Vanderbilt Visions Themes

The Heard Library presents three themes for Vanderbilt Visions 2010 programming. Each theme has multiple modules from which to choose. The modules are designed to engage students in activities that will help them gain a better understanding of life at Vanderbilt and what the library has to offer as part of that experience.

Brief descriptions of the modules follow. Use the navigation menu on the left to explore each option in depth.

Class of 1912
The purpose of this session is to engage students with materials from the University Archives to discover what life was like for students a century ago. How does this compare with the life of today's student? Specific topics, groups of images, and accompanying discussion questions are presented to help guide what is sure to be a lively discussion!

What the C.R.A.P.?
The goal of this theme is to help students develop skills in evaluating information using Wikipedia as a springboard and the C.R.A.P. (Currency, Reliability, Accuracy, and Point of View) test as a method to evaluate information. Through brief readings and a video, students will gain an understanding of how Wikipedia articles are created and how to evaluate the information they contain. Students will engage in an interactive evaluation of articles on specific topics and will compare articles in Wikipedia to alternative sources covering the same topic. Suggested topics are included in the guide for VUceptors.

Retired themes from previous years:

Election 2008
The Presidential Election dominates the news, but there's so much information it's hard to know what to look for.  For this session you can look at Election 2008 in one of two ways. You can watch political ads on YouTube for the Democrats and the Republicans and check web sites to see if they’re accurate and fair. Many are not. Or you can look on the web at the stands of five political parties. Minority parties--the Libertarians, the Nader independents, and the Greens--say there's not much difference between the two Democrats and the Republicans. Are they right? Are the minor parties all that different?

Racing Across Campus
Students will race across campus using a variety of navigation aids (maps, GPS, etc.). The goals of this theme are to familiarize students with navigational aids and to locate a few campus libraries and their service points for getting help, information, and checking out items. This option requires advanced notice (see the VUceptor guide for more information).