ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 742/C&RL News Touring N a sh v ille ’s u n ive rsity lib ra rie s B y S h irley H allblade Join one of the library tours offered during the ACRL conference M ore than a dozen colleges and universi­ties attract m ore than 30,000 students from across th e U.S. an d aro u n d th e w orld to Nashville. Attendees w ho arrive early for ACRL’s 8th N ational C onference in Nashville, April 11– 14, 1997, will have an opportunity to visit four local university cam puses the afternoon o f Friday, April 11. The Local A rrangem ents Committee has plan n ed tours that include li­ braries at Belmont, David Lipscomb, Fisk, and V anderbilt Universities. H ere is an overview of these institutions and their libraries. For infor­ mation about registering for the scheduled tours consult the Preliminary Program sent to ACRL m em bers or the ACRL conference W eb site at http ://w w w . ala .org/acrl. h tm l. Belmont University A com prehensive university g roun ded in the liberal arts, Belm ont has an enrollm ent o f more than 3,000 students. Fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools an d affiliated w ith the T ennessee Baptist Con­ vention, it is the second largest private college or university in Tennessee. In addition to u n ­ dergraduate degrees in approxim ately 50 m a­ jor areas o f study, B elm ont offers m aster’s d e ­ grees in education, music education, nursing, occupational therapy, business administration, an d accounting. T he university’s beautiful cam pus reflects a long, rich history that dates back to th e 19th century, w h en th e grounds o n w hich it is lo­ cated today w ere k n ow n as Adelicia A cklen’s Belle Monte estate. The antebellum m ansion rem ains an d is flanked by m odern university buildings erected m ore than a century later. Paths across the cam pus w eave through Victo­ rian gardens, statuary, an d gazebos, all o f w hich serve as rem inders o f a treasured heritage of Southern culture. W om en’s schools preceding the current com­ prehensive institution o f higher learning include the original Belm ont College (1890– 1913) and W ard-Belmont (1913– 51). In 1951 the T ennes­ see Baptist C onvention fo u n d ed th e second Belm ont College (1951–91) w ith an initial co­ educational enrollm ent of 136 students. Not long after celebrating 100 years o n the sam e cam ­ pus, the institution becam e a university in 1991, culm inating a d e c a d e o f ra p id g ro w th an d progress. T he Lila D. B unch Library, now in its fourth year in its n ew facilities, has a collection of approxim ately 187,000 volum es, an d carries subscriptions to 1,300 periodicals. The library’s online catalog an d circulation system are based o n DRA software. T he library offers access to several CD-ROM citation databases through a w ide area netw ork w ith connections available through cam pus dorm itory room s and offices as w ell as through terminals located in th e li­ brary. Access to full-text articles in selected periodicals is provided through UMI’s ProQ uest Direct. Shirley H allblade is associate director o f libraries a t Vanderbilt University in Nashville, a n d co ch a ir o f the Local A rra n g e m en ts Committee; e-mail: ballblade@ library.vanderbilt.edu. Three m em bers o f the com m ittee also c o n trib u ted m a teria l f o r this article. They are E rnest H eard, director o f library services, B elm ont University; Jessie C a m e y Sm ith, u niversity librarian, Fisk University; a n d J a m e s E. Ward, director, D a vid Lipscomb University Library. mailto:ballblade@library.vanderbilt.edu December 1996/ 743 B elm ont’s library has just com pleted instal­ lation o f equipm ent in a multimedia presenta­ tion hall located within the facility. The build­ ing also houses a m icrocom puter center o n its first floor, w hich is eq u ip p ed w ith about 30 Macintosh com puters as well as a scanner, print­ ers, CD-ROM stations, an d videodisc players. Library staff are engaged in cross-unit sharing o f tasks and responsibilities designed to maxi­ mize service to users, including an extensive program of outreach and instruction. David Lipscomb University David Lipscomb University is a coeducational, church-related institution located four miles south o f d o w n to w n Nashville. Nearly 2,600 graduate an d undergraduate students com prise the student body there, representing approxi­ mately 40 states an d several foreign countries. Lipscomb is accredited by the Commission on Colleges o f the Southern Association of Col­ leges an d Schools to aw ard b a ch elo r’s an d m aster’s degrees. More than 60 undergraduate majors are offered in the liberal arts along with preprofessional and professional programs. The University Library, com pleted in 1991, is h oused in an attrac­ tive 63,000-square-foot facility. T h e lib rary ’s h o ld in g s to ta l m o re th a n 205,000 b o o k s and about 900 periodi­ cal titles. Several sp e­ cial collections reflect the history a n d h eri­ tage o f the university. O f p articu lar n o te is the Bailey H ymnology Collection. A cam pus fiberoptic netw ork brings com ­ puting to all students, faculty, and staff. The Gaylord Galaxy Integrated Library System pro­ vides autom ation services for cataloging, circu­ lation, serials, an d an online public access cata­ log nam ed LINIS. O nline searching is available to students and faculty through DIALOG, EPIC, FirstSearch, and access to the Internet. Interli­ brary loan services are provided by the library’s m em berships in organizations such as OCLC, SOLINET, TENN-SHARE, and T ennessee Re­ source Sharing. Fisk University Fisk University was founded by th e American Missionary Association in 1866, six m onths af­ ter the en d o f the Civil War and tw o years after the Emancipation Proclamation w as signed. It was nam ed in ho n o r o f G eneral Clinton B. Fisk o f the Tennessee Freedm en’s Bureau, w h o pro­ vided the new school w ith facilities in former Union arm y barracks. The institution w as in­ corporated in 1867, an d from its founding has rem ained o p en to all regardless of race. Fisk offers undergraduate degrees in a num ­ b er o f subject areas an d m aster’s degrees in biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, soci­ ology, and social gerontology. Currently there are 812 students enrolled at Fisk. Among the highlights of Fisk are the world- fam ous Fisk Jubilee Singers w ho in 1871 began national and international tours to raise m oney for the school while also introducing the rich heritage o f spirituals to the w orld; the Race Relations Institutes; and the Infra-Red Spectros­ copy Laboratory. In 1953 a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa w as established on cam pus, the first in a black institution. In 1978 th e Fisk cam pus w as listed as a historic district in the National Register o f Historic Places. Fisk is also k n ow n for its library. From its early location in a Carnegie building, th e li­ brary later m oved to a multistory facility and in 1969 to its present site. The m odern build­ ing houses the Aaron D o u g la s Art G allery and displays im portant w o r k s b y A fric a n American artists and on African American sub­ jects throughout the fa­ cility. Library autom a­ tion is well u n d er way, using the Innovative Interfaces system. Fisk’s special collections are an international treasure, containing some of the oldest and most definitive collections o f African American his­ tory an d culture. In 1929 a systematic effort w as b e g u n to collect boo k s on the African American experience by enlisting the aid o f foreign dealers to purchase rare items. The ef­ forts o f Arthur Schomburg, a distinguished bib­ liophile w h o becam e curator of the Negro Col­ lection in 1930, helped develop these distinctive collections. The purchasing o f the Southern YMCA Li­ brary ad d ed another dim ension to the grow th o f the collection. Since the YMCA had special­ ized in securing materials relating to African Paths across the campus weave through Victorian gardens, statuary, and gazebos, all of which serve as reminders of a treasured heritage of Southern culture. 744/C&RL News Americans prior to 1865, and Fisk after 1865, the collection w as e x p an d ed in scope, size, an d significance. In addition to its focus o n the African American, the library has also am assed extensive materials and books on the West Indies, Africa, an d the Caribbean. Rare item s h e ld include the Bible presented to Presi­ dent Lincoln by free blacks o f Baltimore in 1864; a bible especially edited for slaves in the W est Indies in 1808; and H arriet E. W ilson’s O ur Nig (1859), the first novel p u b ­ lished by a black in the United States. T he archives hold the records of the university, in­ cluding the Jubilee Singers, as w ell as records o f organizations such as the B rotherhood o f Sleeping Car Porters, the Julius Rosenw ald Fund, etc. Manuscript collections include papers belonging to W. E. B. DuBois, A aron D ouglas, L angston H ughes, T hom as Dorsey, an d the G eorge G ershw in Collection o f Music an d Musical Literature. Fisk’s special collections include the Black Oral History Col­ lection w hich w as b egun in 1970. Strengthened by a National E ndow m ent for the H umanities grant in 1971–73, the collection has tap ed in­ terview s w ith persons w h o have b een eyew it­ nesses, participants, o r contributors to the black experience. Vanderbilt University V anderbilt University is an independent, pri­ vately su p p o rted institution fo unded in 1873 through a m illion-dollar gift from C om m odore Cornelius Vanderbilt. It is o n e o f the few inde­ p e n d en t universities offering high-quality u n ­ dergraduate program s an d a full range o f re­ sp e c te d g rad u ate a n d p ro fessio n al schools. V anderbilt’s ten schools and colleges have an enrollm ent o f approxim ately 5,600 undergradu­ ates and 4,200 graduate and professional stu­ dents from all 50 states and at least 75 co u n ­ tries. V anderbilt has a full-time faculty o f m ore than 1,600, plus m ore than 1,100 part-time and adjunct faculty w h o serve teaching an d clinical roles primarily in th e Schools o f Medicine and Nursing. T he institution has recruited m any em inent scholars w h o excel in teaching and K ir k la n d H a ll o n t h e c a m p u s o f V a n d e r b ilt U n iv e r s it y research . Its faculty attract external funding in excess o f $113 m illion a n n u a lly a n d have b een recipients o f many professional aw ards, includ­ ing the Nobel Prize. V anderbilt is located on a 333-acre, b e a u tifu lly la n d ­ scap ed cam pus ab o u t three miles from dow n to w n Nash­ ville. T he cam pus, w ith its m any varieties o f trees and plants, w as granted national arboretum status in 1988. Library services w ere for m a n y y e a r s p r o v i d e d to V a n d e r b il t U n iv e rs ity , P eabody College, an d Scarritt C ollege th ro u g h th e s e p a ­ rately incorporated Joint Uni­ v ersity Libraries, a n en tity b eg u n by th e late Frederick K uhlm an in the 1930s. This multilibrary cooperative venture e n d u re d until 1979 w h e n G eo rg e P eab o d y College for T eachers m erged w ith Vanderbilt. The nam e o f the library w as changed that year to Vanderbilt University Library; th e organiza­ tion w as ren am ed in 1984 to h o n o r retiring Chancellor A lexander H eard an d his wife, Jean, w h o started the Friends o f the Library. Today, nine cam pus libraries (Biomedical, Central, Divinity, Education, Law, Management, Music, Science an d Engineering, an d Special Collections) and tw o off-cam pus facilities con­ stitute the Jean an d A lexander H eard Library. The collections exceed 2.3 million volum es and include m ore than 16,000 serial subscriptions. T h e s ta f f o f 225 in c l u d e s 83 lib r a r ia n s . Vanderbilt’s library is a m em ber of the Associa­ tion o f Research Libraries, th e C enter for Re­ search Libraries, the Coalition for N etw orked Information, an d participates in OCLC through SOLINET. Extensive library autom ation program s e n ­ hance traditional library services and collections. The library has recently converted its integrated online system from NOTIS-based softw are to the SIRSI C orp.’s client-server software. Several d atab a ses are m o u n te d centrally fo r access through th e library’s netw ork; m any o th er CD- ROM databases are available in libraries through local area netw orks. T he main library building, erected in 1941 w ith a w ing ad d ed in 1966, houses the Central Library w ith collections in the hum anities and December 1 9 9 6 / 745 social sciences, the governm ent docum ents depository, and distinctive collections in French; the Divinity Library which includes a special collection o f Judaica materials, and the Special Collections and University Archives featuring distinctive collections o f the writers known as the Fugitives and the Agrarians, materials on Southern history and culture, and rare books and manuscripts. A separate Science and Engi­ neering Library, located in the Stevenson Cen­ ter in the wing housing the new chemistry build­ ing, includes a U.S. Patent Depository. T h e E d u catio n Library, lo cated on the Peabody campus, focuses on materials in edu­ cation, educational psychology, special educa­ tion, and literature and curriculum materials for children and young adults. Separate libraries for Law, Management, and Music are located in the buildings housing those schools. The newest library facility is the Eskind Bio­ medical Library, a $12.5 million, 77,000-square- foot state-of-the-art building designed by Davis, Brody & Associates. It houses the library, as well as the Information Management Depart­ ment o f the Medical Center and the academic Division o f Biomedical Informatics. Off-campus, the library has a small collec­ tion o f astronomy materials at the Dyer Obser­ vatory, and manages an environmentally con­ trolled, 31,000-square-foot storage facility which opened in 1988. W e hope many conference visitors will join us on April 11 for tours to som e o f our local college and research libraries! Ed. note: Advance registration is required. Details an d form s are in the Preliminary Pro­ gram m ailed in November an d on the ACRL homepage: http://www.ala.org/acrl.html. ■ C&RL N ew s 30th anniversary quiz What do you recall read­ ing in C&RL News each m onth for the past 30 years? To celebrate the News’ 30th anniversary, the Editorial Board and editors o f C&RL News have written questions based on news and articles published since its inception in 1966. Five questions (and answers) will be pub­ lished each month to help you wend your way through the past 30 years of academic librarianship as reported by C&RL News We hope you have as much fun answer­ ing these questions as we did writing them. If you have a question you’d like considered for the anniversary quiz series please send y ou r su g g estio n to Mary Ellen D avis at medavis@ala.org. 1. Which of the following acronyms were featured in the April 1977 C&RL Neivs as “Recent LA’s (Library Acronyms) Encoun­ tered,” BLAISE, ERNEST, TINA, or GEORGE? 2. According to the 1991 article “Quiet Study Area: No Applause between Movements,” the library at the North County Campus of San Diego State University also doubled as what? 3. The Huntington Library’s decision to give scholars unrestricted access to what rare documents unleashed a “publicity storm” around the question o f intellectual freedom and access? 4. What document did the CLS Historical Commission produce in recognition o f the College Library Section’s 100th anniver­ sary? 5. A national conference that attracted librarians, curators, booksellers, attorneys, and law enforcement officers was held at Oberlin College in 1983 to discuss what subject? . ) 3 8 9 1 r e b ot c O( a ic r e mA f o noit ai c oss A sr ell es k o o B nai r a u iq t n A eht f o t ne di s er p , mu b do o W ht e basil E dna , nai r ar bil e gell o C ni l r e b O neht , tt eff o M . 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