Visual Resources Association
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VRAB Volume 3, Issue 4, 1976
No full text"The NEW Newsletter."
This issue includes reports about the fifth MA-CAA Visual Resources gathering held at the Annual MA-CAA Conference at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, October 28-30, centered on the theme, "Professional Awareness." Also addressed are solutions to common color-retention problems in slides, some organizational history, and a discussion of the visual resources job market
The Ernst Nash - Fototeca Unione Collection and the Project “The Urban Legacy of Ancient Rome”
No full textThe Photographic Archive of the American Academy in Rome has been in existence since 1896, and nowadays consists of over 90,000 images. The majority of the photographs focus on ancient architecture, archaeology and topography, in some cases, providing a unique record of landscapes and monuments which have changed considerably in the last century and a half. The collections have been acquired over the years mainly through donations. They represent an exceptional document of the activity of considerable personalities, master photographers as well as scholars, active from the second half of the nineteenth century (Parker collection), to the beginning of the twentieth century (Moscioni, Van Deman), and more recently (Masson, Bini, Laidlaw collections). All these collections have artifactual value for the history of photography, as well as documentary value for the study and research of their specific subject areas
Born of Collaboration: The Evolution of Metadata Standards in an Aggregated Environment
No full textAs more libraries adopt digital preservation platforms or contribute material to multi-institutional digital content aggregators, they often find that the metadata originally created for distinct digital collections does not work well in the new environment. The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Library has encountered this problem as well. This case study discusses the successful collaboration between different departments within our university library to improve our metadata for increased usability. We created a cross-departmental Metadata Working Group to develop a new Metadata Guideline, in conjunction with a project to analyze and clean up our legacy metadata. These two projects facilitated needed standardization of our digital collections metadata, and improved coordination of our standards with those of aggregate systems moving forward.
The ability for users to easily find what they are looking for was a key consideration in our metadata improvement efforts. In addition to observing how our metadata appears in aggregated contexts, it was challenging to make our digital materials available to our users due to incomplete metadata. Cross-collection searching is not possible with our current CONTENTdm system, but is an important consideration as we prepare for migration to a Digital Asset Management System (DAMS).
In order to coordinate cleanup of our legacy metadata and provide a clear set of guidelines for new collections, a new set of guidelines, based on existing ones, was developed. Creation of the new guidelines was accomplished in tandem with the review, analysis, and cleanup of our existing collections, an iterative process in which each of these activities contributed to the other. We developed solutions for issues we encountered in the metadata, including inconsistent field labeling and mapping, inconsistent use of standardized vocabularies, and misinterpretation of field usage.
Our new usability-focused metadata workflow, incorporating collaborative participation and workload sharing along with new techniques and documentation, helped improve our overall approach. This collaboration combines library faculty and staff knowledge of metadata standards from our Resource Acquisition and Management Department (RAM), an understanding of the user assessment/experience perspective from our Digital Programs & Services Department (DP&S), and a more content-oriented perspective from our Special Collections Department. The resulting positive impacts include improved communication and workflows, higher quality metadata, and renewed momentum to move forward with digital projects
Teens Use Tech to Talk Art: Amplifying Teen Voice and Art Interpretation
No full textAccording to a 2015 Pew study, 88 percent of teens have cell phones, and 73 percent have smartphones. Tapping into teens’ extreme familiarity with mobile, the Seattle Art Museum has found a synergy at the intersection of its dual goals of increasing technology and youth voice at the museum. Using Interpretive Technology is paramount for SAM’s vision “to be a great art museum for the 21st century.” With a new website in 2013, increased digital interactive experiences in the galleries, and expanded interpretive offerings on mobile, SAM constantly considers how technology can achieve the museum’s mission of connecting art to life. In 2014, SAM invited the 25 visionary high-school-aged teens who comprise Teen Arts Group (TAG) to write and record their own permanent collection cell phone tours for the general public. This fall, teens will be building their own augmented reality tour for the permanent collection. With both projects, SAM is leveraging existing interpretive mobile platforms to deepen the ways that it can meet the goals of its Teen Programs: to cultivate the voice and leadership of diverse young people throughout the museum. The permanent collection cell phone and augmented reality tours have not only increased available interpretive content, but also have given TAG teens a lasting presence in the museum for all visitors
Piloting Linked Open Data on Artists' Books: a Case Study in Interoperability and Sustainability
No full textArtists’ books are a common component of many art libraries, and are of great interest to artists and art historians because of their highly visual, interactive and sculptural qualities. However, many of these art-like qualities remain under-described when only represented in the typical library catalog. University of California, Irvine (UCI) Libraries are working through an NEH grant to extend interoperability and discoverability of artists’ books through the use of linked open data (LOD). We implemented processes of transforming legacy metadata from our Library catalog to linked open data while enhancing records with Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core elements. In addition to publishing linked open data with digital surrogates of artists’ books in our special collections, we built a prototype visualization tool to allow researchers to traverse relationships within and between the works, discovering connections between artists, genres, techniques, and materials. This article will describe the behind the scenes processes and challenges in making the project interoperable with an emphasis on the metadata aspect of the project, and offer ways to sustain the project’s growth, through the recommendations and toolkits gathered from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Digital Library Federation (DLF), and Ithaka S+R
Jean Sequencing
No full textThe digital imaging team at Digital Revolution describes tips and techniques used to capture over 12,000 images from the clothing archives at Levi Strauss and Co. Learn how a creative combination of cameras, computers and lasers turned a daunting task into a stunning visual library in record time. Also discussed is their approach to photographing and restoring glass plate negatives, transparencies, as well as manuscripts and artifacts
The Carberry Collection: Transformation and Discoverability
No full textThe Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies, comprised of many out-of-print and rare first edition volumes by Caribbean authors held in the Special Collections Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), is a key resource for the study of the Caribbean diaspora during the second half of the twentieth century. The collection has benefitted from both extensive outreach and digital exposure, including a project to digitize the fragile book jackets and subsequently make these images available through three online databases. The UIC Library has just joined the Digital Library of the Caribbean and the collection of book jacket images will also be hosted there, providing wider discoverability. Tracing the path of the iterative process for digitization and access provides an understanding of the dynamics of transformative change and enhancements for this unique collection
Revisioning Art History: how a century of change in imaging technologies helped to shape a discipline
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Beginning in the latter nineteenth century, the use of photography to document works of art was a key factor in the emergence of art history as an independent discipline. The subsequent introduction of new technologies such as lantern slides, 35mm color slides, and carousel projectors resulted in significant transformation in pedagogy. In the twentieth century, the growing use of photographic illustrations influenced a shift in emphasis in the textual content of scholarly publications such as exhibition catalogs, artist monographs, and journal articles. More recently, the digital revolution has increased access to art information, transforming the ways works of art are studied and taught. Today the high quality digital image is a fundamental scholarly resource, and specialized forms of investigative photography offer new ways of analyzing the ultimate primary sources: the works of art themselves
The Johannes Felbermeyer Collection at the Getty Research Institute
No full textA version of a presentation at the annual College Art Association conference in Los Angeles (February 2012) given as part of the VRA affiliate session.
Acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank my colleage Tracey Schuster who co-presented on the VRA panel with me for her support, guidance, and unmatched Photo Archive expertise
2011 VRA Travel Award Recipients' Session Reports
No full textSummaries compiled by the VRA Travel Awards Committe Chairs and written by the 2011 VRA Travel Award recipients. In 2011, the Visual Resources Association granted four Luraine Tansey/VRAAssociation Travel Awards; two Corporate Travel Awards; the Kathe HicksAlbrecht Travel Award; the Joseph C. Taormina Memorial top-up award; two NewHorizons awards; the New Horizons Student award; one New Horizons Top-Up awardand one international award (from a private donor), providing financialassistance for thirteen VRA members to attend and participate in the 29thAnnual Conference in Minneapolis, a joint conference with ARLIS/NA