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
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:
“Delivering oral histories”
“A 35mm collection assessment & digitization initiative at The Metropolitan Museum of Art”
“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
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
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:
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:
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:
“A Case Study of Visual Literacy Among Library and Information Science Students.”
“Implementing Visual Literacy Standards and Guidelines at Lewis & Clark.”
“Curating Questions: Building a Collection of Image-Based Art History Exam Questions.”
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:
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
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.
