Five Libraries Employees Step Into New Roles at Start of Fall Semester
Five Pepperdine Libraries employees stepped into new roles with increased responsibilities at the start of the fall 2026 semester. Elena (Lanie) Elliot is now operations coordinator; Katrina Gallardo Palma is now associate university librarian for library administration, operations, and strategic planning; Mia McGee is now librarian for health science (officing at the Calabasas campus); Catherine Schuman is now daytime circulation and operations manager; and Kassidy Shreck is now research and instruction librarian.
New Rare Book Acquisition Helps Tell the History of Medical Science
Pepperdine Libraries is pleased to announce the acquisition of a "salesman's dummy" of The Household Physician, A Twentieth Century Medica; A Practical Description in Plain Language of All the Diseases of Men, Women and Children (1931) by Herbert Buffum. This book encompasses medicine, homeopathy, phrenology, and even veterinary science. Already helpful to readers examining the pluralistic nature of American healthcare in the early twentieth century, our edition of The Household Physician is even more valuable because it's a canvassing book. This new acquisition to our Special Collections and Archives gives students an additional opportunity to engage directly with a unique primary source, deepening their understanding of the history of medical science.
Douglas A. Foster Shares Faith Journey and the History of Alexander Campbell at William M. Green Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture
On September 30, the Pepperdine Libraries' Rushford Center for Research on the Churches of Christ welcomed Douglas A. Foster, professor emeritus of theology at Abilene Christian University, as the speaker for the forty-sixth annual William M. Green Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture. Foster has authored numerous publications examining the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement, including The Story of Churches of Christ and, most recently, A Life of Alexander Campbell, (published in 2020). The latter was the subject of his talk, which was titled "The Brilliance and Betrayal of Alexander Campbell's Biblical Method."
Pepperdine Libraries Invites Recently Tenured Faculty to Comment on Inspirational Books
Pepperdine faculty tenured in 2025-2026 were each invited to select a book title that is personally or professionally significant to them. Pepperdine Libraries added these books to the collection and honored the faculty members' achievement with a decorative bookplate placed on the inside cover of their chosen book. The books are on display at Payson Library and are available for checkout.
Genesis Lab Introduces Makerspace Cart
Over the summer, the Genesis Lab added an exciting new offering to its services. Our new Makerspace Cart allows Pepperdine Libraries to bring some of the Genesis Lab’s cutting-edge tools and resources directly to you.
Pepperdine Libraries Awards Stipends to Faculty in Support of Open Access Publishing
As part of our commitment to supporting open scholarly inquiry, Pepperdine Libraries awards open access publishing stipends to faculty. The stipends are used to pay publishers for their article processing charges to prepare articles for open access publication. By publishing in an open access platform, our faculty’s important work becomes available to the scholarly community in a timely manner. The publications appear in discipline-specific, rigorous, well-respected, peer-reviewed journals. We’re pleased to recognize faculty who have applied for and received stipends.
Remembering the Life and Legacy of Bob Woodson (1937–2026)
Pepperdine Libraries mourns the passing of civil rights activist Bob Woodson, who passed away May 19 at the age of 89. It was only a year ago that the Libraries announced the partnership with the Woodson Center on preserving the history of Woodson’s decades long legacy. While we reflect on a life based on the premise of inspiring communities and empowering leaders from within, we remember a visionary whose revolutionary approach to poverty alleviation, gang truces, and neighborhood revitalization reframed how America thinks about race and community.
Pepperdine Libraries Enhances London Collection
The library at Pepperdine's London campus has long been a fixture in the location’s historic six-story building. Since the program was established in 1984, the library has served as a highly valued study space. Through the Libraries' information literacy program, student learning and research is supported while they are abroad. As the information-seeking needs of our learning community change, Pepperdine Libraries is dedicated to ensuring its resources and services stay up to date, such as helping students understand, use, and think critically about AI technologies through our AI literacy guide. Recently, the Libraries carefully analyzed the holdings in our London library, a deep-dive initiative designed to ensure our physical space is as high-performing as the students who use it every day.
Library Intern Helps Catalog Libraries’ Copy of Ferdowsi’s "Shahnameh"
The Shahnameh, completed by the Persian poet Ferdowsi in early eleventh century Iran, is an epic dynastic history of Persia, chronicling the reign of 50 rulers from early civilization to the fall of the Sasanian Empire in the seventh century. Last fall semester, Pepperdine Libraries hired a graduate student intern, Samantha Stringer, to research our copy of the Shahnameh so that Special Collections and Archives could properly catalog the work. Stringer is a PhD candidate in literature at University of California, Santa Cruz, and is researching the Shahnameh for her dissertation.
Chamber Music Performance Delights Audience at Payson Library
Students were treated to an exceptional evening of music on Monday, April 6, as the Libraries hosted a concert by Laós Chamber Music, a Los Angeles-based ensemble of distinguished classical musicians.