April 2008 vol.5, no. 2

Home for Images, The newsletter of the VRA

Notes from the President
Allan T. Kohl (Minneapolis College of Art & Design)
President, Visual Resources Association

Dear VRA Colleagues,

Although I found it a bit of a system shock to arrive back in Minneapolis during a wet snowfall (after leaving the sixties-and-shirtsleeves sunshine of San Diego a few hours earlier), I still felt a lingering effervescence about our 26th annual conference -- a week filled with wonderful people and experiences!

A full schedule of sessions, workshops, and special users’ groups informed us about new projects, tools, and applications.  Among the many special events, several stand out as particularly memorable.  The plenary session organized by Gretchen Wagner and the Intellectual Property Rights Committee introduced us to new perspectives on image rights issues, articulated by voices from outside of our own community.  Keynote speaker Maurizio Seracini’s presentation at the Membership Dinner melded science and art in an imaginative glimpse into the cutting edge of imaging technology.  The Bird-of-a-Feather lunches, coordinated by Kathe Albrecht, brought members together in new affinities.  At the Tansey Fundraising Event, Charles Phoenix had us all in stitches with his humorously narrated show of color slides from the Fabulous Fifties.   We were even entertained by Marilyn Monroe and her glamorous entourage as the VRAffle garnered its highest-ever number of donations, and reaped a new record for funds raised on behalf of the Tansey Travel Awards.  On a more serious note, our 26th Conference also marked the public introduction of the new VRA Foundation, a milestone achievement for our organization.

A conference of this complexity required the dedicated and concerted efforts of many people to run smoothly.  I would like to acknowledge all who had a hand in making VRA Conference 26 a great success, including Executive Board members Rebecca Moss, Ann Woodward, Jolene de Verges, Vickie O’Riordan, and Lise Hawkos.  Thanks are also due to Greg Reser and the rest of the local arrangements team; to Maureen Burns, Marcia Focht, Tom Costello, and a host of session organizers and moderators, presenters, workshop facilitators, seminar and special interest group leaders.

The Association wishes to express its gratitude to our loyal conference sponsors, advertisers, and contributors – some of whom have been our generous friends for many years:  Archivision, ARTstor, Backstage Library Works, Boston Photo Imaging, Canyonlights, Cinetech, Davis Art Images, Gallery Systems, Luna Imaging, OCLC, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saskia Ltd., Scholars Resource, and Two Cat Digital.  Dr. Seracini’s keynote address was sponsored by a major donation to the speakers’ fund by ARTstor.  The VRAffle’s grand prize was donated by Scott Gilchrist of Archivision.  Corporate Travel Awards from Archivision, Gallery Systems, Davis Art Images, and Saskia, Ltd. helped make conference attendance possible for deserving applicants, as did the Kathe Hicks Albrecht Travel Award Fund. Heidi Raatz and Steven Kowalik, co-chairs of the Development Committee, worked to encourage the participation of our sponsors, donors, and advertisers. 

One of the highlights of each conference comes as we honor our peers for their outstanding accomplishments.  Congratulations to Distinguished Service Award winner Christine Hilker and Nancy DeLaurier Award winner Kathleen Cohen for their dedication, vision, and generosity on behalf of our profession.

Thanks to all conference attendees, from new members to Silver Foxes, whether named heretofore or not.  For a few special days each year, we are privileged to celebrate our successes, shape our plans for the future, and share our problems and concerns directly with our colleagues, many of whom we know during the rest of the year only as signatures on list serve messages.  Working and acting together, we have tremendous power to influence our professional environment, and I hope each of you felt that positive energy at work during our days in San Diego. 

Finally, I'd like to lead a last huzzah for our Board members who completed their terms of office during the conference:  Rebecca Moss, Vice-President for Conference Arrangements; Ann Woodward, Treasurer; and Lise Hawkos, Public Relations and Communications Officer; and especially to Past-President Macie Hall, who has led this organization so ably for the last two years, and who will continue to work on our behalf as Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Task Force.  Please join me in welcoming our new Board members: Brian Shelburne, Vice President for Conference Arrangements; Jane Darcovich, Treasurer; and Mark Pompelia, Public Relations and Communications Officer.

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VRA Executive Board Nominations
By Ann R. F. Burns (University of Virginia)

Three key positions on the Executive Board - President Elect, Vice-President for Conference Program, and Secretary - come vacant at the 2009 annual conference.  The Nominating Committee, chaired by Ann Burns, University of Virginia, is actively seeking nominations for these positions. Running for office is an excellent way to serve the Visual Resources Association, get to know more of your colleagues in the field, and give yourself an opportunity to grow professionally.  If you are interested in serving on the Executive Board please feel free to contact any previous officers; they would be happy to share their experiences and reflections of their time in office.  The Committee encourages members to place themselves, or other qualified individuals, in consideration for nomination by contacting the Chair.

For the first year the President Elect performs such duties as the President may assign until taking over the office as President.  The President serves as the executive officer of the organization, oversees and coordinates the activities of the other officers and the committees, convenes the Executive Board meetings, and represents the organization.  The Vice President for Conference Programs serves as program coordinator for the annual conference, working with the Vice President for Conference Arrangements, the Secretary and the Public Relations and Communications Officer. The Secretary is in charge of conference pre-registration, keeps minutes of all VRA meetings and handles other official paperwork for the organization. 

For more detailed information please consult Articles III, IV, and V of the VRA Bylaws, which can be found on the VRA website (direct URL: http://vraweb.org/bylaws.html).  If you have further questions please feel free to contact:  Ann Burns, Chair, VRA 2006 Nominating Committee, Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library, University of Virginia, P. O. Box 400131, Charlottesville, VA  22904, phone: 434-924-6606, e-mail: arb5w@virginia.edu

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VRA 26 Conference Presentations
By Allan T. Kohl (Minneapolis College of Art and Design)

Conference presentations are now available at http://www.vraweb.org/; use the “Conference Highlights” link on the home page, and then choose “Sessions” from the options on the left; or, you may use the following direct link:
http://www.vraweb.org/conferences/sandiego2008/SD_sessions.html.
This will take you to a directory page, from which you may select the session and presentation you wish to view.

Through the diligent efforts of Vice President for Conference Program Vickie O’Riordan and Past-Public Relations and Communications Officer Lise Hawkos, a number of these presentations have been compiled and converted into PDF files to minimize difficulty in opening and downloading. Thanks are due to Lise and Vickie for their work in collecting and preparing this material, and to the session moderators and speakers who provided copies of their presentations. We hope that these will prove of particular interest and value to those of you who were unable to attend Conference 26, and that they will, perhaps, whet your interest to join us next spring in Toronto.

On a related note, the “Picture Gallery” section is still in preparation. Anyone with interesting photos of conference events -- and particularly of Christine Hilker and Kathleen Cohen receiving, respectively, the Distinguished Service Award and the Nancy de Laurier Award -- is requested to forward JPGs of these to Lise Hawkos.

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VRA Bulletin Preview
By Mark Pompelia (Rice University)

Please find the latest issue of the VRA Bulletin in electronic format available via Memberclicks after you log on to My VRA. This e-version of the Fall 2007 issue, vol. 34 no. 3, is available to you now while the print version is being mailed.

The full-color PDF features the reports and awards ceremonies from the Kansas City conference, papers from the recent SECAC VRC group, a tech report from Trudy Levy, and a copyright article from Georgia Harper and Elizabeth Schaub of UT Austin--these last two items should definitely be on your reading list. Among the reports are the annual business meeting minutes, which you will be asked to approve at the start of the business meeting in San Diego.

I'm very pleased that this Bulletin and the next will feature beautiful full-color images from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (artworks this issue, and the Bloch building next).

The Spring 2008 issue, vol. 35 no. 1, is in the editing stage now and will appear in April/May.

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Intellectual Property Rights News
Compiled by Jen Green (New Hampshire Institute of Art)

IPR Plenary Session:
Image Rights: Perspectives from Copyright Owners

Presentation by former Director of ADAGP, Jean-Marc Gutton: A Summary*

The 2008 Visual Resources Conference in San Diego, CA featured an Intellectual Property Rights Plenary Session where speakers offered various perspectives on intellectual property and authors’ rights around the world.  Jean-Marc Gutton, former Managing Director of ADAGP (Société des Auteurs Dans Les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, the French visual artists’ rights society), spoke about ADAGP’s views of the rights of visual artists and educational use.  Gutton recounted the history of the development of ADAGP and ARS, the US-based artists’ rights society affiliated with ADAGP, offered perspectives on the current mission and goals of ADAGP, and articulated how ADAGP is seeking to adapt to new technology that makes artists’ images easily accessible to the general public.

History of Artists’ Rights Societies (ARS) and ADAGP
Gutton explained that the first French authors’ society (an organization that managed authors’ rights) was created between 1775 and 1783 by French playwright, Beaumarchais (author of the Barber of Seville). This was called the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) and was Beaumarchais’ attempt to organize and unite playwrights in the way that French performers had been organized for many years.  SACD was designed to give playwrights the power to defend their intellectual property and receive due payment for their work.  The rights of authors, performers, and musicians continued to be represented progressively from the late 1700s onward, but a rights society for visual artists did not emerge in France until 1951.  It was around this time that the Society of Authors in the Graphic and Plastic Arts (ADAGP) was born, founded by the artists’ themselves.

Advantages of ARS and the Current Role of the ADAGP
According to Gutton, one benefit that the Artists Right Society (ARS) provides to artists is that they protect the artist’s rights nationally and internationally, and they administer these rights for the artist (according to the artist’s wishes).   Similarly, ADAGP is designed to defend artists’ rights to control and protect their artwork. While ADAGP is designed primarily to serve the needs of the artist, Gutton noted that image users could benefit from ADAGP as well. By working with ADAGP, image users can rely on the ADAGP as a mediator who determines proper use of a work and manages the contract for that use.

Gutton explained that ADAGP currently supports nearly 9,000 artist members through its mission to (1) collect and distribute royalties for artists, (2) defend the rights of its members by acting in their general interest related to intellectual property in France and abroad, and (3) help members to create an image bank that is available to users outside of the ADAGP.  The ADAGP also administers individual and collective rights.  Individual rights are one-time permissions to reproduce images managed by ADAGP in books, museum catalogs, posters, postcards, calendars, etc.  Collective rights are established by French law and give users the right to do such things as photocopy artworks published in books in certain circumstances, make private digital copies, borrow books from a library, and use images for educational purposes (provided that, for the latter uses in France, they pay a licensing fee).

In conclusion, Gutton emphasized that the artist is concerned primarily about the potential exploitation of his or her work. This concern may be elevated when artists consider the rapid development of technologies and projects, which make it easier for the general public to access and download images of an artist’s work.  ADAGP strives to alleviate the artists’ concern through their mission to protect artists’ right to control their work, but the association also believes that artworks should be made available through licensing systems to students and scholars for teaching and research. For this reason, ADAGP currently collaborates with ARTstor, making it possible for them to utilize new technology to balance both access and rights internationally.

ADAGP hosts an image bank consisting of 15,000 high-quality images from the work of 1,300 of its members. ADAGP is pleased that much of the information accompanying the images is provided directly by the artists.  Visit the image bank at:http://www.adagp.fr/ENG/static_index.php.

*While this column summarizes key points of Jean-Marc Gutton’s presentation, the full text will be available soon on the VRA San Diego Conference website.

Gutton, Jean-Marc. “ Image Rights: Perspectives from Copyright Owners.” Intellectual Property Rights Plenary Session: Visual Resources Association Annual Conference. San Diego, CA. 20 Mar. 2008.

Digital Scene and Heard
Edited by Jacquelyn Erdman (Florida Atlantic University)
Digital Initiatives Advisory Group

When it comes to the future of the digital image, there is so much uncertainty.  Many students have a misconception that once things go digital, they will always be around.  We as visual resource professionals know different.  At this time, the most sustainable form of preservation is microfilm.  It can last 500 years in ideal conditions, and yet, we all know how the film does not reproduce images very well.  So what is a solution?  Many organizations are trying to develop models for digital preservation.  A small number of efforts are listed in this article.

Digital Preservation
Digital preservation has been a concern since the 1990’s.  At first, the original physical copies of the items scanned were stored, but in more current years, the physical copies (such as serials) are being dumped to make more room in buildings and materials that are born digital and may never be published in print format.  This is causing some concern in the information management profession about the loss of knowledge.  But few in academia seem to have caught wind of the problem.

There are a number of problems with digital preservation.  The most significant problems are migration, storage, format and cost.  In order for a file to continue to be readable, the materials hosting the files must be preserved (i.e. CD, hard drive) in an environmentally safe place and the software which reads the file must be updated.  Some versions of the files are better to archive than others (.tiff vs. .jpeg and .wav vs. .mp3).  But here is the catch 22.  Every time you alter a file or migrate a file, some information will be left out.  So let’s say you are able to continuously migrate all files for the next 20 years, chances are the content won’t be exactly as it was when first produced, and the cost to do all this (storage facility, staff to migrate) can be costly.

Initiatives taking place:

National Library of Australia
The report “Digital Preservation- a Many-Layered Thing”, written by Colin Webb in 2002 addresses many different issues that arise due to digitalization of materials.  The library hosts a number of digitization projects including:  PANDORA (preserving and accessing networked documentary resources of Australia) archive, the Physical Format Digital Publications, Audio collection, and a Data Recovery program. 

Florida Digital Archive’s Dark Archive
The Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) has produced what is known as a dark archive.  The purpose of the dark archive is to preserve digital files in their original format and to migrate the files to the most current and readable format in order to be accessed in the future.

Persistent Archive
A collaboration that started between, the National Archives and Records Administration, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the University of Maryland, created a project in 2004 called the Persistent Archive.  The Persistent Archive is based on data grid technologies and is an automated system.

What can your organization do?

Digital preservation techniques are by no means fine tuned, but there are some strategies available. 

For those who are not able to dedicate the money and staff to creating a special preservation system, there are some easier, short-term strategies to extend the life of your digital object.  There are many other manuals, tutorials and reports found both online and in journals.  I suggest looking at many of these and finding the model that best suits your work environment. 

Please contact Jacquelyn Erdman with any questions or suggestions for future columns.  For more information on the activities of the Digital Initiatives Advisory Group (DIAG) see http://www.vraweb.org/diag/index.htm

Upcoming Conferences
Compiled by Brooke Cox (DePauw University)

Copyright conference
Ball State University
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Muncie, IN
http://www.bsu.edu/library/conference/copyright/

Digital Directions: Fundamentals of Creating and Managing Digital Collections
The NEW School for Scanning
June 10–12, 2008
Jacksonville, FL
http://www.nedcc.org

Joint Conference on Digital Libraries
June 16-20, 2008
Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.jcdl2008.org/

Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference
Bucknell University
July 9, 2008
Lewisburg, PA
http://blogs.bucknell.edu/DigitalLibraryConference2008/

Society of American Archivists
August 26-31
San Francisco, CA
http://www.archivists.org/conference/sanfrancisco2008/index.asp

In Memoriam

HELENE E. ROBERTS
(1931-2008)

A milestone in VR’s history was sadly marked by the death of Helene E. Roberts, Senior Editor of Visual Resources and its stalwart leader for more than twenty years. Helene’s passing on February 22, 2008, at her home in Hanover, New Hampshire, came as a shock to her many friends and colleagues who knew her as scholar and image professional extraordinaire during and after her tenure as head of Visual Collections of the Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her many contributions to the enrichment of our understanding of images and imaging as well as Victorian art, history and literature, through her numerous publications, affiliations, presentations, and the accolades that followed, will remain intact in history because of written words and images. We share the sorrow that remains with her husband, David Roberts, her two cats and her extended family.

http://www.mindspring.com/%7Esundt-vr/HeleneRoberts.htm

Chapter News
Compiled by Trudy Levy (Image Integration)

New England Chapter
Submitted by Megan Battey (Middlebury College)

The New England Chapter will hold its spring meeting at Wellesley College on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.  Details will be forthcoming.

Andrea Frank (Boston College) has organized and launched a mentoring program for the New England Chapter.  (This is a year-round program, not to be confused with the mentoring program for our annual conferences.)  Any member desiring networking assistance within the Association or guidance on professional and visual resources-related issues can request a mentor.  Andrea matches these members with members who have expertise and experience in their specific areas of interest.  There has been a lot of willingness to participate in the program, and everyone who requested a mentor has one.  We will continue to monitor the success of this program which could serve as a model for other chapters wishing to have a mentoring program.

Southern California Chapter
Submitted by John M. Trendler (Scripps College)

Chapter officer elections were announced at the VRA/SC Fall meeting held at the Claremont Colleges, December 7th 2007. The new Chair is John M. Trendler and the new Treasurer is Jennifer Patton.

The VRA/SC Travel Awards Committee (comprised of Jackie Spafford and Jina Jamison) accepted and reviewed travel award applications and identified three travel award recipients to receive funding assistance for the national conference in San Diego. The recipients were: Shilpa Rele (MLIS student, UCLA), Patti Perregrine (MLIS student UCLA) and Suharu Ogawa (VR Specialist, CSU San Bernadino). The three travel awards totaled $600.

Jennifer Patton accepted the Education Committee’s Workshop Stipend, and attended both VRA Core Workshops during the conference.

The Chapter held its spring meeting March 12th, during the national VRA conference in San Diego. After the business meeting we met up with the Northern California Chapter for an All California VRA dinner, approximately 20 people attended.

The Local Committee, who deserve an enormous round of applause for all the work they put into making the conference go smoothly, consisted of the following people:

Local Committee

We are planning our Fall Chapter meeting to be held at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, CA. The date is yet to be determined.

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