VRA 2012 Annual Conference

Executive Board Meeting of the Visual Resources Association

Drop-in tour of the University of New Mexico Art Museum with curator Sara Otto-Diniz.  

The UNM Art Museum is located within the Center for the Arts complex off of Redondo Drive near the UNM Bookstore.

Reservations suggested, but not required.  Limited to 20 participants.  Admission is FREE and open to the public; a $5 donation is suggested to support exhibitions.

RSVP to: cdabel@unm.edu

(Participants will need to get themselves to the UNM campus; Route 66 city buses are recommended.  Following the tour stay at UNM and grab lunch on or near campus)

The major textbooks for Art History introductory courses have expanded their coverage of the arts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania, and Asia.  As university art departments endeavor to globalize their curricula and museums expand their non-Western collections, the subject matter may be unfamiliar to many image curators and catalogers working with support materials who have been schooled only in the European tradition.  The presenters will offer a 4- hour primer in the Art of the Americas to address this concern.  They will give an overview of the geography, history and indigenous cultures of North and South America and Mesoamerica, show typical examples of objects and architecture and explain their identifying features, and then offer attendees the opportunity to try their hand at applying general cataloging terms to images of similar objects.  After a review of the results, the presenters will briefly talk with the attendees about working with the CCO and the Getty vocabularies and other sources for cataloging the art of the Americas.  Attendees will receive handouts listing the major time periods and cultures in each region and a bibliography of general reference materials for further guidance.

ORGANIZER:

Karen Kessel, Sonoma State University

PRESENTERS

1: Claudia Brittenham, University of Michigan
2: Kimberly Jones, University of Texas at Austin
3: Karen Kessel, Sonoma State University

NOTES
Claudia Brittenham is a specialist in Mesoamerican art and is co-author with Stephen Houston and Cassandra Mesick of the volume, Veiled Brightness: a History of Ancient Maya Color, 2009, University of Texas Press, and was a principal consultant for the fifth edition of Marilyn Stokstad and Michael Cothren's art history survey textbook, Art: a brief history.

Kimberly Jones recently received her PhD in Pre-Columbian Andean Art and Archaeology and is co-editor with Steve Bourget of The Art and Archaeology of the Moche, An Ancient Andean Society of the Peruvian North Coast, published in 2008 by the University of Texas Press.  

Karen Kessel is curator for Visual Resources in the Art and Art History Department at Sonoma State University and has taught a survey course in Native North American art.

Sponsored by the VRA Education Committee.

Karen Kessel's Special Bulletin #15, Finding and Cataloging Images of Native American Art, is available for a discount price as a pdf download to workshop participants via Registration form.

Attention Wednesday Workshop Attendees
In order to take advantage of better facilities at the University of New Mexico and to alleviate pressure on the hotel meeting room schedule, the two Wednesday morning workshops will be held at the Zimmerman Library on the UNM campus. Since local public transportation runs almost directly from the hotel to the university, we have decided that it will be the means by which we get everyone to the workshops.
Attendees will meet a local committee member in the hotel lobby at 7 am and walk south on Rio Grande Boulevard to Central Avenue. On the far side of Central Ave is a bus stop. The group will take the #66 or the #766 eastbound buses, depending on which one comes along first. The fare is $2 for a day pass, and we will provide these for you.
The bus will proceed down Central Avenue (Route 66, for Americana buffs) through downtown, past the Alvarado Transportation Center to the main UNM stop at Central and Yale. Attendees will walk the equivalent of two short blocks north through the UNM campus to the Zimmerman Library. Workshops will be held in the computer labs. And FYI - Zimmerman has a Starbucks counter, and drinks with lids are permitted in the labs!
For the return to the hotel, simply do the same thing in reverse! If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks very much,
Brian Shelburne
VRA Vice President for Conference Arrangements
bps@library.umass.edu   413-545-4061

Cindy Abel Morris
VRA Albuquerque Local Arrangements Committee Chair
cdabel@unm.edu    505-277-6415

In today’s economic climate, funding for special projects remains scarce. Many institutions rely more and more on grant money to accomplish major and minor projects, though the grant writing and application process can be daunting. This workshop will explore the types of grants available, where to find them, the major components of a grant application, do’s and dont’s of grant writing, and resources available to help with the process. The workshop will include activities such as small group work, brainstorming, and questions and answers. Topics covered will consider grants from the perspective of different institutional settings. Presenters, including Christine Kuan of Artstor, Christina Updike of the VRA Foundation, and Stephanie Padilla of the University of New Mexico, will provide helpful information about both sides of the grant process; writing and submission as well as reviewing and awarding of grants. Attendees will leave the workshop with confidence in finding and writing successful grant applications, as well as a flash drive containing key resources.

ORGANIZERS:

• Sarah Christensen, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Ryan Brubacher, Occidental College

PRESENTERS:

Christine Kuan, ARTstor
Stephanie Padilla, University of New Mexico
Christina Updike, VRA Foundation

Attention Wednesday Workshop Attendees-
In order to take advantage of better facilities at the University of New Mexico and to alleviate pressure on the hotel meeting room schedule, the two Wednesday morning workshops will be held at the Zimmerman Library on the UNM campus. Since local public transportation runs almost directly from the hotel to the university, we have decided that it will be the means by which we get everyone to the workshops.
Attendees will meet a local committee member in the hotel lobby at 7 am and walk south on Rio Grande Boulevard to Central Avenue. On the far side of Central Ave is a bus stop. The group will take the #66 or the #766 eastbound buses, depending on which one comes along first. The fare is $2 for a day pass, and we will provide these for you.
The bus will proceed down Central Avenue (Route 66, for Americana buffs) through downtown, past the Alvarado Transportation Center to the main UNM stop at Central and Yale. Attendees will walk the equivalent of two short blocks north through the UNM campus to the Zimmerman Library. Workshops will be held in the computer labs. And FYI - Zimmerman has a Starbucks counter, and drinks with lids are permitted in the labs!
For the return to the hotel, simply do the same thing in reverse! If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks very much,
Brian Shelburne
VRA Vice President for Conference Arrangements
bps@library.umass.edu 413-545-4061

Cindy Abel Morris
VRA Albuquerque Local Arrangements Committee Chair
cdabel@unm.edu 505-277-6415

Conference Registration and Hospitality

The Data Standards Committee (DSC) was established in 1993 to meet the visual resources community's growing need to manage complex visual collections in the networked environment. Our charge from the Visual Resources Association is "To develop, advocate and promote standard descriptive practices in visual resources collections that will facilitate the management, organization, and exchange of information."

More specifically our goals are:

• To identify, develop, and disseminate information that promotes standard descriptive practices
• To communicate visual resources interests to public agencies that make policy and commercial vendors who develop tools and resources applicable to visual collections
• To establish liaisons and cooperative exchanges with similar interest groups in the museum, library, and archival communities

Charge: To nominate a slate of candidates to run for offices of the Association; to prepare the candidates’ statements and a ballot for submission to the membership with approval by the Executive Board; appoint tellers to monitor the balloting; and to notify the candidates and the President of the results.

Members of James Madison University’s MDID development team will present the latest version of the Madison Digital Image Database. MDID 3 is an open source multimedia management system with innovative tools for discovering, aggregating, and presenting digital media in a wide variety of disciplines and learning spaces. MDID 3 serves as a powerful platform for building innovative, web-based multimedia applications with custom interfaces for teaching, learning, and sharing.

Since showcasing MDID 3 at the 2011 VRA + ARLIS conference, JMU is using MDID 3 in full production.  At this session, discussion will focus on implementation and training strategies, along with demonstrations of new features and administrator’s tools. The MDID team will be prepared to discuss software and hardware requirements, installation issues, best practices, system integration, custom application development, and other topics.  In addition to demonstrating core features and the Media Viewer classroom presentation tool, the presenters will showcase several innovative applications that have been developed and implemented at James Madison University in collaboration with instructional technologists, librarians, visual resources specialists, and teaching faculty.

This informative session is open to anyone using or interested in MDID. Adequate time for a question and answer period will follow the presentation.

Continuing the tradition of a freely shared educational resource, MDID is distributed free of charge under an open source license and is used at many institutions across the United States and around the world.

ORGANIZER:

Christina B. Updike, James Madison University

CO-PRESENTERS:

•  Andreas Knab, James Madison University
• Christina B. Updike, James Madison University

EmbARK is a suite of software tools designed to catalog and manage collections.  Cataloguer enables the user to input metadata; manage image, movie, sound, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and PDF files; and provides import/export tools to easily migrate data.  Records can be grouped into portfolios for managing thematic topics or internal projects. Comprehensive searching options are available.  There will be time for discussion of the latest versions of EmbARK and Web Kiosk.

Questions can be submitted in advance to the session speaker.

ORGANIZER: Marlene Gordon, University of Michigan-Dearborn

PRESENTER: Robb Detlefs, Gallery Systems <Robb@GALLERYSYSTEMS.COM>

This event, organized by the Membership Committee, is a venue for student members and emerging professionals to meet with each other and with members of the leadership of the VRA, including one or more Executive Board members. The question and answer format provides an opportunity to ask VRA leaders about topics such as educational issues, employment opportunities, and emerging trends in image management. It provides VRA leadership with an occasion to share ways in which student and new professional members bring valuable knowledge and insights to our organization, and encourage such members to become active within the association. It is also an important opportunity for emerging professionals and student members to network with each other. While the Membership Committee Chair will be present to moderate the discussion, the goal is to allow for an environment where an informal and collegial dialogue can unfold, and provide a starting place where  members and VRA leadership can learn from each other.

Todd Carter, is widely respected as a creative visionary and leader in the digital assets, photography and linked open data community, with over 20 years experience in working with photo archives, libraries and information technology systems. Todd is the CEO and Co-founder of Tagasauris, a meta-data curation platform. Todd will discuss his views on the role that visual resources play in the information technology landscape of the future. Todd's talk will focus on improving media annotation with open sourced anthologies, linked open data, semantics, machines and crowd sourced human computation.

The 2012 Legacy Lecture is made possible through generous donations made in memory of Nancy Schuller. 

Over the past few years visual resources professionals have increasingly been using embedded metadata as an effective way to collect initial cataloging data, to ensure the delivery of  key information with images, to archive image information, and to link VRA Core 4 with other schemas in the larger digital imaging environment. The activities and case study examples presented by panel members will include improving workflow efficiency within visual resources operations and developing ongoing relations with the International Press Telecommunications Council, a pioneer in embedding metadata into images. While this work addresses the immediate needs of visual resources for art, architecture, and related fields, it simultaneously looks outward to the increasing interoperability of all digital materials available in library collections and on the world wide web.

ORGANIZER & MODERATOR:  Steve Tatum, Virginia Tech

PRESENTERS:

1: Sheryl Frisch, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
2: Joshua Lynn and Heidi Raatz, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
3: Gregory Reser, University of California, San Diego
4: Steve Tatum, Virginia Tech

At a time of international financial instability, with positions constantly under threat, analogue collections facing forced closure and space at a premium, this session will hear from VR professionals who are reinventing themselves and evolving roles in changing landscapes, pushing into new disciplines and spaces.

Each speaker will discuss the new roles they have taken on, either by accident or design and how their experiences are shaping their view of the VR profession in “the tens”. In many cases this has meant working across disciplines; making their professional presence felt in the classroom and the boardroom; developing new skills but in all cases, broadening their horizons through collaboration.

Speakers will discuss supporting courses beyond traditional visual arts, design and art history; collaborating with libraries, IT and faculty in course development and delivery; working with artists and archivists to preserve and expose their work, collections and archives; building repositories; involvement in project funding applications; working in arts research and coordinating non-traditional research outputs.

ORGANIZER: Stephanie Beene, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR

MODERATOR:  Victoria Brown, University of Oxford

PRESENTERS:

1: Stephanie Beene, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR
2: Victoria Brown, University of Oxford, UK
3: Jodie Double, University of Leeds, UK
4: Catherine Worrall, University College Falmouth, UK

We Want Your Story!  A social event open to all conference participants, “What’s Your Story?” will give everyone two minutes (until music ushers you off the stage!) to share ideas on projects, topics, and professional scenarios using whatever form you choose. Storytelling, visual aids (up to three PowerPoint slides, posters, etc.), singing, or simply straightforward description are all welcome! Following each presentation, the attendees are encouraged to provide two minutes of feedback--or just a standing ovation--to their colleagues. Whether you prepare in advance, take the stage spontaneously, or just come to mix and mingle, we hope you join us for an informal gathering full of real people, real communication, and real fun!  Plenty of hors d'oeuvres will be served, and a variety of beverages will be available.

Co-organized by:

• Elizabeth Gushee, University of Texas at Austin
• Elaine Paul, University of Colorado at Boulder
• Betha Whitlow, Washington University in St. Louis

Charge: To assess the Visual Resources Association's (VRA) current publications, advise on potential new publication formats, and consider how they will operate within an overall communications program. With an eye to ongoing developments, the Publishing Advisory Group (PAG) will provide counsel and oversight to guide the future course of the VRA publications program. Responsibilities include: using recommendations in current VRA Strategic Plans to create and sustain a comprehensive, flexible, and forward-thinking VRA publications program; recommending changes in existing publications; and pursuing new modes of communication in light of technological advances and the efficient use of organization resources. The PAG will work with the VRA's Public Relations and Communications Officer as well as collaborate with individuals and committees involved in Association publication activities. All changes to the VRA Publications program will require VRA Board approval.

Annual breakfast event for new VRA members and those attending their first VRA conference. Let breakfast be on us while you mix and mingle with both new and longtime members of the Association. The event is also an opportunity to meet VRA leaders. Attending the breakfast is a great way to meet others in our organization in a friendly and social environment. Be sure to bring your mentor or mentee. You definitely do not want to miss out on the fun!

ORGANIZER: Jacqueline Spafford, University of California, Santa Barbara

This information discussion will focus on issues related to the management and growth of collections in architecture programs and collections with large architecture components.  The discussion will be driven by topics of interest to audience members.  Topics addressed might include cataloguing issues, challenges and solutions to building digital content, ways to share content, SAHARA, etc.  Attendees are encouraged to bring topics, ideas and examples to the meeting for lively discussion.

ORGANIZER:  Jesse Henderson, Colgate University

Yearly meeting for members of the IRIS collaborative and those who are not members, yet interested to find out more. 

Conference Registration and Hospitality

While the seemingly exponential array of new technologies offers the potential to enhance the services we provide, simply keeping up with what is available (or on the horizon) is a daunting process. This fast-paced session will demonstrate a rich variety of new technologies, emphasizing concrete examples that show engagement in professional contexts. Utilizing the expertise of energetic, tech-savvy presenters, this session will introduce new tools as well as creative uses of more established technologies, demystifying them to empower session attendees to further investigate on their own. Emphasis will be given to technologies that can be readily utilized in teaching, learning, and research environments.

CO-ORGANIZERS:

Betha Whitlow, Washington University in St. Louis

Meghan Musolff, University of Michigan

MODERATOR:  Betha Whitlow, Washington University in St. Louis

PRESENTERS

1: Carolyn Caizzi, Yale University
2: Meghan Musolff, University of Michigan
3: John Trendler, Scripps College
4: Betha Whitlow, Washington University in Saint Louis

The digitization of historic archival collections can present a daunting array of challenges.  Often archives were collected with poor documentation and little information about the creators or contributors to the collection. The processing of these archival collections sometimes requires special subject area expertise due to the content or special staffing considerations due to the sheer size of the project.  This session focuses on three cases in which archival collections are being processed.  Each presenter will discuss the special challenges within their own institutions’ collection and the solutions they have developed in such areas as copyright, workflow, cataloging, and assembling expert teams. 

MODERATOR: Heather Lowe, California State University San Bernardino

PRESENTERS: 

• Trevor Alvord, James Madison University

                “Delivering oral histories”

• Claire Dienes, Metropolitan Museum of Art

                “A 35mm collection assessment & digitization initiative at The Metropolitan Museum of Art” 

• Shalimar Fojas White, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection

                “The Artamonoff Business: Using Collections Research for Outreach and Strategic Communication"    

The climate surrounding the use of video in educational, scholarly and archival contexts has become increasingly challenging.  Letters sent to universities last year by the Motion Picture Association of America threatening against the unauthorized distributions of copyrighted video has had a chilling effect on campuses.  At the same time, a number of groups have developed fair use guidelines in an effort to create clarity surrounding the permissible uses of video in educational and scholarly contexts.  This panel will discuss different ways to navigate the legal risks surrounding the use of video for education, scholarship and archiving.  Among the questions that will be addressed are:  What are the legal risks involved with teaching with and archiving video content and how can you mitigate those risks?  Does adhering to fair use guidelines offer any legal protections?  Under what circumstances is it permissible to ‘rip’ videos from DVDs for educational or archival use?  What are some ways to address legal concerns involving the creation and distribution of appropriation video art?

ORGANIZER & MODERATOR: Cara Hirsch, ARTstor

PRESENTERS

1: Steve Anderson, Director, PhD Program in Media Arts & Practice and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California 

2: Rebecca Cleman, Director of Distribution, Electronic Arts Intermix

3: Gordon Quinn, Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films 

A highlight of the Conference, the Awards Luncheon brings us together for a full buffet luncheon in an elegant setting as we announce the recipients of the Association’s major honors and awards.  Join with your colleagues in celebrating this year’s Distinguished Service Award and Nancy DeLaurier Award honorees.  At this time, we will also recognize the recipients of the 2012 Travel Awards, along with the generous donors who have made these awards available.

*PLEASE NOTE: The cost of this event is included in your conference registration fee. However, prior registration for this event is required for purposes of room scheduling and catering arrangements.

ARTstor is a non-profit digital library that provides more than one million images of cultural objects and architectural works covering a wide range of historical, political, social, economic, and cultural documentation from prehistory to the present. ARTstor collections enable a wide range of users -- curators, scholars, educators, librarians, and students -- to teach and study with images in an online environment optimized for exploring visual content in new and exciting ways. This meeting will highlight ARTstor collections and platform features, and will also provide an update on Shared Shelf.

MODERATOR:

• Christine Kuan, Chief Curatorial Officer, ARTstor

PRESENTERS:

• Christine Kuan, Chief Curatorial Officer, ARTstor
• Megan Marler, Director of Strategic Services, Shared Shelf, ARTstor
• Dustin Wees, Director of Metadata, ARTstor

The Committee is responsible for:

Assisting the Treasurer in maintaining surveillance over the funds and investments of the Association with the goal of steadily increasing the assets while providing funds.

Ensuring that the Association maintains a reserve fund equal to 6 months of current operating expenses.

Reviewing and revising, at least annually, the Association’s strategy for long-term financial growth and stability with the goal of hiring a management firm to perform the daily operations of the Association.

Investigating for the Treasurer investment vehicles for the Association; the Treasurer will submit the recommendations of the committee to the Executive Board for approval.

Working with the Development Committee to ensure that funds raised by that Committee are appropriately allotted or invested.

Ensuring that the Investment Policy and the Treasurer’s Manual are reviewed and updated regularly.

Fair use provides the right to make certain uses of images and other copyrighted materials without seeking permission from, or paying fees to, the copyright owners of those materials. However, many in the educational and cultural heritage communities are uncertain how to apply fair use in actual practice. The VRA Intellectual Property Rights Committee has created a Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research and Study to provide guidance to the VRA community on when it is appropriate to rely on fair use and to document our long-standing community practices in this area.  The Committee believes that, as with other communities’ statements of fair use, documentation of these community practices and principles will help the community of educational and scholarly image users rely on fair use with greater confidence.

This panel discussion will present the Fair Use Guidelines and answer such questions as: Do I need to seek permission in order to reproduce and display images for teaching purposes? Can I rely on fair use in posting images on a course website or other online study materials? Must I receive clearance in order to publish images in a dissertation or thesis? Can I rely on fair use in order to preserve image materials in other formats? Do I need to seek permission in order to share images with other educational and scholarly institutions? It will also provide a behind-the-scenes look at the careful process by which the VRA Guidelines have been formulated and vetted by expert legal opinion. The panel will be followed by ample opportunity for audience members to ask questions relating the principles and procedures set forth in the Guidelines to their own situations.

MODERATOR:  Allan T. Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

SPEAKERS:
Cara Hirsch, Deputy General Counsel, ARTstor
Gretchen Wagner, General Counsel, Secretary, and Vice President of Administration, ARTstor

VRA Regional Chapter Chairs Meeting

Planning meeting for the 2013 VRA Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. Members of VRA New England Regional Chapter, VRA Executive Board, and interested others are all welcome to attend.

FACILITATORS:

Cindy Abel Morris , University of New Mexico; VRA Vice President for Conference Arrangements, Incoming

Brian Shelburne, University of Massachusetts Amherst; VRA Vice President for Conference Arrangements

The purpose of the SEI is to provide information professionals with valuable training and education in the area of visual resources and image management. Under the direction of the Executive Boards of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF), the Implementation Team (IT) is charged as the management group for the Summer Educational Institute (SEI) providing or coordinating administration, local arrangements, registration, scheduling, fundraising, publicity, curriculum, instruction and teaching materials.

Implementation Team

All conference attendees are cordially invited to the Visual Resources Association's 30th Anniversary Fiesta.  Please join us in the elegant Casa Esencia, the 1783 Armijo family hacienda, just steps from the hotel, to celebrate the distinctive identity of the VRA as a professional community. The Casa Esencia, one of New Mexico's most historic buildings, has been transformed into a sophisticated event venue with a design scheme reflecting a unique blend of contemporary Albuquerque and Spanish Territorial design.

Enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.

Meeting of the VRA Mid-Atlantic Chapter

• Mid-Atlantic Chapter Chair: Jacqueline Protka, Corcoran Gallery of Art / College of Art + Design

The VRA Annual Business Meeting is the official forum for conducting Association business. The agenda includes the President's State of the Association message; the Treasurer's report; updates on current and future Association projects and activities; the recognition of outgoing officers, committee chairs, and appointees; the induction of incoming officers, committee chairs, and appointees; and the presentation on the 2013 conference host city. There will be an opportunity for questions and announcements from the membership.  Breakfast will be provided.

This year we will be recognizing the contributions and lives of those members who have passed since VRA's 25th Anniversary ceremony, including a tribute to Nancy Schuller, one of VRA's founders.

The Executive Board cordially invites all Visual Resources Association members to attend and participate. 

This informal discussion will focus on recent developments in cataloging and metadata.  To start things off, Jan Eklund, independent metadata consultant, will give an overview of CollectionSpace and Jonathan Ward, editor at the Getty Vocabulary Program, will talk about CONA.  An open discussion will follow which will be driven by the presentations and any other topics of interest to audience members including CCO, Getty vocabularies, embedded metadata, semantic web, Dublin Core, etc.  Attendees are encouraged to bring their cataloging conundrums and solutions to the meeting for lively discussion.

Jointly organized by Sherman Clarke, Elisa Lanzi (Smith College), Meghan Musolff (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor), and Greg Reser (University of California-San Diego).

Marita Sturken, Associate Professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California and Lisa Cartwright state the following in their book Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture:  “Over the course of the last two centuries, Western culture has come to be dominated by visual rather than oral or textual media. Even the bastion of the printed word, the newspaper, has turned to images— and color images by the end of the twentieth century— to draw in its readers and add to the meaning of its stories. Images have never been merely illustrations, they carry important content.”

We all seem to agree that our culture has moved from oral in tradition to a visual one. Since the digital revolution that introduced the personal computer in the 1980's our interaction with images has increased dramatically. Music videos, video games, computer graphics, computer games, and now social media contribute to increase an emphasis in the visual in our culture. Let's not forget the smart phones, the tablets and the incessant need to be connected and see something. However, it seems that our immersion in a visual culture has left us less prepared to engage in a critical visual discourse. How do we engage in critical discourse of the visual messages we receive? How do we analyze and contextualize these messages? In this session we will define context, content, methods, and examples of how a visual culture indeed shape our beliefs and ideologies.

ORGANIZER: Alma Hoffmann, Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne University

MODERATOR:  Erika Church, University of Utah

PRESENTERS:

•   Alma Hoffmann, Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne University
•   Brooke Scherer, University of Tampa
•   Renee Meyer Ernst, St. Ambrose University

Conference Registration and Hospitality

Shared Shelf is a web-based image management software service developed by ARTstor that provides support for managing and actively using images — cataloging, editing, storing, and sharing them. Shared Shelf also enables seamless integration of image collections with the ARTstor Digital Library. This meeting will highlight new developments and features in Shared Shelf.

PRESENTERS
1: Megan Marler, Director of Strategic Services, ARTstor
2: Elizabeth Berenz, Senior Implementation Manager, ARTstor
3: Caroline Caviness, Implementation Manager, ARTstor

The charge to the Awards Committee is to encourage worthy nominations from the VRA membership and evaluate them using the established criteria for the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) and the Nancy DeLaurier Award (NDA). To then recommend to the Executive Board one potential recipient for the DSA award and one or more recipients for the NDA Award, to notify the recipients, to prepare the award presentation speech from the supportive materials, and make arrangements for the award presentation at the annual conference.

The Development Committee’s charge is to recommend to the Executive Board fund-raising ventures and the means to implement them; to coordinate all fund-raising activities for the Visual Resources Association authorized by the Executive Board.

The committee charge is to study and monitor intellectual property and copyright issues; and to develop and promote the Association's position on intellectual property rights issues and educate the membership on these issues.

The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch.

Please note that Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches are "Dutch Treat", that is, at each diner's own expense.

FACILITATOR: Jennifer Kniesch, Dickinson College

The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch.

Please note that Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches are "Dutch Treat", that is, at each diner's own expense.

FACILITATOR: Macie Hall, Johns Hopkins University

The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch.

Please note that Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches are "Dutch Treat", that is, at each diner's own expense.

FACILITATOR: Marlene Gordon, University of Michigan-Dearborn

With the advent of digital technology, image repositories are no longer limited to a single physical presence on campus or in a museum.  This provides motivation for creative thinking and prompts the establishment of new working relationships within our own institutions as well as on a national level.  As curators, librarians, and faculty become well versed in the use of digital technology, many have been able to optimize the development of their resources through successful collaborative ventures. This session will highlight some of these recent projects at academic institutions, museums, and cultural archives.

ORGANIZER & MODERATOR:  Karin S. Whalen, Reed College

PRESENTERS:

• Jen Green, Lamson Library and Learning Commons, Plymouth State University
• Marianne Martin, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
• Laura Anne Heller, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
• Stephanie Post, The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Jenni Rodda, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

The term “visual literacy” was first coined in 1969 by Jack Debes of Kodak, co-founder of the International Visual Literacy Association. According to the Association of College and Research Libraries “Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,” visual literacy “is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture.”

The three case studies in this session will explore (1) implementing visual literacy standards and guidelines at Lewis & Clark College, (2) visual literacy among library and information science students at Wayne State University, and (3) curating and building a collection of image-based art history exam questions at Michigan State University.

MODERATOR:  John Taormina, Duke University

PRESENTERS:

• Joan Beaudoin, Wayne State University

“A Case Study of Visual Literacy Among Library and Information Science Students.”

• Stephanie Beene, Lewis & Clark College

“Implementing Visual Literacy Standards and Guidelines at Lewis & Clark.”

• Alex Nichols, Michigan State University

“Curating Questions: Building a Collection of Image-Based Art History Exam Questions.”

Charge: To engage in research, build accessible resources, and share information about educational and professional development opportunities for the VRA membership by remaining in contact with appropriate members of related professional organizations and educational institutions. To regularly solicit information from the VRA membership about interests and educational concerns in order to develop supportive programming at the annual conference and as other opportunities arise.

• Vendor Presentations – a general session in which Vendors will have the opportunity to present their offerings or services to a focused audience
• Vendor Exhibits –  exhibitors will be provided with display tables in the room at which they can meet attendees, distribute literature, and gather contact information. Wine and cheese will be offered as refreshments for attendees.  Attendees will be able to purchase raffle tickets for chances to win an array of exciting prizes. Vendors are encouraged to donate items to the raffle.  The winning tickets will be announced at the conclusion of the Vendor Slam.

ORGANIZERS:

Jesse Henderson, Colgate University

Barbara Brenny, North Carolina State University

Meeting of the Greater New York Chapter

• Greater New York Chapter Chair: Claire Dienes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Meeting of the VRA Great Lakes Regional Chapter

• Great Lakes Chapter Chair: Marlene Gordon, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Meeting of the VRA Midwest Regional Chapter

• Midwest Chapter Chair: Rebecca Moss, University of Minnesota

Meeting of the VRA New England Regional Chapter

• New England Chapter Chair: Jen Green, Plymouth State University

Joint meeting of the VRA Northern California and Southern California Regional Chapters

• Northern California Chapter Chair: Abby Dansiger, Academy of Art University
• Southern California Chapter Chair: Greg Reser, University of California, San Diego

Meeting of the VRA Pacific Rim Regional Chapter

• Pacific Rim Chapter Chair: Joshua Polansky, University of Washington/Seattle

Meeting of the VRA Southeast Regional Chapter

• Southeast Chapter Chair: Barbara Brenny, North Carolina State University

Meeting of the VRA Texas Regional Chapter

• Texas Chapter Chair: Katherine Moloney, Amon Carter Museum

Meeting of the VRA Upstate New York Regional Chapter

• Upstate New York Chapter Chair: John Hosford, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University

The Summer Educational Institute, a joint project of ARLIS/NA and the VRA Foundation, has provided educational summer workshops on image management since 2004.  A long-standing tradition, the SEI Reunion at the VRA conference offers the opportunity for SEI alums, instructors, and organizers to gather informally.  At this year's Reunion, SEI faculty, students, and planners from past Institutes can reconnect, meet the current SEI Implementation Team, and learn more about SEI 2012.  Students attending SEI 2012 are also invited to participate.  This year, by special invitation, VRA Foundation Gold, Silver and Bronze level donors are invited to attend this event where they can meet participants who have benefited from this important educational initiative.

Experience live Flamenco dancing and music by the UNM dance program company, Alma Flamenca, in partnership with the National Institute of Flamenco.  After you've had dinner, come back to the Hotel Albuquerque and we'll supply lively, sensual and colorful dancing and Spanish guitar, finishing off your evening with desserts and beverages.  This is the premier opportunity to support the Tansey Fund for Travel Awards, an important source of funding that helps to bring colleagues (and perhaps you) to conferences.

Fee: $40.00 for everyone, including non-members

Sustain the tradition of funding travel awards - and remember, Luraine would want you to have fun!

(For more on Luraine Tansey and a history of the Travel Awards: http://www.vraweb.org/about/awards/index.html#travel)

Completed your registration but need to add the Tansey event?

*Here's how to add an event to your registration:  First, access the registration page from the Conference portal as you've done before, using the same log-in code.  Select the option *New Submission*."  Now you're ready to add any fee-based event of your choice (you can also add sessions and other non-fee based events as well).

When you've completed your supplemental registration, hit the "Submit" button at the end of the form.  This will be a completely separate transaction.  Perhaps your employer is providing support for conference registration, but not for optional events.  By making a supplemental transaction, you'll receive two separate receipts.  Non-members are welcome to attend.

This invitation-only breakfast is a chance for the VRA Leadership (including Committee Chairs, Chapter Chairs, Board Appointees, VRA Presidents Group and the VRA Executive Board) to gather and discuss organization matters and interests.

Most visual resources facilities and libraries rely heavily upon student workers to keep their operations running smoothly. However, with the rise of Generation Y/Millennials and the cultural impact of Web 2.0 technologies, our former modes of training, motivating, and supervising may no longer be effective. How can we optimize the best qualities of this new generation, while providing them with the training and skills that have always been essential to our daily operations?  This fun, fast-paced, highly interactive workshop will explore truths and biases about Millennials (individuals born after 1980), with a focus on strategies for recruiting, developing, communicating with and retaining quality student staff,and addressing the varying needs and challenges of working with undergraduate students, graduate assistants, and interns.

ORGANIZER
Betha Whitlow, Washington University in Saint Louis

PRESENTERS
1: Jennifer Green, Plymouth State University
2: Meghan Musolff, University of Michigan
3: Amber Ruiz, Stanford University
4: Betha Whitlow, Washington University in Saint Louis

A well designed website is an essential marketing and communication tool for any group, business, or institution, though it can be a costly and highly technical process to create one. However, more and more Visual Resources professionals are having to include web development in their skill sets with little or no help. This fast paced workshop will start with a segment on managing a website development project from start to finish, and end with discussing good design principles, targeting specific user groups, accessibility standards, and need-to-know HTML, CSS style sheets, and Javascript code. Free online web templates such as Wordpress and Google sites will be touched on, but this workshop is mainly geared towards those with institutional restrictions banning third party applications. Attendees will explore this topic through presentations, hands on activities, question and answer sessions, and brainstorming, and leave with resources to help get them started on their own website.

CO-ORGANIZERS:
Sarah Christensen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jennifer Kniesch, Dickinson College

PRESENTERS:

Kingsley Anderson in an Instructor with the University of New Mexico’s Continuing Education division, currently teaching 7 web design and development courses. Kingsley is also president of his own web design business, with over 10 years experience in web design and web development. Kingsley will discuss good design principles, designing with a target audience in mind, accessibility standards, and trends such as designing for touchscreen mobile devices and HTML5/CSS3.

Dawn Feavyour, Visual Resources Curator at Rollins College, managed a project to redesign the Department of Art and Art History's website (including the VRC website) and transfer over to the college's new content management system.  Using the Department's website as a case study, Dawn will cover the basics of website project management, including planning/managing multiple tasks and timescales; managing the website review process; tips for engaging customers to reach consensus on requirements for the site, and managing their expectations during the life cycle of the project; navigating through the constraints of an institution's branding and marketing policies, and managing the pre and post launch processes.

Jennifer Kniesch, Visual Resources Librarian at Dickinson College, will discuss free or nearly free web sites and what they have to offer. Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, Weebly, Blogger, Google sites, and Omeka.net will be explored.

Limited to 15 participants.

As affiliated organizations, the VRA and the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) have jointly held two annual conferences and several regional conferences and events, as well as collaborating in areas such as education, research, and publishing. Members of both the VRA and ARLIS/NA are generally interested in exploring ways to better leverage our common ground while maintaining the identity of each organization and meeting the specific needs of its members. At the 2011 joint VRA + ARLIS/NA conference a well-attended and very lively open forum was held for individuals interested in exploring future collaborations between the two organizations. This event, being offered at both of the 2012 VRA and ARLIS/NA conferences, seeks to continue that dialog in a structured way by providing a collaborative stepping-stone. Panelists will present various partnership models based on their experiences, the findings of the ARLIS/NA VRA Joint Task Force on Collaboration, and members’ feedback from last year's joint conference. Some models will outline the smaller steps for efforts that have already been implemented successfully, such as joint chapter meetings. Others may propose larger steps, such as creating a permanent steering committee to facilitate collaborative initiatives or recommending that the two organizations formally establish a regular joint meeting schedule. The session will conclude with an invitation to the audience to weigh in on these ideas in an "open mic" brainstorming discussion. The presentations and discussion will include both advantages and disadvantages to increased collaboration between the two organizations. The panel will administer a survey to solicit audience feedback following the session, and later prepare a report for both organizations' Executive Boards.

CO-ORGANIZERS:

• Greta Bahnemann, University of Minnesota
• Elaine Paul, University of Colorado Boulder

• Greta Bahnemann and Elaine Paul, former members of the ARLIS/NA-VRA Joint Task Force on Collaboration, will provide a brief introduction to their experiences investigating organizational collaboration.
• Mark Pompelia will describe his perspective having served on the VRA executive boards during both the 2002 and 2011 joint conferences. This will include a basic history, organizational identity, commonalities and differences, finances and other practicalities, lessons learned and, just as important, lessons forgotten.
• Elizabeth Schaub will discuss the Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management (SEI), a successful joint project of ARLIS/NA and the VRA Foundation. SEI uses a collaborative model where members from both organizations work together to serve on the Implementation Team responsible for planning and executing all aspects of the institute. She will also discuss an idea she put forward during the leadership breakfast at the 2011 joint conference in Minneapolis suggesting our organizations consider creating a Think Tank group that would examine emerging trends that might impact the educational and cultural institutions where the majority of our members are employed. 
•  Rebecca Moss will discuss her organizational role in the Minneapolis joint conference between ARLIS/NA and VRA, and her experiences at a local level, where the VRA Midwest and ARLIS/TC chapters have put on joint chapter meetings.
• Jeanne Keefe will discuss her experiences with organizing and attending joint regional meetings between VRA Upstate New York and ARLIS/Western New York , ARLIS/New England and chairing the ARLIS/VRA Summer Educational Institute for two years.
• Audience will be invited to respond with a brainstorming discussion about next steps.

The Cataloguing Case Studies session will explore metadata migration, workflows, cloud computing, and tagging and how they can be applied to digital collections. Mary Alexander of the University of Alabama will present on the second of two migrations that have taken place at the University of Alabama Libraries and the importance of metadata schema and workflows in that process.  Joshua Polansky of the University of Washington will describe his automated workflow using optical character recognition (OCR), Apple Automator, and Microsoft Excel to speed the process of collecting metadata for 75,000 digital assets.  Elizabeth Berenz of ARTstor will look at the advantages of cloud based software for image management using Shared Shelf as a working example.  And finally Ian McDermott will demonstrate the advantages of expert tagging and annotation in improving metadata.  His presentation will focus on two ARTstor collections that could benefit from the knowledge of the larger ARTstor community: the Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings and the Larry Qualls Archive of contemporary art exhibitions.

MODERATOR:
Jeannine Keefer, University of Richmond, VA

PRESENTERS:
Mary Alexander, University of Alabama
Elizabeth Berenz, ARTstor
Ian McDermott, ARTstor
Joshua Polansky, University of Washington

Charge: To support the Association’s membership retention and enrollment efforts in conjunction with the Membership Services Coordinator. This includes the development and maintenance of contact lists and listservs, placing advertisements where appropriate, and coordinating the regional chapters program through involvement, encouragement, and recognition. To make recommendations to the Executive Board and implement decisions of the Executive Board in accordance with the Association’s Membership.

The Committee Charge:
To maintain the Travel Award program that has been established to encourage participation and attendance by VRA members at the Association’s annual conference; to administer the awards by formulating criteria for application guidelines and the selection of the award recipients upon approval by the Executive Board; and to arrange for the presentation of the awards.

The Travel Awards Committee will be responsible for planning and making arrangements for the Tansey fund-raising event held at the annual conference; the proceeds of which go to the Tansey Fund to provide the travel awards.

The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch.

Please note that Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches are "Dutch Treat", that is, at each diner's own expense.

FACILITATOR: Maureen Burns, IMAGinED Consulting

The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch.

Please note that Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches are "Dutch Treat", that is, at each diner's own expense.

FACILITATOR:  John M. Trendler, Scripps College

Amy Herman is the President and Founder of The Art of Perception (www.artfulperception.com) which is a professional development program that teaches medical, legal, and law enforcement professionals to enhance their observation, perception, and communication skills by learning to analyze works of art. As an attorney and art historian, Ms. Herman has developed this innovative program using practical experience from both disciplines. The Art of Perception was originally designed for medical students when Ms. Herman was the Head of Education at The Frick Collection and she subsequently adapted the program for a wide range of law enforcement agencies including the New York Police Department, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Peace Corps, and the Secret Service. She conducts her sessions in museums around the country as well as in secured training centers. In her presentation, Ms. Herman will discuss the applicability and relevance of visual literacy across the professional spectrum and how the analysis and perception of works of art has afforded the participants in her program a new and innovative way to refresh their sense of inquiry and reconsider the skills necessary for professional success.