Past ARLIS/NA conference sessions sponsored by VRD

St. Louis, MO   March 23, 2002

Attendance
	Lynda White, Jenni Rodda, Maryly Snow, Carol Campbell, Barbara Opar, Susan Miller, Mary Stein, Leigh Gates, Eileen Fry, Sheri Rosenzweig, Eric Schwab, Jennifer Hehman, Alma Koppedraijer, Margaret Webster, Miranda Haddock, Daphne Dufresne, Sara Jane Pearman, Libby Kieffer, Ann Burns, Manuel Berumen, Gregory Most, Betsy Peck Learned, Debra Kruse, Norine Duncan, Ann Whiteside, Barbara Treitel, Christin Ronolder, Paula Hardin, Mary Wassermann, Giovanna Jackson, Sheryl Wilhite
1.Welcome
	Mary Wassermann welcomed members to the meeting, and introduced herself as 2001-2002 Moderator and Sheryl Wilhite as 2002-2003 Moderator.
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2. Approval of LA meeting minutes
	Minutes from the 2001 meeting of the VRD were approved.
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3. Election of Officers
	Giovanna Jackson had agreed to run for Vice-Moderator / Moderator-Elect.  There was a call for further nominations from the floor. Giovanna was approved as the new Vice-Moderator.
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4. Thanks to Members
	Mary expressed thanks to Daniel Nolting for his continuing work on and hosting of the VRD website http://www.bethanywv.edu/vrd/ * (recently moved to: http://www.chatham.edu/users/staff/dnolting/ , effective 1/31/2003) She thanked Sheryl for editing the VRD Update Column, and Gregg Most for his great work as Past-Moderator.  Mary also thanked those members who worked on 2002 conference sessions, many of which came out of ideas expressed at last year’s VRD meeting.
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5. Joint Task Force on Continuing Education
	Mary reported on the Joint Task Force for Continuing Education, which she co-chairs with John Taormina from VRA.  The committee is made up of about 12 members from both ARLIS/NA and VRA, and will meet at the St. Louis conference.  They initially will focus on the Summer School to be held at Rice University in Houston in 2003.  This course will be modeled on the former UT-Austin summer course, but will be updated and changed somewhat.  It is expected that both the VRD and VRA websites will serve as good resources for students to find the tools of these summer sessions.  It is possible that a site for Continuing Education may be created.
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6. Baltimore Session Ideas
	Giovanna asked about the possibility of continuing the sessions on non-western cataloging.   Marty Stein reported that the Indigenous Art and Culture Round Table was looking for a new Moderator, and that discussions about co-sponsoring non-western sessions might recommence once the new Moderator was in place.   Jenni Rodda mentioned the Denny project, and suggested a round table on the shared cataloging of Islamic subjects. Eileen Fry suggested that, due to Baltimore’s proximity to the Winterthur Museum, that VRD could co-sponsor something with the Decorative Arts Round Table. Betsy Learned suggested a session on redesigning library and VR collection spaces, since there is interest from the Architecture Section and VRD could co-sponsor.    Miranda Haddock expressed interest in working with Betsy on this session.  Maryly Snow reported that the Standards Committee asked if the VRD is working on facilities standards for electronic collections/libraries.  This could tie into a redesigning space session.   David Austin of Standards Committee could be contacted about co-sponsoring, as well. Commenting on electronic collections, Eileen remarked that image compilations  don’t work when they are cataloged as a single entity (such as a CD of multiple images).  She asked how one finds out who is using one’s digital resources and who is in charge of monitoring their use and usefulness?  Betsy remarked that they (Roger Williams) are being pushed to enhance their library catalog with images, and that it is important for us to educate our non-VR colleagues that the data about images must accompany the images for them to be useful.   Jennifer Hehman suggested that the VRD might sponsor a panel of different aggregators of images on the web, and that we organize finding aids to online images.  This generated discussion about a session on “Selling and Acquiring Image Resources” that would cover the changing world of image searching and licensing, and that could be co-sponsored by the Reference Section.  The session could also cover access and management/ownership, and problems that arise when the group that purchases the images don’t provide the content.   Other topics for inclusion could be desegregating the image collection/set, and whether we should be purchasing CDs of selected images or whether vendors might eventually license entire collections.  Vendors, such as Saskia, could be invited to participate in the session. The next session idea was related to disaster planning.  Since there are many resources related to disaster planning and how to salvage analog materials, such a session could incorporate how to preserve electronic materials as well.  It could also focus more heavily on how to provide material for a course within an extremely short time period, and whether a course could be taught solely using images found on the web.   Further, we could explore whether one should rebuild with analog slides, or go fully to a digital collection after major disaster.  Betsy thought that this might make a good occasional paper.  Maryly remarked that we could incorporate issues of insurance and risk management.  Susan Miller expressed interest in working on this session, and will ask Martha Mahard and Andrea Cox if they are also interested. Mary announced that all session proposals should be sent to Sheryl Wilhite.   Deadline for submission of proposals is May 1, 2002.
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7. Other Business
	Maryly introduced the topic of visual copy history, stating that we have little visual history of our own work.  She would like to see pictorial documentation on the web, and is looking for images up to 1960.   She asked that historical material be sent to her. Eileen asked about the National Lantern Slide project, and if anyone is digitizing lantern slides.  She is concerned that there is no coordination in this effort.   Gregg suggested that this is an issue for ArtSTOR, since they are looking for content.  Maryly suggested that we need to start collecting data on who has lantern slides, what they are, and how they are being stored. We should also determine which images are unique and which are not.  A directory could then be presented to ArtSTOR.   Jenni volunteered to design a simple survey to put on the VRD and VRA websites (with permission of VRA).   Maryly asked how one can tell if a lantern slide is from a commercial vendor or copy photography; Eileen responded that they pretty much have to be taken apart in order to determine that. Leigh Gates mentioned that more than half of the attendees at the New Member Orientation were VR people.
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	Meeting was adjourned.
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	Respectfully submitted, Sheryl L. Wilhite