Visual Resources Association
Encyclopedia
The Visual Resources Association (also known as VRA) is an international organization for image media professionals,
VRA was founded in 1982 by slide librarians (visual resources curators) who were members of the College Art Association
(CAA), the South Eastern Art Conference (SECAC), the Art Libraries Society of North America
(ARLIS/NA), and the Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA). The association is concerned with creating, describing, and distributing digital images and other media; educating image professionals; and developing standards. The Visual Resources Association Foundation, a 501 C-3 organization created by the VRA, supports research and education in visual resources, and provides educational, literary, and scientific outreach to the archival and library community and the general public.
, and commercial environments. The VRA develops standards, offers educational programs, and publishes a variety of material. It offers a forum for preservation
of and access to digital and analog images of visual culture; cataloging
and classification
standards and practices; integration of technology-based instruction and research; intellectual property
policy; and other topics of interest to the field. It works with the broader information management
and educational communities to support the primacy of visual information in documenting and understanding the cultural experience.
The VRA Board consists of seven officers. The 2010 President is Maureen Burns, IMAGinED Consulting; the previous President was Allan Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art & Design
By the late 1970s, regional and international activity had begun. The Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) recognized the visual resources subgroup as an important part of that international association. Visual resources sessions were provided during its conference in Bologna in 1979, and continued for almost 20 years. The Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) and the Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA) included visual resources sessions at their conferences.
Visual resources curators within the MACAA group, led by Nancy DeLaurier of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, met during MACAA’s annual conferences. In 1972, this group began to meet independently, creating workshops and sessions on various aspects of visual resources maintenance. For the workshops, members developed several kits for the benefit of attending visual resources managers. These kits included information on slide room management, standards, and other practical aspects of the profession. This group also created a newsletter, Slides and Photographs Newsletter, which contained news and information on issues of concern to members. This newsletter was supported by CAA and later by MACAA and eventually became known as the International Bulletin for Photographic Documentation of the Visual Arts.
In 1982, after almost a decade of informal association, visual resources curators active in CAA, MACAA, SECAC, and ARLIS/NA, formalized an independent association and held the first official meeting during the annual CAA meeting in Philadelphia in February 1983.
In the 1990s, the explosion of the Internet and the consequent expansion of the visual resources field to include digital media expanded the role of the association. It led in the effort to develop public understanding of intellectual property rights, protocols for dissemination of digital material, standards of cataloging, and the importance of broad public access to digital cultural information. As an organization, it participated in the Copyright Town Meetings organized by the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) which were held across the country between 1997 and 2004, and were open to the public.
The annual conferences began attracting non-members, while vraweb.org evolved into a source of information for students, professionals, free-lance photographers, even IPR rights managers. Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) gained national recognition as an attempt to standardize the cataloging of visual information, and its workshops, web site, and outreach efforts began educating a broad audience.
The Education Committee sponsored conference workshops on topics of broad interest at the VRA conference and also at other professional conferences. The Digital Scene, a feature of vraweb.org, featured information on collaborative projects, new standards in imaging and metadata, digital preservation issues, consortial projects, training opportunities, and reports from the field. In 2004, the VRA, in conjunction with the ARLIS/NA, began offering a Summer Educational Institute to provide in-depth educational to new professionals.
(ALA). The project was largely funded by the Getty Foundation
. The guide was designed for those who describe and document works of art, architecture, and cultural artifacts.
model, the Core has grown from a list of elements describing art and architectural images to a data standard (with an XML schema to promote the sharing of records) for describing images. The first version was published in 1996, with revisions in 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2007 (resulting in the current version, 4.0.) http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/index.html. In November 2010, the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress
began hosting VRA Core 4 in partnership with the VRA.
VRA was founded in 1982 by slide librarians (visual resources curators) who were members of the College Art Association
College Art Association
The College Art Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for practitioners and scholars of art, art history, and art criticism...
(CAA), the South Eastern Art Conference (SECAC), the Art Libraries Society of North America
Art Libraries Society of North America
The was founded in 1972. It is an organization made up of approximately 1,000 art librarians, library students and visual resource professionals.-Mission:...
(ARLIS/NA), and the Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA). The association is concerned with creating, describing, and distributing digital images and other media; educating image professionals; and developing standards. The Visual Resources Association Foundation, a 501 C-3 organization created by the VRA, supports research and education in visual resources, and provides educational, literary, and scientific outreach to the archival and library community and the general public.
Goals
The association is a multi-disciplinary organization whose purpose is furthering research and education in the field of image management in educational, cultural heritageCultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
, and commercial environments. The VRA develops standards, offers educational programs, and publishes a variety of material. It offers a forum for preservation
Digital preservation
Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...
of and access to digital and analog images of visual culture; cataloging
Library catalog
A library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...
and classification
Library classification
A library classification is a system of coding and organizing documents or library materials according to their subject and allocating a call number to that information resource...
standards and practices; integration of technology-based instruction and research; intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
policy; and other topics of interest to the field. It works with the broader information management
Information management
Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information...
and educational communities to support the primacy of visual information in documenting and understanding the cultural experience.
Membership
In 2010, the VRA had 800 members, mostly from the United States and Canada, but also from Israel, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The membership includes: information specialists; digital image specialists; art, architecture, film and video librarians; museum curators; slide, photograph, microfilm, and digital archivists; architectural firms; galleries; publishers; image system vendors; rights and reproductions officials; photographers; art historians; artists; and scientists. There are thirteen local chapters, including Canada, Northern California, Mid-Atlantic, and Greater New York.The VRA Board consists of seven officers. The 2010 President is Maureen Burns, IMAGinED Consulting; the previous President was Allan Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art & Design
History
From 1968, visual resources curators had been meeting during the College Art Association's annual conferences to discuss issues of particular interest to those involved with the management of art slide collections. During the next few years, the group remained essentially an ad hoc committee.By the late 1970s, regional and international activity had begun. The Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) recognized the visual resources subgroup as an important part of that international association. Visual resources sessions were provided during its conference in Bologna in 1979, and continued for almost 20 years. The Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) and the Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA) included visual resources sessions at their conferences.
Visual resources curators within the MACAA group, led by Nancy DeLaurier of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, met during MACAA’s annual conferences. In 1972, this group began to meet independently, creating workshops and sessions on various aspects of visual resources maintenance. For the workshops, members developed several kits for the benefit of attending visual resources managers. These kits included information on slide room management, standards, and other practical aspects of the profession. This group also created a newsletter, Slides and Photographs Newsletter, which contained news and information on issues of concern to members. This newsletter was supported by CAA and later by MACAA and eventually became known as the International Bulletin for Photographic Documentation of the Visual Arts.
In 1982, after almost a decade of informal association, visual resources curators active in CAA, MACAA, SECAC, and ARLIS/NA, formalized an independent association and held the first official meeting during the annual CAA meeting in Philadelphia in February 1983.
In the 1990s, the explosion of the Internet and the consequent expansion of the visual resources field to include digital media expanded the role of the association. It led in the effort to develop public understanding of intellectual property rights, protocols for dissemination of digital material, standards of cataloging, and the importance of broad public access to digital cultural information. As an organization, it participated in the Copyright Town Meetings organized by the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) which were held across the country between 1997 and 2004, and were open to the public.
The annual conferences began attracting non-members, while vraweb.org evolved into a source of information for students, professionals, free-lance photographers, even IPR rights managers. Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) gained national recognition as an attempt to standardize the cataloging of visual information, and its workshops, web site, and outreach efforts began educating a broad audience.
The Education Committee sponsored conference workshops on topics of broad interest at the VRA conference and also at other professional conferences. The Digital Scene, a feature of vraweb.org, featured information on collaborative projects, new standards in imaging and metadata, digital preservation issues, consortial projects, training opportunities, and reports from the field. In 2004, the VRA, in conjunction with the ARLIS/NA, began offering a Summer Educational Institute to provide in-depth educational to new professionals.
VRA Distinguished Service Award
Each year the Visual Resources Association honors an individual who has made an outstanding career contribution to the field of visual resources and image management. Nominees must have achieved a level of distinction in the field either through leadership, research, or service to the profession. The award has gone to:- 2011 Eileen Fry
- 2010
- 2009
- 2008 Christine E. Hilker
- 2007 Maryly Snow
- 2006 Lynda S. White
- 2005 John Taormina
- 2004 Jenni Rodda
- 2003 Margaret N. Webster
- 2002 Sandra C. Walker
- 2001 Linda McRae
- 2000 Elizabeth J. Antrim
- 1999 Rebecca M. Hoort
- 1998 Brenda MacEachern
- 1997 Christina B. Updike
- 1996 Nancy Shelby Schuller
- 1995 Eleanor Fink
- 1994 Eleanor Collins and Margaret Nolan
- 1993 Luraine Tansey
- 1991 Joy Blouin and Helene E. Roberts
- 1989 Nancy DeLaurier
- 1988 Christine L. Sundt
VRA Nancy DeLaurier Award
The Nancy DeLaurier Award, named for one of the pioneers of the visual resources profession (who received the VRA Distinguished Service Award in 1989), annually honors a visual resources professional for distinguished achievement in the field. Past recipients are:- 2011 Renate Wiedenhoeft
- 2010 Murtha Baca and Patricia Harpring
- 2009 Loy Zimmerman
- 2008 Kathleen Cohen
- 2007 Norine Duncan and Susan Jane Williams
- 2005 John Taormina and Mary Wassermann
- 2003 Allan T. Kohl and Christina B. Updike
- 2002 Christine L. Sundt
Publications
- VRA Bulletin, a scholarly journal, is the flagship publication of the Association.
- Images is the association's bi-monthly online newsletter,
- Membership Directory is published annually.
- Special Bulletins are occasional publications on specific topics. Full list here
- VRA-L is the Listserv, for members only.
- VRAweb.org is the public website, with both public and members-only sections.
Cataloguing Cultural Objects (CCO)
Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images (CCO) is a data content standard published in 2006, sponsored by VRA, and published by the American Library AssociationAmerican Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
(ALA). The project was largely funded by the Getty Foundation
Getty Foundation
The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California, at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts". In the past, it funded the Getty Leadership Institute for "current and future museum leaders", which is now at Claremont Graduate University. Its...
. The guide was designed for those who describe and document works of art, architecture, and cultural artifacts.
VRA Core Categories
Since the 1980s, VRA has worked on creating standards to describe images. To replace the earlier widely varying practices, the association created a common standard, the VRA Core Categories. Somewhat based on the Dublin CoreDublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata terms are a set of vocabulary terms which can be used to describe resources for the purposes of discovery. The terms can be used to describe a full range of web resources: video, images, web pages etc and physical resources such as books and objects like artworks...
model, the Core has grown from a list of elements describing art and architectural images to a data standard (with an XML schema to promote the sharing of records) for describing images. The first version was published in 1996, with revisions in 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2007 (resulting in the current version, 4.0.) http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/index.html. In November 2010, the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
began hosting VRA Core 4 in partnership with the VRA.
Annual Conference
The association's annual conference is held in a different city each year. It features workshops, sessions, tours, and seminars, along with social interaction and vendor displays.- 2012, Albuquerque
- 2011, Minneapolis
- 2010, Atlanta
- 2009, Toronto
- 2008, San Diego
- 2007, Kansas City
- 2006, Baltimore
- 2005, Miami
- 2004, Portland
- 2003, Houston
- 2002, St. Louis
- 2001, Chicago
- 2000, San Francisco
- 1999, Los Angeles
- 1998, Philadelphia
- 1997, New York
- 1996, Boston
Summer Educational Institute
The Summer Educational Institute (SEI) is a joint project with ARLIS/NA. It offers standardized training in image collection management, with a focus on the transition from analog to digital collections. It is held in varied geographical locations to permit maximum attendance:- 2010, University of New MexicoUniversity of New MexicoThe University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
- 2009, Simmons CollegeSimmons CollegeSimmons College may refer to:*Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky*Simmons College , a liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts...
- 2008, James Madison UniversityJames Madison UniversityJames Madison University is a public coeducational research university located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, U.S. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the university has undergone four name changes before settling with James Madison University...
- 2007, Indiana UniversityIndiana UniversityIndiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
- 2006, Reed CollegeReed CollegeReed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
- 2004 and 2005, Duke UniversityDuke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
External links
- VRA Web Site
- VRA Core (Library of Congress)
- Cataloging Cultural Objects
- Summer Educational Institute (SEI)
- VRA Foundation
- Images, the association's online news Bulletin
- Special publications