Visual Resources Association
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Grounding Digital Scholarship in the Analog: Reimagining Library Fellowships Post-Pandemic
No full textA digital object is grounded in the analog. By examining the object in a continuum rather than its current state, we can better understand both the analog item and its digital representation. As part of this pedagogical exploration, we reimagined a year-long, library-based, digital scholarship fellowship that provides hands-on instruction for undergraduate students, grounded in physical collections and spaces,but resulting in digital manifestations. The fellowship focuses on social justice by highlighting ethical issues in the field of digital scholarship, specifically exploring the topics of labor, race, gender, disability, infrastructure, and environmental inequality. We frame the work through a pedagogy of play, or critical making, that encourages students to embrace failure.
As instructors and collaborators, our philosophy is deeply informed by the scholarship of André Brock, Miriam Posner, and Katherine Harris, which manifests in the readings and activities we integrate into the course. In the fellowship, students grapple with the theoretical work of a diverse set of scholars (Simone Browne, Shannon Mattern, Lisa Nakamura, Lauren Klein, Catherine D'Agnozio, etc.) and experiment with a wide range of kinesthetic, object-oriented digital literacy activities. Each week, students create digital objects and interact via touch, smell, and feel with analog objects. Our discussions act as the bridge between these two modes, making their relationship explicit. Without the analog objects, the relationship and history these objects have with our library would be lost
Interactive Topography with IIIF: Open Access to Photographs from the Ernest Nash Fototeca Unione Collection
No full textThe Ernest Nash collection documents ancient Roman architectural monuments and associated archaeological artifacts in pre- and post-World War II Italy. What made Nash’s work significant, beyond capturing the present state of the ancient Roman monuments at a volatile historical moment, was the primacy of topographical photography and the systematic order he brought to this subject.
The American Academy’s Photographic Archive has contributed some of Nash's images to an open access, interactive website called the Urban Legacy of Ancient Rome. This geo-referenced digital resource reveals the ancient city of Rome in stunning detail and makes it possible to explore and examine approximately three thousand photographs housed in the Fototeca Unione Collection. They are available for viewing and zooming in but also can be used with IIIF-compatible viewers.
The Academy continues to digitize and describe the extended Fototeca Unione Collection with the generous support of the Kress Foundation and has recently made all of their image collections IIIF compatible. In partnership with Archivision and vrcHost, new high quality digital photography is being added to enrich these historical images with contemporary photographs of the same Roman monuments in order to document changes – whether conserved, restored, altered, reconstructed, re-sited, or destroyed.
This article provides a progress report on this demonstration project which is searching for efficiencies and learning more about what it takes to move digital photography into IIIF. Finding new ways to provide ready access and juxtapose historic and contemporary photography online builds upon the legacy of Nash's quality curation and scholarship to create an accessible, twenty-first century, online educational resource of interest and utility to scholars, students, and a wide audience of ancient Roman enthusiasts.
Acknowledgements:
The Fototeca Unione project has been made possible by a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Moreover, we would like to thank the American Academy in Rome, Photographic Archive Staff, and Sebastian Hierl, Drue Heinz Librarian of the American Academy in Rome. We would also like to sincerely thank Scott Gilchrist, founder of Archivision, for taking on the challenge of photographing Roman monuments for the Rome Revisited project and supporting it in so many ways as well as Andreas Knab of vrcHost for readily sharing his technological expertise, importing the new images and metadata into MDID, and making them IIIF compatible. Both of these generous colleagues support VRA conferences and a number of other VRA initiatives/activities–we appreciate their spirit of experimentation and collaboration
Letter from the Editors: 50th Anniversary Edition
No full textOn the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Visual Resources Association Bulletin, the editors take the time to reflect on the past, present, and future of the VRAB
The VRA Core in a Digital Library of Artistic Production
No full textThe database Digital Library of Artistic Production contains images of artistic works created in the Visual Arts courses at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo, including engravings, drawings, photographs, artist books, photobooks, sculptures, and three-dimensional objects. The VRA Core was chosen to develop the database because it is a standard created especially for works of art and their images. In two years of cataloging tests, it has already been possible to verify that the VRA metadata is suitable for artists and contemporary art researchers
Review of "Artefacts, Archives, and Documentation in the Relational Museum Review"
No full textThis review provides a summary of the book Artefacts, Archives, and Documentation in the Relational Museum, based on recent doctoral research by author Mike Jones. It speaks to museum professionals at all levels and Library Science or Museum Studies students. Through a discussion of historical circumstances and an intensive case study of Museums Victoria, Jones covers the treatment of museum archives and broader issues related to collections management and documentation systems. This book adds new information to the overall challenges of information management in the history of analog to digital migrations, provides key figures, dates, and places in these initiatives, and compels the reader to reconceptualize collections management technologies and practice
Centering Humans and Humanity in Visual Resources: An Interview with Rebecca Y. Bayeck, Ph.D.
No full textIn this interview, Rebecca Y. Bayeck, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences at Utah State University, calls upon her interdisciplinary research and study of gameplay, learning environments, and emerging technologies to engage with current discussions in the visual resources field. The discussion explores inclusive digital exhibitions, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic processes, and positionality. Dr. Bayeck investigates conceptual approaches to the stewardship of visual collections including “conceiving [of] visitors as students or learners enrolled in the digital exhibition classroom” and “unlearning how we define information practices.
"I love getting to share my art with other people:": Undergraduate Studio Art Student Perceptions of Visual Culture
No full textWhile previous literature has extensively explored the research habits and information needs of art students, little attention has been given to their relationship with the broader landscape of visual culture. This qualitative study explores first-year studio art student attitudes and self-perceived roles as creators and consumers of visual culture. Study findings reveal heightened awareness of their visual surroundings as well as multiple modes of engagement, including through social media platforms. These insights point to the ever-evolving nature of art education, and the opportunities that instruction librarians have for incorporating relevant content into information literacy instruction through critical visual literacy. 
2023 VRA Awards Recipients & Recognition: Presented at the 41st annual conference, San Antonio, Texas
No full textThe Visual Resources Association (VRA) presented four awards to sixteen deserving individuals at the 41st annual conference in San Antonio, Texas on September 27th, 2023. This group of 2023 awardees includes students, retirees, career-long VRA members, and brand new faces.
The 2023 recipient of the VRA Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is Greg Reser, University of California San Diego’s (UCSD) Art Library Image Cataloger/Metadata Specialist (retired). Jenni Rodda, Manager of Digital Media and Computer Services at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (retired) is a new VRA Honorary Life Member. The 2022 Internship Award recipient was Sagan Thacker of Asheville, North Carolina. The 2023 Internship Awardee is Marco Lanier, a graduate student at Simmons University in Boston. Twelve were selected as recipients of the 2023 vrcHost Membership Awards, including Ezekiel Amari McGee, Gina Caprari, Charlie P. Coffey, Jennifer Galipo, Joan Jocson-Singh, Peter Kaiser, Gina Palumbo, Mimosa Shah, Molly Schoen, Michelle Schweickart, and Warner West
Mobilizing the Values of Our Profession: An Interview with Marika Cifor
No full textIn this transcript from a Zoom interview, Assistant Professor in the Information School at University of Washington and adjunct faculty member in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies Marika Cifor tackles critical issues in the cultural heritage space by striving for a balance between professional ideals and practical circumstances. The conversation delves into complex topics like radical care and empathy, attunement to power and moving away from Anglocentricity, privatization of information and social media engagement, and archives as grief work requiring trauma-informed approaches. While Cifor's research is rooted in archival practice, she evokes diverse information spaces, including prison libraries, public libraries, digital community archives, and academic special collections
Fiscal Year 2022 Visual Resources Association Treasurer's Report
No full textIn 2023, VRA moved its Annual Conference from March to September. To ensure members received at least one Treasurer's Report per year, an Interim Report was given at VRA’s Mid-Year Business Meeting on March 24, 2023. The report includes a summary of activities conducted to merge the finances of the former-VRA and former-VRAF after its legal merger in January 2022. It also summarizes the end-of-fiscal-year finances for 2022