Nancy Drew was a teenage sleuth during the Great Depression who drove her own car, solved mysteries, and enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle. Nancy’s adventures were a great escape for young readers, and a huge success for the Stratemeyer Syndicate that created the series to complement the Hardy Boys. Grosset and Dunlap published the first 56…Continue Reading Nancy Drew and friends
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched on the streets of over two dozen states before he was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. The public execution of a figure known for promoting peace, civil disobedience, race and class equality, shook hearts across the globe. On this MLK Day, as we mourn the loss of a leader martyred in the streets, we also take time to reflect on Dr. King’s life, and on the…Continue Reading Tracing Dr. Martin Luther King’s Impact on SMU and Dallas
Once the cornerstone of many college courses, alongside everything else, AI is making us question the utility of assigning research papers. And like other things, introspection about what and how students should learn now can be useful, time-consuming, and painful. So, what really is the value of students writing a research paper? At its worst,…Continue Reading The research paper is dead. Long live the research paper.
What if every brilliant research idea had a built-in roadmap for success? At SMU Libraries, the Research & Scholarly Initiatives (RSI) team works to make that vision a reality. Every year, they partner with scholars across campus – faculty, graduate students, and emerging researchers – to transform ideas into organized, achievable, and impactful projects. From…Continue Reading Behind the research: How the RSI team powers scholarly success
This piece written by Dean Jeffcoat is the introduction to the Fall 2025 Newsletter. Read the full issue to learn more about the topics discussed below. A launchpad for exploration Our fall newsletter theme is “Human-Powered AI.” In reality, all artificial intelligence is human intelligence. The material that generative AI tools draw from is human-created…Continue Reading We’re the hearts and minds driving AI
This piece is featured in the latest edition of The Bridwell Quarterly. Societas Liturgica conference bridges old and new in church music Founded in 1962 by the Dutch Reformed pastor Wiebe Vos, Societas Liturgica has come together and provided an exceptional space for global discussion on the history and evolution of liturgical studies and practice….Continue Reading A tale of two cities: Academic publishing a focus at Paris and Oxford conferences
A musical history of the Hilltop The Pfautsch-Anderson Choral Browing Collection is a non-circulating browsing collection of choral scores that supports the needs of choral and sacred singers, choral conductors, and music arrangers. The collection is comprised of nearly 6,300 music scores donated by two esteemed SMU music professors—professor of voice and choral conducting Lloyd…Continue Reading A hidden collection at Hamon is now discoverable
Pop-up exhibit showcases excellence of Rees-Jones Collection Last week on the Hilltop, Rees-Jones Archivist Christina Wood curated a pop-up exhibit coinciding with the Board of Trustees dinner at Fondren Library. This exhibit celebrated the arrival of the exciting new Rees-Jones Collection as the new library, rising only steps away from the dinner venue, takes shape….Continue Reading Where the frontier was written: Stories in ink and image
SMU Libraries is launching two new, forward-thinking cohort programs designed to help faculty understand, evaluate, and meaningfully integrate AI tools into both research and the classroom. These initiatives respond to one important question: How do we teach, research, and apply integrity in the age of AI? By bringing together faculty and librarians in collaborative, discipline-informed…Continue Reading Innovating together: New SMU Libraries cohorts advance AI-ready teaching and research
Striking it rich: How Texas’s oil boom shaped DeGolyer Library Texas’s first successful oil well was drilled by the Melrose Petroleum Oil Company in Nacogdoches County in 1866, but the monumental 1901 discovery of Spindletop in Jefferson County kickstarted the Texas oil industry. The success of Spindletop led to boomtowns all over Texas where wildcatters,…Continue Reading Wildcatters and Landmen in Texas