Remaining Resilient:

Allan T.  Kohl; Lael J. Ensor-Bennett; Sara Schumacher

Remaining Resilient

Reflections on the Visual Resources Community

Allan T. Kohl Minneapolis College of Art & Design
Lael J. Ensor-Bennett Johns Hopkins University
Sara Schumacher Texas Tech University

Keywords: Visual Resources Association, Slide Libraries

Abstract

This article brings together excerpts from an interview conducted by Lael Ensor-Bennett and Sara Schumacher with Allan Kohl, long-time Visual Resources Association member and former president. It offers a dive into the history of the organization as it intertwines with his own half a century of librarianship, reflecting perspectives on the history and value of the profession and the VRA. What brought us together in the past, and what keeps us together today? How might VRA shape a career? How have we handled significant changes, including the momentous shift from analog slides to digital images, and how do we remain resilient in the present?

Author Biographies

Allan T. Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

Art historian Allan T. Kohl is Librarian for Visual Resources and Library Instruction at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, where he also serves as the College Archivist. He did his graduate study in Library/Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in art history at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He is a former President and Treasurer of the Visual Resources Association, and has served for many years on the VRA's Financial Advisory, Travel Awards, and Intellectual Property Rights Committees, the latter with a particular interest in copyright issues as these affect the educational use of images documenting works of art and visual culture

Lael J. Ensor-Bennett, Johns Hopkins University

Curator, Visual Resources Collection, Johns Hopkins University

Sara Schumacher, Texas Tech University

Architecture Image Librarian, Texas Tech University

Published

2026-06-16

Issue

Vol. 53 No. 1 (2026): Spring/Summer

Section

Perspectives

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The VRAB does not require copyright transfer, only permission to publish and archive the article. Copyright holders retain copyright ownership, granting a nonexclusive license to the journal and OJS to publish the article, meaning that the author may also publish it elsewhere. Before submitting an article to the journal, please be sure that all necessary permissions have been cleared in any third party material.

This is an open access journal; users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. All issues of the journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).