusting to the electronic revolution, and the board is happy with the present and future of the library.”

Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell then began the discussion of where the library fits into the community in an age of rapidly increasing technology.

“Our collections—online, print and other formats—are still at the core of what we do,” she said. “Teaching our students the skills to be efficient and sophisticated information users in this complex research environment is key to their success at Vanderbilt and beyond. As librarians and scholars, we must be sure our students become intelligent information consumers.”

The panel consisted of Board of Trust member John R. Ingram, MBA’86; Associate Professor Vanessa B. Beasley, BA’88; Professor Marshall C. Eakin; and seniors Zye Hooks and Emily Cook.

Ingram

John R. Ingram:

chairman of Ingram Industries Inc. and Ingram Content Group, serving booksellers, librarians, educators and specialty retailers

“We have to determine what is the smartest way of using both old and new. We’re in a state of continuous transition, and I don’t expect that to stop anytime soon,” Ingram said. “Academic libraries will need to follow the business model of ‘failing quickly,’ … experimenting, fully expecting some of these experiments to fail. We have a forward-thinking dean, so we are building in the expectation of experimentation.

“To stay relevant, you have to anticipate needs before they emerge. In a university setting, it’s the same thing—meeting today’s needs while preparing for tomorrow’s.”

Beasley

Vanessa B. Beasley:

Associate Professor of Communication Studies, focusing on presidential rhetoric, U.S. political communication, and rhetorical criticism and theory

“There’s really only one place, one part of campus, whose only function is to facilitate discovery, and that is the library system. We can’t build new ways of thinking if we don’t understand the old ones,” she said.

“The library is a place and not a place at the same time—where students can go to search and talk to information experts, but also a system for bringing resources to them so they can make new discoveries on their own. The most important thing we can teach our students is the skill of discovering—the ability to know where to look for information and how to make consequential determinations to separate good information from less good information, and even the bad.”

Eakin

Marshall Eakin:

Professor of History, specializing in the history of Latin America and Brazil; faculty director, Ingram Scholarship Program

“As much as technology places the world at my fingertips, and those of my students, the key today is how to navigate this world, how to ask the right questions, to be efficient and effective in searching, to know where and how to look for information, in short—to learn how to learn.”

“I always depend on the incredible expertise of the librarians called subject specialists. They are the ones who have really had to retool, evolve and keep up with the astonishingly rapid technological transformations that have completely changed the nature of research libraries and their facilities. These subject specialist librarians at Vanderbilt have and will continue to guide us and teach us to teach our students how to do our research effectively and efficiently, with physical or digital resources.”

Zye Hooks:

senior in Latin American studies and history, speaker of Vanderbilt Student Government

“During the interview process for an internship at Google, I was asked to name the one accomplishment that I was the most proud of. That was easy—my term paper for history 200w. The topic? The reaction of the conservative Chilean press to the events of the 1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. Many library staff members came to my aid as I spent countless hours reviewing 30-year-old microfilm, perusing 19th century Portuguese travel logs, and reading works regarding Latin American-U.S. relations. My marathon research sessions led me to the paper that I had previously thought impossible, which earned me an A-plus and opened the door to my future—I have a job offer from Google.”

Film legend Fred Astaire is featured in this 1937 shot from “A Discussion in Percussion … on How to Beat the Band” photo series, part of the Francis Robinson Collection of Theatre, Music and Dance in Vanderbilt University’s Special Collections. Come see this and more when the exhibit “Stage and Screen: The Star Quality of Vanderbilt's Performing Arts Collections,” opens August 22 in the Central Library.

Instructional librarians Lee Ann Lannom (left) and Kitty Porter in the Central Library’s fourth-floor classroom.

Libraries are places of research and learning, but teaching is also a core function of a library. As information resources grow, the task of sifting through academic databases to find the best information becomes more difficult. Librarians throughout the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries specialize in research instruction—some even teach full courses—and the libraries now provide special classrooms geared toward teaching.

“I always see myself as a teacher,” says Lee Ann Lannom, librarian at Peabody Library. “Not always in a traditional sense, but always as a teacher.” By teaching a research session for a course, she helps students learn to master the library, familiarizing them with available databases, their specialties and how to search in them.

Lannom is well-suited to her role. “I love the hunt for information,” she says. “I like to look for that needle in a haystack.”

New teaching spaces in the Central Library—part of the recent $6 million renovation—offer librarians and professors the opportunity to meld the library into the classroom. Two dedicated classrooms were added during the renovation on the fourth and eighth floors, and a new conference room is prioritized for instructional use. About 70 sessions have already been held in the new classrooms.

“Classrooms were a key part of my goals with the renovation,” says Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell, “Teaching is one of the most important things we do.”

“We’ve had so much positive feedback on the new classrooms,” says Melinda Brown, instruction coordinator for the libraries. In the new fourth-floor space, desks are easily moved into clusters for group projects or set in traditional rows for lectures. Dual screens and a document camera make it easy to conduct critical examinations of rare source documents. Comfortable chairs, loaner laptops and wireless access allow students real-time opportunities to practice research methods using the library’s more than 300 electronic databases.

Library specialists also write Web-based library guides, or “Libguides,” that direct students to course- or topic-specific resources, services and more.

Kitty Porter has seen a lot of changes in her decades-long career as a librarian. “People didn’t used to do their own searches,” she recalls. “The librarians did the searches for them.” Today, she teaches a popular course for both undergraduate and graduate students focused on the nuances of searching the vast amount of chemical literature available through the Science and Engineering Library and how to best use it.

“It’s important to know where to look and how to look,” she says. “We can help with that.”

One of Vanderbilt’s most well-known graduates, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (BA’62) and his wife, Honey Alexander, have made one of the most important donations in the Jean and Alexander Heard Library’s history by giving their pre-Senate papers to Special Collections.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (BA'62)

The collection contains a wealth of historical documents from Alexander’s political campaigns, his two terms as governor, Honey Alexander’s roles as wife, mother, first lady and advocate for family causes, along with the senator’s correspondence with close friend and author Alex Haley. Papers from Alexander’s tenure as president of the University of Tennessee and U.S. secretary of education are also included.

Sen. Alexander (left) and Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos share a light moment at the September opening of the exhibit.

“Honey and I felt that the archives should reflect the voices of the countless Tennesseans who have worked with us to raise educational standards, attract industry and build confidence among the state’s residents,” Alexander said. “To support this, Vanderbilt’s libraries have already begun an oral history project recording the stories of those who played major roles.”

The collection speaks richly of Alexander’s two terms as governor, which began in 1979 when America was still pulling itself out of the Watergate quagmire and struggling to regain confidence in its political leadership. Alexander’s pre-Senate papers reflect the challenges that Republicans across the country faced during the 1980s along with the opportunities in education and business development that he and other state leaders identified and moved forward.

(above) Nissan CEO Marvin Runyon and Lamar Alexander shake hands as the first Sentra rolls off the production line in March 1985. Alexander was instrumental in drawing both Japanese manufacturing and the auto industry to Tennessee. (top of page) As Tennessee’s governor, Lamar Alexander addresses the crowd at his inauguration in January 1983.

Sen. Alexander relaxes on a porch swing in Henning, Tenn., with author Alex Haley. It was here that Haley first heard the stories that led to his book Roots.

Sen. Alexander demonstrates an interactive display for (counterclockwise from bottom left) Memphis attorney and former Alexander state commissioner Lewis Donelson, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Alexander’s Deputy Chief of Staff and State Director Patrick Jaynes at the exhibit opening.

“Sen. Alexander’s unique set of experiences as governor, U.S. secretary of education, university president and presidential candidate comprise an archive that will be a national treasure mined by scholars for generations,” said Connie Vinita Dowell, dean of libraries. “This is clearly one of Vanderbilt’s most important collections.”

The Acorn Chronicle is published semi-annually by the Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University. Address inquiries to the library, 419 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203-2427, (615) 322-4782, or by email to acornchronicle@vanderbilt.edu.

The Acorn Chronicle, Fall 2011 © 2011 by Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

Dean of Libraries: Connie Vinita Dowell

Editor: Jan Read

Contributors: Nelson Bryan, BA’73; Kathy Smith; Celia S. Walker, MA’85

Art Director: Donna D. Pritchett

Graphic Designer: Keith A. Wood

Web Edition Design and Development: Christopher D. Craig

Visit us on the Web at library.vanderbilt.edu/ or vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle/

Nashville had baseball fever in June 2011 as the Vanderbilt Commodores made their first appearance at the College World Series, going all the way to the semifinals. Pictured here is an 1892 game with Vanderbilt facing Cumberland University in the first game played on what is now called Currey Field. That’s Kirkland Hall, still with its original two towers, in the background.

Repurposed card catalog

Oudoor patio

Knowledge may be food for the soul, but a person still has to eat. Food for Thought, the new café at the Central Library, allows you to nurture both body and soul.

Located on the south end of the library’s fourth floor, the café was added during last year’s extensive renovation of the 70-year-old building.

Last spring, the Vanderbilt community was invited to submit names for the café. A campuswide survey resulted in more than 1,200 responses. The top three choices went to Richard McCarty, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, for the final decision. “Food for Thought” rose to the top.

The library’s wireless network extends out to the new terrace for outside dining. A key design element in the café is the repurposing of Vanderbilt’s original card catalog as a objet d’art dividing the serving and eating areas.

Of special note are the papers of pioneering film and TV director Delbert Mann, BA’41, and the papers of respected Afro-Hispanic author Manuel Zapata Olivella. These and other collections have an impact on teaching, learning and research every day at Vanderbilt.

The papers of Zapata Olivella, who has been called the 20th century’s most important Afro-Hispanic narrator, refocused the dissertation of graduate student John Maddox. “After we read Changó, El Gran Putas (Olivella’s masterwork), in William Luis’ Caribbean literature class, I discovered the library’s collection and designed much of my project around it,” he says. The Heard Library Society funded the acquisition of the papers.

Graduate student John Maddox displays a scrapbook from the Zapata Olivella collection.

Maddox’s dissertation is a literary analysis that examines how contemporary writers use historical fiction to revise written accounts of Africans’ roles in the history of the Americas. His work investigates how these writers used the lack of Latin American slave narratives to transform the ideas behind oral myths into new epics and national histories that reflect the politics of the ’60s and ’70s.

With his work, Maddox hopes to call more attention to Zapata Olivella and other important Latin American authors whom­ he feels deserve much more study from scholars of literature, culture and history. He believes the collection will become an unparalleled resource for researchers around the world.

“You can’t study contemporary Latin American literature, especially Afro-Hispanic literature, without reading Zapata Olivella, and you can’t understand Zapata Olivella’s complete oeuvre without this collection,” he says.

In Professor Richard Blackett’s history workshop, undergraduate students begin to understand primary source research with the opening project—a 25-page biography of a person they research through Special Collections.

“I insist that they use Special Collections to research a specific aspect of someone’s life,” says Blackett, the Andrew Jackson Professor of American History. “I want them to get their fingers soiled, to really feel the research. This is an opportunity to get really seasoned in what historians do. Primary source research like this is the foundation of everything we do in this business.”

His students have enjoyed using the Delbert Mann collection, which was a gift to Vanderbilt from Mann’s sons. “The collection is so expansive that students must carve out a specific idea to research,” he says. “Looking at his Oscar, or his years in the war—there are lots of World War II papers. Doing this helps students learn how to narrow a project so that it’s manageable.”

Blackett believes that the growing Special Collections is a jewel for students and research. “There are lots of little revelations in research; it’s the historian’s job to string the pieces together,” he says. “Special Collections is a wonderful resource, just full of uncovered treasures.”

That doesn’t surprise Carolyn Dever, dean of the College of Arts and Science. “Students benefit from their work in the library just as they do from work in any other laboratory on our campus: to lay their hands on materials, to explore and investigate, gives them a chance to advance their learning experientially,” she said.

Liz Norell says that researching the Alexander Papers was a perfect marriage of research, library skills and politics.

Liz Norell, who received a master’s in political science this year, helped identify items for exhibition from the pre-Senate papers recently donated to Vanderbilt’s Special Collections by U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and his wife, Honey Alexander. (See story) Working with archivists to sort through the 660 cubic feet of materials has provided an entirely new dimension to Norell’s education.

“As a student of American politics, this has been amazing,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to learn about history that’s not been recorded yet.”

Working on the Alexander Papers has also allowed Norell, who also holds a master’s in library science, to see what it would be like to be an academic librarian. She describes her internship as a “perfect marriage” of research, library skills and politics.

“It’s been a terrific process of discovery about the (gubernatorial) campaign,” Norell said. “By reading through the documents, you can watch the campaign’s strategy develop and adapt.”

For Brad Cayer, who graduated in 2010 from the Owen Graduate School of Management, his role as a research assistant through Owen’s Walker Library opened up bigger doors for him—helping to research a book for then-Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Cayer was working as a research coach for undergraduate students in Owen’s summer Accelerator program while working toward his MBA in health care there. “I helped the students learn to find information quickly and effectively, and also learn to look at it with a critical eye,” he said.

His success as a research coach led to an opportunity to work as a researcher on Bredesen’s book about health care. Fresh Medicine: How to Fix Reform and Build a Sustainable Health Care System was released in the fall of 2010 as a response to the landmark health care bill that Congress passed earlier that year.

“This project took what I was learning in my MBA program and combined it with research at a very high level,” Cayer said. “The team would meet weekly to go over everyone’s research, and then we’d go out and do more research. We were focusing on the implications of the new health care policy.”

He credits his work as a research coach at Owen’s Walker Library for giving him the ability and opportunity to work on the Bredesen assignment. “Anything I know about research I know because of the folks at the Walker Library,” he says. “I was able to really focus on critical thinking—looking at sources, source bias, all those elements that give a source integrity. This project gave me real-world experience.”

Leslie R. Boone, MA’76 (left), and Jim Harris, JD’67, the incoming Blair KeyBoard chairman, talk with Library Dean Connie Vinita Dowell at the Music Library’s anniversary party.

The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library at the Blair School of Music celebrated its 25th anniversary on the Vanderbilt campus with an afternoon reception this spring. Nearly 150 attendees enjoyed the event, which marked the rollout of the Blair Performance Archive (BPA).

“The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library has always been at the heart of the Blair School, both in a physical sense—it’s at the very center of our building—and, more importantly, in an intellectual and cultural sense,” Blair Dean Mark Wait said. “It has a superb collection of music in many formats and also reflects the global thrust of music today in its rich array of African and Latin American holdings.  It’s a jewel, a joy to visit and work in.”

Holling Smith-Borne, director of the Music Library, explains that the BPA documents the performance history of Blair. “It’s a digital library that allows the study of performances at Blair,” he said.

The BPA is a searchable database and includes scans of original programs and streaming audio files of the Blair and Peabody recording masters in the library’s archives. The Music Library also produces the Global Music Archive, a streaming audio database with nearly 2,000 recordings available.

No matter how you define community, the new community room in the Central Library fits the bill. Open since January, it has already hosted thousands of people for lectures, receptions and meetings.

Highlights from its first months include a speech by former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder and a panel discussion with three Vanderbilt alumni who have authored books focused on the civil rights movement. John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, chairman emeritus of The Tennessean and host of Nashville Public Television’s A Word on Words, moderated the panel.

Seigenthaler

“Traditionally, libraries have been magnets that draw people from all segments of the community for research and reading, of course, but for literary discourse and dialogue as well,” said Seigenthaler, who served in the early 1960s as an administrative assistant to then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and acted as the chief negotiator with the governor of Alabama. “I envision that the community room at the library will be that sort of magnet and will attract people from all over the Nashville area who will reflect the remarkable diversity of our region.”

A Board of Trust committee meeting met in the community room ­­this fall. Last spring, the boards of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries and the Vanderbilt Alumni Association met in Vanderbilt’s libraries for the first time.

“What a great space,” said James Stofan, associate vice chancellor for alumni relations. “The acoustics of the community room are outstanding, the technology available is of the highest quality and the space itself allows for outside light. The ambience was perfect for our business meeting as well as for our reception at the end of the day.”

­“In the community that is Vanderbilt and Nashville, we need more places to come together to learn and exchange ideas,” said Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell. “I want our students to hear the voices of poets and authors in their libraries and for our staff to host the nation’s library leaders so we can become even better at what we do. We are so grateful to now be able to co-sponsor lectures and events with colleagues across campus.”

Zome winners Ilham Eli and Hana Nasr work on their Eight-Stranded Beta-Barrel during the competition.

The fourth annual Zome Competition is in the books and Vanderbilt’s winner is—the Eight-Stranded Beta-Barrel. Say what? The Zome competition, sponsored by the Science and Engineering Library in conjunction with National Engineers Week, attracted 14 teams of students competing to create and explain a design created from Zometools.

The competition winners were Ilham Eli, who is working toward a bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology, and Hana Nasr, who earned a bachelor’s in neuroscience in May.

Tracy Primich, director of the Science and Engineering Library, brought the competition to Vanderbilt. She wanted the library to be a part of the week’s activities at Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering.

She explains Zometools as elaborate Tinkertoys. “You can build things in a variety of ways with many more angles,” she added. The Zome system utilizes struts and connectors of various shapes to construct objects and is used to help teach algebra, scale, number sense, symmetry, proportion, geometry, DNA structure, trigonometry and more.

The teams used their combined engineering skills to create their design. The rules allowed “machines, molecules, organisms, devices or abstract concepts” as designs. Each team had four hours to build their design with a predetermined number of Zome sticks and connectors and deliver a written explanation for their creation. Entries were judged on creativity, originality, usefulness, and non-obviousness of the design created.

Recent gifts to the Vanderbilt University Special Collections include the papers of television broadcasting pioneer Tippy Stringer Huntley Conrad and Thomas Wolfe items from alumnus Dr. Frank C. Wilson, BA’50. (Left) Shows Tippy Huntley with husband Chet Huntley preparing for the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. (Right) Are two of the many items recently donated as part of the Wilson Thomas Wolfe Book Collection. A 1947 edition of Look Homeward, Angel and an April 1958 Theatre Arts Magazine are among the hundreds of Wolfe items that Wilson gave to the library in 2010. The collection contains first editions and ephemeral materials about Wolfe and Southern literature, adding to the sizeable holdings in Special Collections.

Recent gifts to the Vanderbilt University Special Collections include the papers of television broadcasting pioneer Tippy Stringer Huntley Conrad and Thomas Wolfe items from alumnus Dr. Frank C. Wilson, BA’50.

Library supporters celebrated the opening of the Central Library’s $6 million renovation at a May reception. (Left) Former Board of Trust Chairman Martha Rivers Ingram talks with Brigette and Dick Porter, BA’54, MA’58, professor, emeritus, of Slavic languages and literatures. (Right) State Historian Walter T. Durham, BA’48, MA’56, Provost Richard McCarty and Emeritus Board of Trust member Ridley Wills II, BA’56, enjoy a chat.

Vanderbilt’s copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Friendship: An Essay was published by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in the early 1900s with rich illuminations on parchment and a binding embossed with red hearts and encrusted with rare stones. It is part of the Nettie Hale Rand Collection of Fine Binding and Printing, donated to Vanderbilt Library in 1941 by Mrs. Rand, an alumna of the university and wife of Frank C. Rand, president of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust.

Claire Van Vliet’s The Gospel of Mary is a fragment of an early Christian gnostic gospel that focuses on Mary Magdalene as a beloved disciple of Christ. This 2006 work, with pulp painted covers and a pop-up centerpiece, has a woven binding and is laid in a clamshell box with a birch tray. Master printmaker Van Vliet, the founder of Janus Press, received a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 1989 for her innovations in approaches to the book.

Elizabeth Moodey, assistant professor of history of art, is an expert in late medieval art and illustrated manuscripts. She pulled together these pieces for the library's Book as Art exhibit.

­­This 1926 edition of The Oxford Book of English Verse is a beautiful example of an embroidered binding. It is bound in blue silk and richly designed in a floral pattern with silver wire stems and lettered on the spine and front cover in white silk thread.

rawn from the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ more than 3.5 million volumes, “The Book as Art” exhibit offers a dazzling display of nine centuries of bookmaking—from unidentified scribes’ illuminated manuscripts to today’s books by internationally recognized artists. These stunning volumes bear the marks of their makers in ways no mass-produced paperback can achieve.

In this 2007 work Saca la cabeza y respira, Catalina Jaramillo Quijano describes her loves and losses on a trip between Bogotá and Mexico City through her drawings. The title translates as Put your Head Away and Take a Breath.

Such exquisite volumes are valued perhaps more for their beautiful form than their literary function. “The Book as Art” offers a richness of visual form in a multitude of styles: ancient manuscripts on vellum illustrated with gold leaf and brilliant colors; bindings hand-tooled and encrusted with jewels; and covers inset with ivory miniatures, along with contemporary artists’ books that leap beyond the traditional book form.

“Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover? We did—and also by their printing, typography, images and more. We loved every moment doing so,” said Connie Vinita Dowell, dean of libraries. “I hope visitors get caught up in the magic of these pages. In this era of digital information and instant printing, this exhibit illuminates the soul as well as the mind.”

Some of the newest volumes may be the most surprising, with their unconventional use of such materials as wood, metal, plastic and fabric and their sculptural assemblages. Some of the world’s finest presses, like Barry Moser’s Pennyroyal Press and Claire Van Vliet’s Janus Press, are represented in the exhibit. These artists’ remarkable talent and their attention to text, image, paper, typography and binding characterize their truly beautiful books.

The exhibit is located in Special Collections, the Library Gallery, the Peabody and Divinity libraries and the Martha Rivers Ingram Center for the Performing ­­­­­Arts.­

The recent $6 million renovation to Vanderbilt’s Central Library includes a new gallery (above) linking the original 1941 building and the Flowers Wing. Students flock to the new sunlit, open study space on the eighth floor (bottom left), while the refurbished fourth-floor lobby (bottom right) welcomes visitors to the new Sixties at 50 exhibit. The projection of words (cover and top), which changes from a Vanderbilt V to an oak leaf to the star when walked through, represents real-time searches of the library’s electronic catalogs.

Dean Connie Vinita Dowell chose this topic for the first major exhibit in the newly renovated Central Library.

Tommy and Dick Smothers (above) starred in the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” one of the most controversial TV shows of the Vietnam War era. The post-WWII demand for cheap transportation led to the creation of the tiny egg-shaped BMW Isetta (right), the first “bubble car.”

“This exhibit marks the beginning of a new exhibits program designed to bring to the Nashville community as well as those on campus a glimpse of the remarkable collections of Vanderbilt’s libraries,” Dowell said. I am grateful to Celia Walker (director of special projects), Jody Combs (assistant dean for information technology), our bibliographers and our Special Collections staff whose expertise made the exhibit possible.”

The exhibit brings a uniquely Vanderbilt perspective to the memorable era. “Our focus is on nationally significant stories that are drawn from our own collections,” Walker says. “Drawing on the rich resources of the library’s Special Collections, the exhibit examines the Vietnam War, civil rights, the space race, and the way communication changed through television and motion pictures. Utilizing interactive technology, the exhibits also take a look at what life was like at Vanderbilt during the Sixties and explore the challenges and triumphs that marked the decade.”

With the perspective of a half-century, the Sixties will be remembered as the decade that changed our nation—when we reached for the stars and struggled to find the meaning of equality.

The exhibit will continue through August 13, 2011.

President John F. Kennedy spoke at Vanderbilt’s 90th anniversary convocation on May 18, 1963, saying, “If the pursuit of learning is not defended by the educated citizen, it will not be defended at all.” Below, new touch screens in the Central Library help tell the story of The Sixties, and Cary Grant on the set of That Touch of Mink, directed by the late Delbert Mann, a Vanderbilt alumnus and trustee emeritus.

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy (center), flanked by Andrew Young, Bernard Scott Lee and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaks at a press conference following the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Top right, Delbert Mann’s casting notes from That Touch of Mink. Bottom right, a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Apollo VII, the first manned Apollo mission, was crewed by Donn F. Eisele (left), Walter M. Schirra and Walter Cunningham. Their October 1968 flight featured the first live TV broadcast from a manned spacecraft.

The Jean and Alexander Heard Library thanks and recognizes the many supporters who gave generously to the library during the past fiscal year (July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010). Please contact Katie Robinson at (615) 343-3113 or katie.robinson@vanderbilt.edu to learn more about supporting the library, to let us know about any omissions or errors on this donor list, or to request removal of your name from this and all future online donor rolls.

Chancellor’s Council

(Gifts of $10,000 or more)

John Talley Cunningham IV, BS’79 and Daphne L. Hoch-Cunningham
Connie Vinita Dowell, MLS’79 and Stephen P. Miller
David, Fred, and Steve Mann*
Peter Van Ness Henderson, BA’69, JD’81*
Mary Rankin Weems McCallum, BA’68
Sarah Jane Stempfel, BA’46 and
Robert S. Stempfel Jr., A’49, MD’52*

Dean’s List

(Gifts of $5,000-$9,999)

Gay Nienhuis Greer, BSN’74 and John P. Greer, BA’72, MD’76
Mary Caroline and Tod Hunt
Rachel M. Woodberry McCord, BA’89 and Mark William McCord, BA’89
Jo Ann Rayfield, MA’64, PhD’69
Robert P. Thomson, BA’48*
Jack Wadlington, BA’67
Michelle Wise and Ronnie Wise*

Member’s Level

(Gifts of $1,000-$4,999)

Lee Richard Adler, BA’85
Phoebe Bates and Scott Bates*
David E. Blum, BA’77
Thomas B. Brumbaugh
Ray B. Buckberry Jr., JD’64
Margaret Lynch Callihan, BA’77, EMBA’04
and Matt M. Callihan, BA’77
Charles R. Chappell, BA’65*
Kathryn B. Cheek, DUS’55*
Robert Greer Cohn*
Martha Baither Conrad, BSN’78 and
James F. Conrad
Robert W. Courtney, BA’77
Anna Durham, BA’49 and Walter Durham, BA’48, MA’56
Perri K. Feldman and Paul Feldman
Sara Frances Seay Friedrich*
Janet M. Friesinger and Gottlieb C. Friesinger
M. Donald Hancock*
Byrd S. Helguera, MLS’66 and J. Leon Helguera
William J. Hook, MA’85, PhD’92 and Theresa Hook
Julie C. Huffman, BSN’77
Brenda M. Leach*
Anna L. Letcher
Sarah Goodpasture Little, BA’40
Dugan Wiess Maddux, BA’80 and Franklin Webster Maddux, BA’79
Lynn H. May, BA’60, MEd’82 and Joseph L. May
W. Patrick McMullan III, BA’74 and Rachel McPherson
Barbara L. Mersereau, BA’79 and James W. Mersereau, BA’79
James S. Patty*
Brigette Porter, BA’61, MA’64 and Richard N. Porter, BA’54, MA’58
Eberhard F. Ramm, BMUS’71*
Betty M. Ramsey*
Stephen R. Schach*
Angelyn B. Sensing, BA’49 and Thurman Sensing Jr., BA’50, LW’52*
Ann Ward Talcott, BA’67
Cecelia Tichi
Ann R. Tutino*
Matthew Eric Wills*
W. Ridley Wills II, BA’56 and Irene Jackson Wills
Florence J. Wilson and William S. Longwell
Matthew Aaron Wilson, BS’96, MED’00
Martha J. Young and Ed M. Young
Caroline Hunt Zaw-Mon, BS’01, Next Generation Fund of the Roy A. Hunt Foundation
Lydia A. Howarth and Nicholas S. Zeppos

Contributors

(Gifts of $500-$999)

John M. Alden, BA’65
Robert T. Atkinson III, BA’66
Michael D. Bess*
Elizabeth S. Boord
Dawn Victoria S. Fitzgibbon, MBA’00 and William Edward Fitzgibbon IV, BA’90
Mary Elaine Goleski, MA’80 and Howard A. Smith
Grace H. Kleinschmidt and F. W. Kleinschmidt
Nancy D. Pellegrino, BA’79
Anne R. Pratt, BA’52, MA’54 and William C. Pratt Jr., MA’51, PhD’57
W. Casey Reed, BA’73 and Stephanie Mouton-Reed
Robert Rich*
Laura Trickett Riley, BA’74 and Steven A. Riley, BA’74, JD’78
Louise A. Taylor, MA’61
Elizabeth Gay Teoman, BA’68 and Cornell K. Teoman
Robert Bell Thompson, BS’80
Russell B. Truell, BE’71 and Martha H. Truell*
Phil N. Walker, BA’77

Gifts of $100-$499

Carol Atkinson and Giacomo Chiozza

Charles M. Babington III, BA’70
Robert Francis Bahnsen, MA’57
Gary Dean Beasley, BA’90, JD’93
Andrea C. Beldecos, BA’81
Craig Bledsoe, PhD’85 and Sandra H. Bledsoe
Barbara C. Bowen and Vincent E. Bowen
Catherine Gardner Bowling, BA’60
Allen D. Boyer, BA’78
Joseph Brenner Jr., JD’72
Cathy Stewart Brown, BA’86, MBA’90 and Martin S. Brown Jr., JD’92
Elizabeth Bryan Brown, BA’66, MLS’67
Lyn Brown, BA’60
Jeannette Kimberly Bryant, BS’91
Melanie M. Byers and James M. Byers
Stephen A. Caldwell, MDV’71
Leah Cannon, MLAS’09
David E. Carpenter
Nena Louise Couch, BA’72, MMU’75, MLS’83 and Peter Coccia, MA’80
Joseph Dale Combs Jr., MA’87
Paula Anne Covington, MLS’71, MA’94 and Robert N. Covington, JD’61
Marillyn F. Craig, MLS’68
Eileen S. Crawford, MTS’94
Kay T. Davenport, BA’59
Tracy Barger De Jong, JD’85
Ruth Robinson Dietrich, BA’45
Marie Howell Dohrmann, MLS’79
Kimberlee Maphis Early, MDiv’81 and Robert L. Early, BA’71, MDiv’76
Kristi Ellen Erickson, BS’00
Bonnie L. Flowers, MS’87 and Forrest Jefferson Flowers, BS’85, MS’87
Helen Foote Flowers, BA’54 and Elbert Conner Flowers Jr., MA’57
Constance Marie Fulmer, MA’65, PhD’70
Henry M. Gaither III, BA’65 and Judith L. Gaither
Sandra Fernald Gerow, BA’65
Janey Thompson Gleaves and Edwin S. Gleaves
Teresa L Gray
Brenda W. Griffin, BA’65 and James R. Griffin, BE’64, MS’66
Frank P. Grisham, BDiv’52, MLS’58
Mary Charles Lasater, BS’74, MLS’75 and Frederick L. Haley, MD’75
Elizabeth B. Hauer, BSN’55, MLS’66 and Chris E. Hauer Jr., BDiv’55, PhD’59
H. Carl Haywood*
Christopher C. Heard
Lynnette Marie Henderson, PhD’00 and David Henderson*
Mary Sara Hoffschwelle, PhD’93
Elizabeth M. Holsten
Rahn C. Huber
William Jackson
Katherine G. Keenum, BA’69 and John M. Keenum, BA’68
Edward S. Kelly Jr., BA’67, JD’70
James C. Kelly, MA’72, PhD’74*
Richard H. King, JD’71
Julia Starnes LaFevor, BA’55
Rhonda Sue Nelson Laird, MED’93
J. Stanley Lindgren, BS’85
Kelly Akers Linton, BA’81 and MacRae F. Linton, A’78
Mrs. Charles T. Love
Muriel Joan Lytle-Campbell, MLS’69
Ann Jeryl Martin, BA’68, MLS’69
William Martin
Mechthild I. McCarthy and John A. McCarthy
L. Clifford McKee Jr., BA’54, MD’57 and Guat-Siew Lee
Alexander C. McLeod, EMBA’88 and Dorothy McLeod
Arthur H. Mills II, MA’73, GS’78
Megan Mistler-Jackson, BS’92 and Jeffrey Quinn Jackson, BS’91
Edward F. Mitchel Jr., BA’71, MS’88
Mark Emerson Monroe, BS’92
J. Scott Moore, BS’74
Juanita G. Murray
Ava H. Nackman and Lee R. Nackman
John B. Neeld Jr., BA’62, MD’66 and Gail Wix Bell Neeld
James Douglas Phelps Jr., BDiv’68, MLS’71, MA’77 and Peggy Malone Phelps
F. Carter Philips, BA’65 and Linda Downs Philips
Jon Parrish Peede, BS’91*
John W. Poindexter‡, BA’46, MA’48, and Judith Poindexter
Noel Polk*
Karen Smith Rehm, MA’72 and Jerry Lee Rehm, BA’72
Joseph M. Riddick, MA’65 and Norma F. Riddick
Elizabeth F. Ritter, BA’60
Susan Cramer Rock, BA’69
Harriet L. Ross, BA’68 and John J. Ross Jr., BA’68
Joanne C. Ruetsch and Herbert M. Ruetsch
Bradley K. Sabel, BA’70 and Nancy J. Sabel
Catherine King Schultz, BA’00 and Edward Francis Schultz, BE’98
C. Boone Schwartzel, BA’72 and Rose C. Schwartzel
Lisa C. Terranova Shipman and Henry R. Shipman
Sandra Davenport Simpson, BA’90
Daniel R. Smith, BA’53
Kathleen I. Smith
Robert Benjamin Smith, BS’01
Patsy Haley Stann, BA’66 and E. Jeffrey Stann, BA’66, MA’68, PhD’75
Paul Bush Stevenson, BA’84
Evelyn S. Udell and Joel D. Udell
Jan van Eys, PhD’55
Nicole Jennings Wade, BA’92 and M. Todd Wade
Celia Schwarzenberg Walker, MA’85
Patricia A. Ward*
Sarah Davis Warner, BS’98 and Andrew Warner, BS’98
Meike G. Werner and Helmut W. Smith
Christina Benyunes Whitman, BS’82
Charles David Williams, BS’76
F. Clark Williams Jr.
Elizabeth Winton, BA’47 and Calhoun Winton, MA’50
Beulah Marie Woodfin, BA’58
Jean Acker Wright, BA’49, MLS’51
Robert Wright
Lee Cutchin Yarborough, BA’93
Anne Zuberer, MED’87 and Kevin R. Davis, MA’88, PhD’89, JD’93

* Contributed personal papers, materials or libraries to the Jean and Alexander Heard Library in 2009-2010.
‡ Deceased

“Recognizing that every great university requires a great library, she quietly yet forcefully created support from friends, alumni and faculty,” said Ann Cook Calhoun, a former Friends president and also a professor of English, emerita. When Chancellor Heard received emeritus status, then-Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt and the Board of Trust in 1984 named the library system The Jean and Alexander Heard Library.

“It was most fitting that Jean Heard’s name was included in the renaming of the library in 1984, for that action reflected the creative and vital personality of the one who was the main impetus for the establishment of the Friends of the Library,” former University Librarian Frank Grisham said. “She envisioned this effort as not only an opportunity to raise crucial funds for collections development, but a chance to increase the visibility and stature of the library in its community.” In 1998 the Friends honored Jean Heard with an endowed library fund in her name.

Mrs. Heard was a native of Andalusia, Ala., and graduated from the University of Alabama and the Juilliard School of Music. She married Alexander Heard in 1949. She was an accomplished violinist, civic leader, and education and social welfare reformer whose achievements extended far beyond the realm of the library. But we remember her best for her ongoing support of the library. “Books were an important part of Jean Heard’s life,” noted longtime university administrator John Poindexter. “She saw them not as collectors’ items but as tools for learning—for understanding the world around us and the world within. The Heard Library system had no greater champion or more powerful voice.”

A memorial service was held on January 8 in Benton Chapel.

Three NASA veterans have included Vanderbilt in their resumes and in their legacy by donating their papers to Vanderbilt.

Physicist Rick Chappell worked at NASA for almost a quarter century, including time as a payload specialist, and later served as the chief scientist for the Marshall Space Center. Taylor Wang was the nation’s first Chinese-American astronaut and flew on Challenger’s first operational Spacelab mission. Astronomer Charles O’Dell was the project scientist for the Hubble, securing support and funding for the space-based telescope.

“Donations like these allow us to get an inside look into important developments in our history,” says Juanita Murray, director of Special Collections for the library. “You can use these papers to learn firsthand what one person’s experience was. These are invaluable for primary research.” The library is cataloging Chappell’s papers, which encompass his work at Marshall, including outreach for NASA and GLOBE, a Clinton-era initiative on environmental issues.

Wang fulfills childhood prophesy

Taylor Wang celebrates after his space shuttle mission.

When Taylor Wang was 3, he fell from a ship into China’s raging Jialing River. He grabbed onto a floating bamboo pole and by chance, a fisherman down river hauled him back to safety. There is an old Chinese saying if one survives such a disaster, good things will happen to him. And good things did happen­—he married the love of his life and he was chosen as the first ethnic Chinese to go into space.

As a scientist, Wang, now Centennial Professor, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt, designed innovative drop dynamics experiments in zero gravity. His work drew NASA’s attention and resulted in him being chosen as the nation’s first Chinese-American astronaut in 1985. He and another payload specialist were responsible for conducting 12 key scientific experiments aboard the Challenger STS-51-B space shuttle flight, the first operational Spacelab mission.

Wang’s personal experiment initially failed, and he pleaded with NASA administrators to give him extra time to fix it. When NASA refused, he said in total desperation, “If you guys don’t give me a chance to repair my instrument, I’m not coming back.” Supported by his fellow astronauts, Wang was eventually given extra time by Mission Control. Working around the clock, he repaired the equipment and the experiment was a success—it continues to contribute to his current research interests in fighting diabetes.

Wang became an American citizen after immigrating to the U.S. from China in the early 1960s and earned three degrees at UCLA. He was directing a lab at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., when he was picked for the seventh Challenger space shuttle flight that lifted off in April 1985. Upon his return to Earth, Wang received many awards and recognitions, including the NASA Space Flight medal, and was recognized on Oct. 11, 1985, with “Taylor G. Wang Recognition Day” in Washington, D.C. He also addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

In 1988 Wang joined Vanderbilt as the Centennial Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of the Center for Microgravity Research and Applications. In 1992 and 1995, scientists aboard shuttle flights successfully carried out his experiments on compound drop dynamics in zero gravity and encapsulations for living cells, respectively.

Wang chose to donate his papers to Vanderbilt because of his dedication to students. “I demanded the best from my students, and they responded,” he said. “What better place to leave my lifelong work?”

Wang’s novel encapsulation system of living cells has practical applications in the fight against hormone-deficient diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and others. The encapsulated pancreatic islets can deliver insulin through nanopores without the need to use powerful immune-suppressing drugs. The treatment has proved successful in trials transplanting the cells into diabetic mice and dogs. Working with doctors and researchers at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Wang says current results with primates are equally promising, and he is hopeful that human trials will be allowed by the FDA within the next two years.

Wang hopes that researchers use his papers to help them follow their natural curiosity. “I changed my research many times,” he said. “If you follow your interest, not your training, you will have an exciting career.”

Fascination with the ‘what might be’ charted course for his career

Rick Chappell, research professor of physics and consultant for space science in Public Affairs, came to Vanderbilt’s campus as a freshman in 1961 determined to carve out a career in space exploration. After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics followed by a Ph.D. in space science at Rice University, he took a job in 1968 with Lockheed Missile and Space Co., studying the magnetic fields and plasma particles (electrified gases) found in space far beyond the Earth.

“Conventional wisdom said that these particles originate in the sun and are carried to Earth by the solar wind,” Chappell says. “Our satellite-based research has shown in contrast that most of the particles come from Earth’s upper atmosphere and flow out into Earth’s high-altitude magnetic field, called the magnetosphere. It’s important to understand the correct origin of these particles, which cause the aurora and which can disrupt radio communications and satellite operations.”

Rick Chappell (bottom center, holding on to floor) trained with fellow astronauts aboard the famous “Vomit Comet,” a parabola-flying aircraft which simulates the weightless environment of space. Many of the participants who fly on the aircraft develop motion sickness, leading to the airplane's nickname.

After six years with Lockheed, Chappell spent the next 24 years with NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where he eventually became the center’s chief scientist. During that time, he trained to be a payload specialist, a scientist/astronaut who conducts scientific experiments on the space shuttle. Because of the 1986 Challenger accident, Chappell’s shuttle training lasted seven years and he served in the payload operations center during the 1992 mission.

In 1996, at the request of then-Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt, Chappell returned to Vanderbilt as a Freedom Forum First Amendment Scholar. Chappell and Jim Hartz, former host of The Today Show, collaborated on a Freedom Forum study about communicating science through the media to the public. The resulting study, called “Worlds Apart,” led to the creation of an interdisciplinary major at Vanderbilt, called the Communication of Science and Technology. Graduates in this major have taken up careers in such fields as public health, science writing, pharmaceutical sales, law and medicine.

From 2002 to 2009 Chappell also served as executive director of Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory. During this time, he led Dyer’s renovation both inside and out and helped transform it into a community outreach facility with space camps for students and science programs for schoolteachers. Chappell helped create the popular Bluebird on the Mountain singer-songwriter series as well. Thanks to all of these initiatives, the number of annual visitors to Dyer increased from 500 to 11,000 during his tenure, and the observatory received government science outreach grants totaling more than $300,000.

Chappell has followed his personal goal of “living in the what might be” from his student days at Vanderbilt to his return to the campus 14 years ago. His donated papers follow that path, covering his Marshall Flight Center years, including space shuttle development, his NASA outreach work and later environmental projects. Chappell is also donating the papers of his father, longtime Huntingdon College history professor Gordon Chappell, who earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Vanderbilt, which are mainly focused on Alabama and Tennessee history.

Grade-school assignment leads to future among the stars

Bob O’Dell, Distinguished Research Professor of Astrophysics, recalls a sixth-grade assignment to write an essay on what he hoped to be doing in 25 years. “I said I wanted to be an astronomer observing with a 200-inch telescope,” says O’Dell, who was already building his own small telescopes by the time he was in the eighth grade. “At the time the Palomar Mountain Observatory had the biggest telescope in the world. I’m sure I learned about it in My Weekly Reader.”

Little could he have imagined that he would one day be the chief scientist for a telescope located in outer space—the Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1971 NASA began studying the feasibility of the space-based telescope and asked O’Dell, then a full professor of astronomy at the University of Chicago, to join its advisory group of elite astronomers and engineers. The following year O’Dell left Chicago to become NASA’s chief scientist for the project. His first task was to persuade Congress to fund the telescope and major research institutions such as Harvard, Chicago and the California Institute of Technology to participate in the project rather than concentrating on ground-based telescopes. The funding process took six years.

Bob O’Dell with an image of the Orion Nebula.

“It was clear that Hubble was going to be the most powerful telescope of my generation, if not my lifetime, and that has proven to be the case,” O’Dell says. “That’s why I was willing to gamble on leaving Chicago to work for NASA.”

Construction on Hubble began in 1978 and was completed eight years later, but several delays, including the postponement of space shuttle flights after the 1986 Challenger explosion, prevented its launch until 1990. Once in orbit, Hubble transformed the way scientists look at the universe. The numerous discoveries made through its lens have resulted in almost a thousand new papers published each year using Hubble data.

O’Dell’s work on Hubble is the focus of his donated papers. “I expect that my papers will be of greatest interest to those interested in the enormous change in the practice of astronomy that began with the start of the ‘space age,’” he said. “This should be particularly true for those interested in the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope.”

After construction of the telescope neared completion in the early ’80s, O’Dell returned to academia at Rice University. In 2000 he came to Vanderbilt, where his focus has been studying the Orion Nebula and planetary nebulae via Hubble. The Orion Nebula is the closest center of massive star formation—a stellar nursery that reproduces the conditions in which our own sun formed some 4.5 billion years ago. O’Dell is the author of the 2003 book The Orion Nebula, Where Stars Are Born.

“I’ve been working on Orion for not quite half a century,” O’Dell says with a wry grin. “You’d think I’d have it figured out by now, wouldn’t you?”

Student works illustrated the concept of “what is a library?” in a photography class project, using the Peabody Library as the setting.

The resulting work, exhibited last spring in the Peabody Library, examined how students use and respond to library spaces, resources and each other. Pavlovic said while the students were developing their pieces they were also considering where they would be installed in the library.

“We were interested in analyzing the culture of the student group and ways of ‘using’ this material as well as the space,” she said, adding that she may create a library project each year to build an archive of images. “If each time we can address a different library on campus, over the years, this can become an interesting creative documentation of our campus.”

Student Ashley Carter played off Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) with a pair of photographs: “This is not a library” and “Neither is this (Still not a book).”

“This project changed my perception of a library,” Carter said. “I originally came in with the assumption that the library was solely a place of learning. However, after this project, I started walking into the library aware of very different aspects—the social, the mystery, the comfort and its unique aesthetic.”