Visual Resources Association Bulletin

2023 VRA Awards Recipients & Recognition

Ann McShane — 2023-11-28

The 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

Sara Schumacher — 2023-12-13

In 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.

Capstone Innovation

Samuel Sadow — 2023-12-10

In 2019, the art history program at American University gave its masters students a new option for the capstone project that is the culmination of the degree: create a digital project on an art historical topic using Omeka S or WordPress. Initially, only a single student chose to complete a digital capstone over a traditional thesis, but within two years there was near parity between the two options, meaning seven digital capstones for the 2021 cohort. To support these projects, a close partnership quickly developed between the University’s library, the visual resources center, and the archives.

This paper covers how three campus units coordinate that support for these innovative digital humanities projects, including administration of the platforms, instruction, technical support, preservation, and access to the final projects. The paper also showcases examples of student work to demonstrate the variety and creativity of projects that can be accomplished using these platforms, as well as their contributions to the field of art history. The outcome of this initiative is clear: the best of digital humanities, weaving design and technology with rigorous art historical research, and finished projects that have already resulted in successful job applications in the field.

"I love getting to share my art with other people:"

Sarah Carter — 2023-12-15

While 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.

The VRA Core in a Digital Library of Artistic Production

Vania Mara Alves Lima — 2023-12-15

The 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 "Copyright: Best Practices for Academic Libraries"

John Hosford — 2023-12-06

Copyright: Best Practices for Academic Libraries provides valuable advice for librarians to navigate the complex world of copyright law in their profession. The book consists of twenty chapters, each written by experts, focusing on academic libraries and enhancing copyright literacy. One of the book's aims is to enable readers to become proficient in understanding the intricacies of copyright and take an active part in the ongoing conversations.