28th Annual Conference / Visual Resources Association

Opening Plenary: Peter Brantley, the Internet Archive
Peter Brantley, is widely respected as a creative, visionary and activist leader in the library community, with over 20 years experience in working with libraries and information technology systems. Peter is currently with the Internet Archive, a well known nonprofit that seeks to preserve copies of the Internet and Internet sites, as well as other cultural artifacts in digital form. Drawing from his significant experience at the Internet Archive as well as the Digital Library Federation and the California Digital Library, Peter will discuss his views of the role that libraries and VR departments should play in the information technology landscape of the future, especially vis-à-vis copyright. In particular, he will discuss what libraries and VR departments should be doing to preserve the scholarly record, to advocate for community standards, and to protect academic access to scholarship given the ongoing, highly-pitched battles between copyright owners and users. Should libraries be taking a more aggressive stand to protect the rights of the academic user? Are libraries and other academic entities ceding too much to commercial entities like Google? Will the library survive if scholars and students increasingly go directly to the internet to obtain what they need? Peter's talk will focus on the potential for collective action among libraries and VR departments to protect and defend the role of the scholar and access to scholarly and educational materials.

The current economic downturn has adversely impacted many visual resources collections and art libraries, but there are ways to advocate for these important facilities and to demonstrate that image and information professionals actively contribute to an institution's mission and technological future by providing necessary expertise, assets, services, and learning spaces. This roundtable will bring together visual resources professionals from a cross-section of institutions who have recently experienced transformative change to discuss strategies for positively coping with negative impacts on professional lives and the status of visual resources facilities. They will address what was learned from such experiences, recommend actions to take, and provide a variety of possible scenarios which can lead to successful outcomes. Ample time will be given to questions from the floor and allowed for audience participation.

As visual resource collections become increasingly digitally focused and opportunities to personally meet incoming students and faculty decreases, we now are charged with making our virtual presence more visible, as well as reaching out to our users where they already are on the web. The web environment is our second home and equally as important as our physical space and appearance. Most of our student patrons will never have to cross our threshold, but they will use our services if they are aware of them. We can find them on Facebook, Twitter, and get them to read our RSS feeds. But, how do we organize and maintain these avenues of information? Visual resources professionals need to design information hubs that direct users to other web-based resources as well as local collections, and blogs offer a lot of potential for achieving that. It is clear that students and faculty who feel engaged by staff online are more likely to utilize resources and services; blogs can be a dynamic hub for the web tools we use to reach our patrons. This session will introduce you to creative ways to design and market blogs, strategies for keeping blogs relevant and dynamic, an overview of other web tools that support user access and experience, as well as strategies for quantifying a blog's success.
Blogs presented include: Derivative Image, Visual Resourcefulness, All Things Visual, and Deep Focus.

This presentation will address the gathering and use of statistics from three distinct points of view. The first part will describe the impetus behind and development of an online statistical database. Employees of the UNM University Libraries created this system to automate and replace the pencil tic process of reference statistics gathering necessary for annual ARL reporting. In addition to describing the process, the tool itself will be demonstrated. (Further, it is available, free, to other institutions through Creative Commons licensing.) The second portion will be a report from the VR trenches, describing how the Bunting Library has adapted and implemented this new technology. Although only six months of data will be available, it is hoped that trends will be evident which describe how the data can validate that one VR facility is doing to meet the ongoing digital transition. In addition, the possibility of using the data for administrative requirements addressing outcomes assessment and performance based budgeting will be considered. Finally, demonstrating another facet of the numbers "game", ARTstor staff will explore the unique needs and challenges of reporting and effectively evaluating the usage of multimedia resources. They will discuss usage data, and how analysis of these data are used to improve ARTstor collections and services, and how ARTstor is working with the community to develop new approaches for reporting media asset statistics.

This session will examine the potential repurposing of spaces originally occupied by physical collections into Learning Spaces, dedicated to the creation, instruction and use of digital visual resources. It will provide an overview of the concept of Learning Spaces, including why it is important and worthwhile to advocate for and invest time, energy and money in this type of space. Panelists will speak on issues including how to negotiate for such a space, and provide specific examples of VR collections that have investigated or have completed the shift to a Learning Space.
Due to the shift from analog slides to digital images, many visual resource collections are either currently facing, or will soon face, a major change in the use of space. What was once known as the "slide room" has grown to include a variety of resources for ever-evolving research and teaching needs, as well as digital image creation and manipulation. An inevitable part of that evolution includes using and presenting digital technology as a way to organize, search, present, research, and discover visual resources. The transition to Learning Spaces can help keep the visual resource collection--and the professionals that staff it-be vital, viable, and necessary in these uncertain times.

Over the last few years, many of us have successfully migrated from a workflow process that handled analog image materials to a new workflow that manages and processes digital images. However, at the same time, we cannot totally discard our traditional collections of slides, black & white photographs, and large-format color transparencies. Instead, there has been discussion about developing vigorous retention, assessment and preservation policies or procedures of culling existing analog materials, assessing their significance to our institutions' missions, preserving and digitizing any unique and hidden content in our collections, and storing them permanently in our image databases or digital asset management systems. Another challenge associated with the process of managing or disposing of these analog materials is space planning for a new or repurposed VR center or image library. We must safeguard any unique and important analog collections, while simultaneously re-engineering our space to adjust to the changing needs and priorities of our patrons. Many of us now confront a pressing need to re-purpose our analog-designed spaces to fit a digital world: areas for digital workstations and technology can end up sharing real estate with our analog collections, contributing to the space planning challenges we face.
In this session, professionals from differing VR environments will discuss how they have met the challenges of culling and re-housing their collections, developing strategic plans to digitize and preserve any unique or hidden content in their collections, and re-purposing their workspaces. There is no single way to address these challenges; instead, we hope that through lively discussion, we can learn from each others' experience and then apply what is relevant at our home institutions. Speakers will emphasize what is practical and reasonable, with an eye to the future.

Currently visual resources managers are frequently tasked with preparing data not only within their database, but also to be served out to multiple tools--to their local delivery systems, to ARTstor, to an institutional repository. How can we make our data work harder than we do? What skills and tools do we need to perform this work efficiently, both for ourselves and working with others? How can we craft data that is nimble and easy to transform as needed for different tools and different users? In this session, presenters will discuss "polymorphous" metadata from a practical standpoint, focusing on the theory and the what, the why and the how.

Following on the heels of the first Engaging New Technologies session in Toronto, this fast-paced follow-up will demonstrate a rich variety of new technologies, and show how to engage with a heady array of contemporary products, services and tools. Organized as two distinct but complementary 90 minute sections, this session will present overviews (10 minutes each) of at least 10 tools, providing for a sample of an end product use, an overview of the software itself (demystifying the process involved in using it), followed by an open opportunity to brainstorm about how each tool or technology can be applied (matched) to our own work to support instruction, communication and research. Topics Covered in Part 1: Cloud Computing, including social computing, micro blogging, integrative computing, mobile computing, and online privacy; 3D Technologies, including rapid prototyping, 3D display, 3D modeling, and virtual realities; How to Keep Up With New Technologies and Fun Stuff with updates to technologies introduced at VRA Toronto, including display, social, and pedagogical technology.

This session will look at some instances where European Visual Resources professionals have morphed their roles and sought ways to maintain their positions, at a time when our profession is in a state of flux due to economic, institutional and technological factors. Each speaker will discuss specific initiatives and projects they have become involved in, which in turn represent a snapshot of a new VR profession emerging within the European domain.

Following on the heels of the first Engaging New Technologies session in Toronto, this fast-paced follow-up will demonstrate a rich variety of new technologies, and show how to engage with a heady array of contemporary products, services and tools. Organized as two distinct but complementary 90 minute sections, this session will present overviews (10 minutes each) of at least 10 tools, providing for a sample of an end product use, an overview of the software itself (demystifying the process involved in using it), followed by an open opportunity to brainstorm about how each tool or technology can be applied (matched) to our own work to support instruction, communication and research. Topics Covered in Part 2: Video, including where to find video content, how to edit and present video, and classroom applications; Semantic Web, including general information and principles, embedded metadata, and products/projects; How to Keep Up With New Technologies and Fun Stuff with new and different technologies of the presenters' choice.

This session considers two large commercial photographs collections in the Georgia State University Library that were acquired as a corporate archives, arranged and preserved in an archival manner, and accessed using traditional archival access tools. When the Library acquired CONTENTdm in 2009, the conceptual approach to the collections had to change: the photographs collections are now being considered as assemblages of items and small series. As the demand for creating item-level metadata developed, so too did the possibility of using the collections as the basis of a research project rather than illustrations of research already compiled. Three presentations consider the (1)acquisition, history and preservation of the collections; (2) shift in thinking of the collections as archives to collections of images; and (3) the use of the images as research resource. Specifically, the presentations are titled, "From Office Records to Archives" (Roberts), "From Archives to Image" (Hardesty), "From Image to Idea" (Zietz).

ALL of the Engaging New Technologies presenters will be available to answer your questions on the following topics: Video, Embedding Metdata, Gadgets, Cloud Computing, and "Getting Started with New Technologies-General Questions About Anything and Everything." The New Technologies Booth is sponsored by the VRA Education Committee, and co-organized by Susan Jane Williams. Designed to complement the two-part Engaging New Technologies session, the Experts Booth will provide a casual space for conference attendees to ask questions about and interact with new technologies. The primary goal is to provide people with a relaxed environment to engage with the Emerging Technologies presenters and get their questions answered!

Embedding metadata in image files is an idea that is gaining acceptance. Still, there are a lot of questions to answer before we can get consistently usable and sustainable results. This session will explore the challenges of creating embedded metadata and the benefits that might be realized once best practices are established.
Links to additional resources from Session participants: Library of Congress, Digital Preservation | Embedded metadata wiki | Kari's website | SAA 2009 Research Forum: Making Pictures Identifiable in the Long Now: Is Embedding an Answer? | SAA 2009 Research Forum Poster | ControlledVocabulary.com | PhotoMetadata.org | Stock Artists Alliance | Metadata Manifesto | UPDIG (Universal PhotographicDigital Image Guidelines)
Additional Links of Interest: Embedded Metadata, Part I: The Basics and a History | IPTC Photo Metadata | XMP is the New Beetle, IPTC the olde Bug | Adobe: 7 Steps to Understanding XMP Metadata | IDEAlliance: XMP Primer

Many VR positions are changing. Though we may be uncomfortable with the idea of coming out from behind our desks to grapple with new tasks, the time is now for VR professionals to take on multiple roles. One of these significant new roles is that of instructor, whether in the classroom or one-on-one. The transition from full-time cataloger to part-time educator may be a rather overwhelming one for many of us, but the expertise exists within our ranks to help us all become successful instructors.
While many topics fall under the blanket of instruction, this session is devoted to confidence building and providing people with the basic tools to move ahead in an instructional capacity. It will focus on good preparation practices for successful individual and group instruction, strategies for working with a variety of populations from first year college students to older adults, and basic how-to guidance for designing good instruction sessions.

Closing Plenary: Collections of Distinction: Adding Value to the Online Community of Visual Resources
Jason Roy has presented on the subject of digital collections and initiatives at the annual conferences of the Minnesota Digital Libraries (MDL), the Society of American Archivists Annual Conference, and the Archive-It Conference. Currently Head, Digital Collections Unit & Interim Co-director, Digital Library Development Lab, University of Minnesota Libraries, Jason fosters the creation of and access to research and scholarly material in digital form from within the collections of the Libraries and across the University of Minnesota. Making content available to users is an expectation shared by nearly every cultural organization. Often this means an increasing commitment to digitization and the use of online discovery tools for providing access. Since no one institution has the financial resources to digitize everything in their holdings, it is imperative that organizations identify and prioritize which collections most deserve their attention. This session will focus on approaches and methods of targeting those collections within your own institution that can provide the most value to users. By showcasing our own collections of distinction we can significantly impact the growing array of online visual resources now available to our community of users while still highlighting the uniqueness of each of our own holdings. In an era when it is all too easy for institutional administrations to view subscriptions to large image databases as a one size fits all solution to visual resources needs, a shift towards identifying what you have that's unique and getting it out there in a manner that makes your collection relevant to both your local users and the larger universe of image users becomes vital. Some VR collections have already begun this process. Recent success stories include the accessCeramics collection, a pilot project organized by the Visual Resources Collection of Watzek Library and the Art Department of Lewis & Clark College , and the Reed Digital Collections Artists' Books site at Reed College. We can also learn from projects still in the early stages of development, such as Local Color: A Database of Art on Campus being developed at the University of Michigan (watch for updates & announcements on this project via the linked AAEL Blog). Jason's presentation will be followed by a moderated discussion, featuring a panel of respondents composed of VR professionals who have achieved various measures of success in creating and sharing collections of distinction.