VREPS Member Profile: Molly Schoen (VREPS Co-Chair)

Molly Schoen is an Information Resources Specialist in the Visual Resources Collections at University of Michigan—Ann Arbor’s Department of the History of Art. She studied English and Creative Writing at Michigan State University and went on to earn her MLIS from Wayne State University.

While at MSU, she worked in the Government Documents Library, which led her to pursue library school. She did not start out with the intent to become a Visual Resources Librarian, but Wayne State was offering a pilot specialty program, focusing in Fine & Performing Arts libraries. “The great thing with this program was that there were internships built into the curriculum,” she said, including partnerships with the Wayne State Library, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and, her favorite, the Motown Museum. “I would intern at one place for 1-2 semesters, then switch.”

Although the Wayne State pilot program targeted work in Fine Arts, most of Molly’s professors never talked about visual resources management. She worked at the Wayne State VRC for a few weeks but said she was not fully aware of VR as a separate profession. Then, her first position out of school was as a Registrar / Librarian at the Mott-Warsh Collection, a private art collection in Flint, MI. “It was a fantastic organization,” she said, “A collection of modern and contemporary art by African Americans, based in Flint, and we’d install exhibitions at different sites around Flint—for example, churches and libraries—and also loan works out to national exhibitions.”

The position was only part-time, so she began volunteering at University of Michigan’s VRC, working under one of her former Wayne State professors, Kim Schroeder. As with all of the other VREPS interviewees, Molly emphasized the importance of mentorship in furthering her career. Kim, then-director of the VRC, and Marlene Gordon, VR Curator at UM-Dearborn and the Chapter Chair of VRA-Great Lakes, introduced Molly to VRA and encouraged her to attend the conference in Providence last year.

Attending her first VRA conference helped Molly feel a connection to her peers in visual resources. “I always felt my job at UM was so niche, and it always took me a few minutes to explain to my friends what exactly my work entailed,” she said. “So when I got to VRA, and there was a joke made about 2×2 cards, I thought, ‘Wow! These are my people!’” Like most of us new to the organization, Molly was also impressed with how friendly and accessible VRA members are. “What I like about VRA is that, since it’s not a huge organization, it’s easy to get involved and share ideas.”

Molly has stepped up this year to become the new VREPS co-chair as Heather Lowe steps down. As a fairly recent graduate, Molly hopes to help new and emerging professionals the way so many people helped her along the way. When I asked her how she thinks VREPS can do that, she said, “I think a lot of it is just getting the word out. When I worked at Wayne State’s VRC, I wasn’t really aware that it was a separate department. I didn’t know about the VRA.” And while many students want to go into art librarianship, not many know how to translate their MLIS degree to work in a broader art and visual resource field. “I was trying to use my MLIS to apply for museum jobs,” she said, “But even though I had museum experience, I didn’t get many interviews because I didn’t have the Museums Studies degree.”

She continued, “The great thing about VRA is that there are no set requirements: The position is a little different for anyone, so a profession in VR can be an option for anyone with a library, archives, or museum background, and it’s very closely related to the art library track, too. So I think if more students are made aware of it, they’ll be glad to know of other options available to them.” The more that students know about the kinds of work VR professionals do, the better they can prepare by finding appropriate internships and courses.

Speaking of internships, I asked Molly for her advice to current students: Predictably, she recommends interning and volunteering, and building a relationship with a mentor. “Also, even if you’re a new student,” she said, “Start looking at job postings. Save the ones you like, so you can see what experiences and skills you should have by graduation.” She added, “One thing I wish I would have done differently is to be more vocal at my internships. I wanted to get more involved but felt too intimidated to ask. Looking back, I should have asked. If you do it in a polite way, show genuine interest, and can bring your own ideas into the internship, most supervisors are pretty receptive.” Her final tip for students and recent graduates? “Apply, apply, apply. Once you’ve written a few cover letters, they become easier. Even if you don’t think you’ll get the job, there’s always that chance.”

Molly presented at VRA 32 in Milwaukee as part of the panel “The Teaching Turn: From Static Collections to Dynamic Learning Centers.” Her talk, “Promoting Visual Literacy Across Campus: a Case Study,” focused on revamping the VRC to better meet contemporary VR needs. To extend the collections’ reach, the VRC moved away from cataloging individual images at item level in favor of creating encoded finding aids as well as converting old finding aids to EAD, for which MLIS students from Wayne State were recruited. The VRC staff visits classrooms to promote visual literacy, collaborates with UM library staff, and works the Department of the History of Art (HART) marketing specialist to incorporate VRC information and announcements into the HART page. Her presentation slides will be uploaded to the VRA SlideShare site.

Molly is excited to get started in her new position as co-chair of VREPS, so be sure to get in touch with her with ideas and questions: schoenm@umich.edu.

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Marie Elia is the Processing Archivist in the Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo Libraries. If you would like to participate in the profile series, please get in touch at eliam@buffalo.edu.

VRA 2014 Conference presentations available

I'm please to announce more VRA32 conference presentations are now available on SlideShare.Session #6: Back to Basics — Cataloging Workflows and Solutionshttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-backtobasicssmithhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-backtobasicselia-33044489http://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-back-to-basics-fojas-whitehttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-backtobasicssipeSession #11: Brave New World Cataloging: Using RDF and Linked Open Data for the Semantic Webhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-brave-new-world-cataloging-rosesandlerhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-brave-new-world-catalogingmixterhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-brave-new-world-cataloging-goodlanderhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-brave-new-world-cataloging-harpringThe Awards Presentation:http://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-awards-2014More presentations will be made available soon!JohnJohn M. TrendlerVRA PR&Cinfo@vraweb.org

VRA 2014 Conference presentations available

I'm pleased to announce the first batch of conference presentations are now available for viewing on SlideShare.Session 2, Case Studies in International Resources:http://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-case-studies-in-international-resources-robinsonhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-casestudiesinternationalresourcesprudhommehttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-casestudiesininternationalresourcesmaddenhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-case-studies-in-international-resourcesschulerSession 8, VRA Core 4 Unbound: Expanding Core capabilities through embedded metadata, APIs, and editors:http://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-vra-core-unbound-reserhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-vra-core-unbound-rosesandlerhttp://www.slideshare.net/VisResAssoc/vra-2014-vra-core-unboundarnold20140313publicnovideoIn order to see speaker notes click on Notes from Slide 1 (below the presentation)if the session description is in the way you can click "show less" below the description to collapse it.More presentations will be made available soon!JohnJohn M. TrendlerVRA PR&Cinfo@vraweb.org

VREPS Second Member Profile

Our second VREPS member profile is Milwaukee-based Jasmine Burns. She has been helping with the local plans for VRA 32 and will be working the registration desk whenever she can. She will also be moderating the VREPS-organized Session 4, “The Teaching Turn: From Static Collections to Dynamic Learning Centers,” on Thursday, March 13, at 10:35 (sponsored by Scholars Resource).Jasmine earned her MA in Art History from SUNY Binghamton while also serving as the Assistant Curator of Visual Resources there. She was a graduate student assistant for Marcia Focht (the VR Curator), who mentored Jasmine and gave her a lot of freedom and responsibility. She had the opportunity to work on major cataloging and digitization projects, including scanning and cataloging a slide collection of medieval images, which was particularly interesting as her academic focus was medieval art. As Jasmine began working on her MA thesis, she says that her research “veered away from looking at objects in their original cultural contexts and moved towards looking at them in their current archival and digital states.” During that time, she also received a Kress Foundation Travel Fellowship to attend the College Art Association’s THATCamp, a Pre-Conference Forum on Digital Art History. Things all came together in her thesis, “Digital Facsimiles and the Modern Viewer: Medieval Manuscripts and Archival Practice in the Age of New Media.”“I really got to dive into issues of access, preservation, and theories of materiality,” she says, which led her to apply to MLIS programs for archives. She is currently enrolled at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Archives/Archival Administration program. Although she was already qualified for VR jobs with an MA and her experience at Binghamton’s VRC, Jasmine says that fellow VRA members advised her to pursue the MLIS. “At the conference in Providence, I kept hearing people say get a library degree!” We discussed the MLIS as a companion degree for those who want to specialize in a narrower information management field, such as Visual Resources.Because she already has the art history background as well as hands-on experience, she can focus her coursework to better prepare her for a VR career. She specifically chose courses in electronic records management, digital libraries, preserving information media, and academic libraries, as well as a fieldwork course to gain more experience. She was just hired for an internship with the Digital Collections at the UWM library, where she will be working on a joint project with the American Geographical Society, digitizing and cataloging some of their materials for the online collection. “The AGS gets a lot of public inquiries,” she says, “so they are working to make their materials available online. I will be working with one other intern over the next year to scan a variety of materials, mostly manuscripts and written documents.”I asked Jasmine to talk a little more about her work at Binghamton. In addition to the VRC, she interned with the University Art Museum. “I worked with the director on a preservation project to take works on paper out of their frames and store them properly.” The director was new and taking the opportunity to reorganize, which include this four-month project to disassemble framed works on paper, most of which had been framed in the 1960s and were no longer housed in archivally-sound enclosures. Jasmine told me that the catalog for these items was handwritten in index cards, but that the museum was not yet ready to create an electronic catalog; however, the rehousing project helped gain more intellectual control over the materials. “I left it all ready to go!” she says.I switched gears a bit and asked Jasmine one of my Big Questions: What are her thoughts on how the profession will change (or need to change) in the next five years, especially given how much it has changed already? “I think the focus on digital imaging is going to continue to be a big deal. We are seeing more and more that these responsibilities are being merged with the already cumbersome load on VR curators.” She also believes that we need to be mindful of the long-term effects of digitization and digital preservation. “These issues are obviously being addressed in the literature, but how much are we actually applying in our everyday work? It will happen one day that we try to access an image, and the file format just does not exist anymore!” VRA focuses heavily on digital asset management, which we both agree will be absolutely necessary for successful VR management. Jasmine noted that, appropriately, most, if not all, of the VRA conference sessions have something to do with technology.On a related note, I asked her what kind of advice she has for current students and recent graduates. Jasmine is in a bit of a unique position as someone who has worked as a VR curator but is also a student. “What I see happening already, just from job searching, is that traditional VR curation is only a small portion of the job. Job postings call for someone with multiple degrees, and, more and more, specifically an MLIS.” She also notes that and there are so many job titles that encompass essentially the same position, such as project archivist, VR curator, digital collections librarian, and even art information professional. “It makes us seem like we are part of IT,” she jokes.But mostly, she advises students and recent graduates to get hands-on experience. “I never would have gotten this internship [with UWM Digital Collections] if I did not already know how to use the equipment. Plus there is only so much that you can learn in a classroom.” For example, her graduate assistantship with Marcia Focht at Binghamton led her directly to where she is now. Marcia, who at the time was the VRA secretary, encouraged Jasmine to attend the conference in Providence last year and to get involved with the community. “I am so happy I did,” says Jasmine. “Everyone is so nice, and they are genuinely interested in you and want to give you advice.”“I think it is definitely a niche field,” she continues, “And it might seem difficult to enter at first, and the amount of education required might be overwhelming, but just from attending the VRA conference and participating in the listerv, I realized that this is the community to which I belong.”   

VRA Core Website Receives a 4.5 out of 5 Rating from the Technical Services Quarterly

In a "Tech Services on the Web" review from the December 2013 issue of Technical Services Quarterly the VRA Core website received a rating of 4.5 out of 5.  The review praised the website for providing "a veritable treasure trove of implementation examples, presentations, and other important information for those thinking of using or who have already implemented VRA."Eustis, J. (2013). Tech Services on the Web: Visual Resources Association's VRA Core; Eustis, J. (2013). Tech Services on the Web: Visual Resources Association's VRA Core; http://www.loc.gov/standards/VRAcore. Technical Services Quarterly, 30(4), 441-442.. Technical Services Quarterly, 30(4), 441-442.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::VRA Core on the WebVRA Core Schemas and Documentation (Library of Congress Official Site)VRA Core Support Pages

Travel Award Application - 2014 Conference in Milwaukee, WI

APPLY HEREThe Visual Resources Association offers several awards to assist member attendance at the VRA Annual Conference. Several Tansey Awards are offered each year along with Corporate Travel Awards, New Horizon awards, named individual donor awards, Top-Up awards and student awards. (Please see Types of Awards and announcements on VRA-L for more information.) Selection of recipients is determined by the Travel Awards Committee. The goal of the Travel Awards Program is to encourage and support conference attendance by both new members/conference attendees and veteran members/attendees.The Tansey Travel Award program was started in 1993 with initial funding by Luraine Tansey. She won the Distinguished Service Award that year and requested that her travel expenses reimbursement be used to assist other VRA members with their professional development.  This became the seed of the fund, further supplemented when she sent in her first retirement checks (one from teaching art history, and another much smaller one from slide librarianship).  The total was matched by the VRA and the Tansey Travel Award Fund was born.  The Travel Award Committee, formed in 1993, presented the first five awards of $400 each to VRA attendees of the 1994 New York City conference.The Tansey awards are now funded through fundraising events, VRA member donations, and other VRA funds.  Full Tansey awards are now up to $850 each; in addition there are Top-Up awards available up to $599 intended for applicants who have partial institutional funding, and awards for International members of $1,000.  There are several corporate sponsors who have funded awards in the past (2013 sponsors were Archivision, Davis Art Images, Gallery Systems, and Saskia, Ltd.).  The Travel Awards Committee is very grateful to all of these sponsors.  For 2013, two anonymously donated New Horizons awards of $850 and a New Horizons student award of $300 were awarded.  In addition, several individual VRA members have sponsored named awards, for example the Kathe Hicks Albrecht Award and the Joseph C. Taormina Memorial Award.The Travel Awards Committee especially encourages applications from new members/first time conference attendees, veteran members who have not had funds to attend conferences, international members, solo, isolated, and part-time VR professionals, students considering careers in visual resources, and any member actively participating in the conference who lacks sufficient funding to attend.Travel Award Recipients Since the Founding of the ProgramTravel Award InformationTravel Award Rules, Guidelines, and TipsAwards Committee

32nd Annual Conference: Milwaukee

We are pleased to announce:The Visual Resources Association 32nd Annual ConferenceMilwaukee, WIMarch 12-15th, 2014Pfister HotelThe Executive Board recently went on a site visit and boy do they make Milwaukee look like fun! They visited the Harley Davidson Museum, The Milwaukee Art Museum and of course the Pfister Hotel where we hope to see you in March!View photos from the Executive Board's recent site visit.Please check back later in the year for more information: http://www.vraweb.org/conferences/vra32/