2016 Awards Committee Survey
The VRA Awards Committee invites you to participate in a brief survey; your responses will help us to identify worthy potential recipients of VRA's prestigious awards—the Nancy DeLaurier Award and the Distinguished Service Award. You will find both descriptions and a list of previous recipients on our web site. Here is the link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N6PRM5K. This survey will be active until June 22.This is your opportunity to let us know about professional colleagues, teachers, and mentors who deserve recognition. Remember, the potential award recipient need not be a member of VRA; however, the nomination must be submitted by a VRA member or members. If you are willing to serve as a moderator or co-moderator or a writer of a letter in support of a nomination, please tell us.Thank you so much for participating in this survey. Your responses will be put to good use.On behalf of the Awards Committee: Linda Callahan, Erin McCall, Lise Hawkos, Jodi Hoover, Martine Sherrill, Marsha TaichmanMargaret N. WebsterChair, VRA Awards CommitteeVisual Resources ConsultantDirector Emerita, Knight Visual Resources FacilityCornell University109 Iroquois RoadIthaca, NY 14850 Website: http://sites.google.com/site/imintegPhone: 607 351-5124Email: mnw3@cornell.edu
VRA Annual Conference - CFP
The Visual Resources Association’s 34th Annual Conference will be held in Louisville, Kentucky from Wednesday, March 29th, through Saturday, April 1st, 2017, in the Louisville Marriott Downtown hotel. The theme for the Louisville conference is unbridled opportunities. Please mark your calendars.Proposals are now being solicited for the 2017 program case studies, papers, posters, sessions, special interest/user groups, and workshops. All proposals are welcome. Click here to go to the conference proposal form.The quality of conference content depends upon YOUR ideas and contributions, so let those creative juices flow. Past conference schedules show the diversity of ideas and witty titles. We've noted some areas of concentrated interest and listed topics suggested by conference goers to get you thinking or you can use your imagination to propose ideas which expand our outlook. If there is an area of concern or interest that you feel has not been adequately addressed, please participate in this process by submitting a proposal. Moderators may put out calls for presenters within a proposed topic before or after the submission of a proposal. The VRA Executive Board will be looking for articulate and concise submissions with lists of presenters, when applicable.Data Wrangling - we can’t escape it, we can only tame it
- Perspectives on cataloging
- Linked open data
- Embedded metadata
- Data visualization
- Copyright, copy-left and copy-wrong
Projects - whether cutting edge or managing the basics we want to hear about your work
- Stories of success or stories of failure
- Stories that are still being told
The Workplace - from workflows to work woes, what’s going on at the office that you could share
- Cross departmental boundaries and language barriers
- Tales and tips of digitization and workflows
- Changing spaces, new spaces, and makerspaces
- Institutional collaboration
- Museums and archives
Expanding VR - how is your job growing, or where would you like to see VR go next?
- Adventures in GIS
- Alternative careers and new opportunities in the field
- The social media spectrum
- Digital humanities
- Archives and analog materials
- Issues in marketing, copyright, and licensing
- Digital repository development and management
A session is a maximum 90 minute moderated session with 3 to 4 speakers at 15 to 20 minutes each followed by a facilitated brief question and answer period.A workshop is a 2, 3 or 4 hour workshop to develop skills and experience in the field of visual resources, preferably with hands-on activities.A paper is an individual idea submission, which will be reviewed for possible grouping into a session.A special interest/user group is a 60 to 90-minute informal facilitated group discussion on topics related to a specific community within VRA.A case study is detailed information about an individual, small group, or project, generally including the accounts of subjects themselves. Moderators are encouraged to submit proposals. Individual case study proposals will be reviewed for possible groupings similar to the session format.Questions about the proposal process and the various presentation formats included in the VRA Conference program can be directed to me at strasbaughvra@gmail.com.The proposal deadline is Wednesday, July 5, 2016. I look forward to hearing from you!Chris Strasbaugh
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot? – Shop Amazon for Smoking Deals and Support the VRA!
Be prepared for the heat as the temperatures sizzle! Look no further than Amazon.com for ways to cool down. How about a 30-Inch Industrial Grade Floor Fan to blow your cares away? If something more genteel is your speed, try a High Quality Lady’s Girl’s Vintage Retro Flower Lace Handheld Folding Fan.If you can take the heat and want to be the envy of your neighborhood, why not purchase a Stainless Steel Gas Grill Over 6 Feet Wide? Or move your living room in the great outdoors with a 7-Piece Patio Wicker Furniture Set. Don’t forget to protect the little ones from blood-thirsty insects with a Jolly Jumper Insect Bug Net.Remember, a percentage of your purchase will go directly to the VRA. Just use the links located in the Support Us section located on the lower right side of the Association’s homepage.Happy Almost Summer!Barbara Brenny and Marie EliaCo-Chairs, VRA Development Committee
New Board appointments: Slide and Transitional Media Task Force Chair and Website Content Manager
The VRA Executive Board is pleased two announce two new appointments.First, the Board has appointed Jacob Esselstrom, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as chair of the Slide and Transitional Media Task Force. We thank Jacob for taking on this important role for the Association. Our gratitude also goes to Jenni Rodda, whose year-long term as the task force's chair ended with the 2015 conference. Jenni will remain a member of the task force in the coming year.The Board has also appointed Heather Rayl, Indiana State University, as our new Website Content Manager. This position is responsible for managing authorized website users, editors and contributors, posting and editing content for publication on the website, and handling general website maintenance. The Website Content Manager works with and reports to the Public Relations and Communications Officer.Heather has been creating and managing websites for over 12 years. She has experience with both creating sites from scratch as well as working with content management systems, like Drupal and WordPress. At the County of Los Angeles Public Library, where she was Internet Services Coordinator, she managed three servers for the library: the public facing internet, the staff intranet, and the catalog server. She was responsible for creating content for the sites, maintaining existing content, migrating to new platforms when needed, and performing upgrades. As the Emerging Technology Librarian for Indiana State University, she designed and implemented a site re-design. She is familiar with both Unix and Windows servers. She also on the website committee for the Indiana Online Users Group. She is extremely comfortable with HTML, CSS, Javascript (and jQuery), PHP and MySQL.Heather is a new VRA member, and we warmly welcome her to the Association and thank her for her willingness to serve. Any requests for updates to the VRA website can be sent to Heather at webadmin@vraweb.org.