Research Resources

The Jean and Alexander Heard Library is an essential research resource for students and faculty and one of the major research resources in the mid-South. The Heard Library has collections of more than 2.6 million volumes, 2.8 million microfilm items, and 22,000 currently received serials subscriptions in nine library units including the Peabody Library. Acorn is the electronic link to Vanderbilt libraries and provides access to the library catalog, reserves, periodical indexes, and other databases though the Web. Acorn also provides links to resources outside the libraries.

Students conducting research with infants, children and adolescents often recruit participants at local schools, preschools, and day-care centers. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools has a close working relationship with researchers in the Department of Psychology and Human Development, and many Peabody faculty members and students conduct their research through the public school system. In addition, the department maintains a database of research participants. This database includes children whose families have expressed an interest in participating in child development research and is a valuable research tool for both faculty and graduate students.

Research also is conducted at Peabody's Susan Gray School, an early intervention program serving young children, birth to five years of age, and their families.  In addition to providing center-based, home-based, and community-based services in settings that include typically developing children, the School is a site for research on early intervention and early childhood development. The Susan Gray School is also a setting for training future teachers and researchers, and for demonstrating educational models serving young children who are at risk developmentally.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development is one of fourteen national centers for research on mental retardation and related aspects of human development. Its primary mission is to enlarge our understanding of human development, to prevent and solve developmental problems, and to enable persons with developmental disabilities to lead fuller lives. The Kennedy Center is a university-wide center with institutional support from Peabody College, the School of Medicine, and the College of Arts and Science.

The Learning Sciences Institute (LSI),  housed on the Peabody campus, the Learning Sciences Institute (LSI) is a university-wide center promoting innovative, interdisciplinary research and development in the learning sciences. Over 100 faculty investigators from 5 colleges and 18 departments contribute to the LSI’s growing community of scholarship across the areas of learning, teaching, curriculum, and policy. LSI initiatives include a vigorous visiting scholars program, a colloquium series, support for external contracts and grants, and doctoral and postdoctoral programs to recruit outstanding scholars in the learning sciences.