The Intellectual Property Powder Keg: Fair Use and Contemporary Art Museums

Employing fair use at a contemporary art museum can feel like navigating a minefield where one lives in fear not of explosions, but cease and desist letters from angry rights holders. Despite the dearth of public domain materials, there is no need for a proverbial metal detector when publishing in-copyright images, just a healthy understanding of the four factors. At the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where I am the Rights and Images Manager, we utilize fair use in three public-facing ways:Online Collection—This online display of our 3,000-piece permanent collection is a unique record of the MCA’s collecting history, and includes exhibition and publishing material related to each object. It is a significant educational and scholarly resource that presents the MCA’s holdings to a broad online audience. Images are non-downloadable and fully attributed with tombstone and credit information.Exhibition History—Installation photography of the MCA’s past exhibitions are also hosted on the museum’s website. The images visually describe the MCA’s exhibition history dating from 1967 to the present and are low resolution, captioned, and non-downloadable. The images focus on no one object, rather they depict broad installation views for greater understanding of the exhibitions.MCA Blog: MCA DNA—The MCA’s blog is another online educational tool for visitors, which features entries by MCA staff, visiting artists, and scholars. Images on the blog help guide readers through the text. They pose no commercial threat to the objects they depict and are low resolution.Assessing fair use is challenging in the contemporary arena because one must consider relationships with living artists and contractual obligations when determining whether a use falls within the boundaries of the law. Thankfully, understanding United States Code carries considerably fewer risks than bomb detection—even when dealing with today’s most incendiary art. As institutional fair use standards continue to be tested (and uncontested), museums should begin to feel comfortable publishing past didactic materials and online collections. Today a blog post, tomorrow a banner, one day, an exhibition catalogue.Fig. 1: Home page for the MCA’s collection site. Fig. 2: Exhibition page for the MCA’s 1967 show Fantastic Drawings in Chicago Collections. Fig. 3: MCA DNA blog post about one of the MCA’s earliest commissioned pieces, Concrete Traffic (1970) by Wolf Vostell.Bonnie RosenbergMuseum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Fair Use Week: Fair Use and Copyright in the Academic Environment

Fair Use Week 2017United States Copyright Law is a fascinating and complex topic. It protects creators AND those who teach. US copyright features a section called "Fair Use," which allows for the use of copyrighted material in the academic environment (among other things).Reams of information have been written about copyright, and a number of important court cases have further defined copyright. An equal volume has written about Fair Use, as well, especially as it pertains to teaching and research. Some useful publications about Fair Use in the Academic Environment include:

• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, published by the ARL (Association of Research Libraries)
• Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study, published by the VRA (Visual Resources Association)
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by CAA (College Art Association)

The resources on the Fair Use Week website are also extremely interesting and informative. One of those resources is a video produced for Fair Use Week 2016, featuring Gerald Beasley, Vice Provost and Chief Librarian, who explains both Fair Use and Fair Dealing (the Canadian equivalent of Fair Use), and encourages academics to exercise their fair use of copyrighted materials.The VRA’s statement on Fair Use draws attention to the impact of Fair Use in the classroom (the use of color in the texts below is the authors).

Images are essential pedagogical and scholarly materials. They are unique objects whose meaning cannot be adequately conveyed through words or other media. Images may themselves be the object of commentary or critique. In other instances, images are used to facilitate the study of and communication about the objects they depict or document. In many cases, images serve as the only or best means by which to depict an object, providing the context or documentary evidence by which those objects can be understood. In still other instances, images are essential for comparison or contrast of multiple objects, or for other evaluative purposes.

CAA’s Code of Best Practices was developed after a 2014 Issues Report designed to assess the academic community’s practices in respect to Fair Use and copyright.The Issues Report, which was based on their interviews with 100 visual arts professionals and a survey of CAA members, reported that the practices of many professionals in the visual arts are constrained due to the pervasive perception that permissions to use third-party materials are required even where a confident exercise of fair use would be appropriate. Most commonly the decision not to rely on fair use is made by visual arts professionals themselves. Although members of the community may rely on fair use in some instances, they may self-censor in others, due to confusion, doubt, and misinformation about fair use, leading them to over-rely on permissions…. Doing so jeopardizes their ability to realize their own full potential, as well as that of the visual arts community as a whole.The Code of Best Practices also points out the difference between Fair Use and plagiarism. Sources for material used under the guidelines of Fair Use must always be cited, attributed, or identified “as is customary in the field” (p. 10). It also encourages seeking permissions when necessary—for example, in the case of a sole source controlling access to an image (p. 7).Gerald Beasley’s video and the statements by VRA and CAA underscore that arts professionals must advocate for and exercise Fair Use in their academic environments—teaching about, researching, or creating Art. Fair Use is a first amendment right and is necessary to the academic environment.Heather Seneff, MA, MLSDirector of the Visual Media CenterSchool of Art and Art HistoryUniversity of Denverhseneff@du.eduhttp://www.du.edu/ahss/art/vmc.htmlhttp://dusaahvmc.blogspot.com/

Fair Use Week: Image Sources

Copyright law is a protection for an author’s creative works, which grants rights that belong only to the creator. Fair use is an exception in that law, and an important one, enabling others to use that creative work, and making it accessible for the continued creation and dissemination of knowledge and culture.The subjective nature of weighing the four factors of copyright make it flexible; it can also be confusing when trying to decide if some use is fair or not. The visual arts community has attempted to create consensus as to how fair use might be reliably applied in practice, without creating overly restrictive guidelines that are inflexible with evolving cultural uses. Both of the recent guidelines by the College Art Association “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts” and the Visual Resources Associate: “Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study” seek to reflect the longstanding practices of educational and cultural institutions in using copyrighted still images.The CAA guideline is a consensus of CAA members and other invited visual arts professionals. http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/fair-use/best-practices-fair-use-visual-arts.pdf.Section 2 addresses Teaching about Art. For teachers of art history, visual culture, and studio practices, in all settings, the use of images is central to the fulfillment of their mission. (Their students also need images for scholarship from reliable sources with good metadata.) In these contexts, fair use of copyrighted materials can be invoked within limitations: when the image clearly supports the pedagogical objective, the access to images is restricted, the image accurately represents the work depicted, and the size does not exceed what is needed for display. When displayed, an image should have an attribution, and metadata available.Where can one get good images for teaching? Licensing images from vendors, institutional subscriptions, and image database resources, are great if you are with an educational institution providing these, but if not, apart from doing original photograph or scanning from books there are many quality online sources of free copyrighted images. Museums with large collections are good places to look. The artwork will be well represented and the metadata will be accurate and complete. Museums will often allow non-commercial reuse, provided the source and author are acknowledged and will often have a “terms of use page” to consult. For example, from the J. Paul Getty Museum “For records with images, a combination of copyright status and available image quality determines the final image display size on the collection website. The Museum publishes thumbnail-size images of copyrighted works for which it does not have a license to reproduce under fair use. All available images include embedded metadata, accessible under file properties or file information.” http://bit.ly/2krgAMlTime is one limitation in the copyright law. A work will lose copyright protection after a certain length of time and then go into the public domain where it is free to be used by everyone. The CAA code is not needed for images in the Public Domain because they are no longer protected by copyright and may be used without regard for it. A number of museums in the 21st century are choosing (CC0) Creative Commons Zero (Public Domain Dedication) to govern the use and reuse of images in their collection making public domain artworks available for free and unrestricted use worldwide. This move away from tiered pricing for high quality images enables museums to realize a core goal: to get the collection out and known to a new audience.The Metropolitan Museum of Art just announced that more than 375,000 images of artworks are available for free and unrestricted use under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) http://bit.ly/2looZgaThe Rijksmuseum chose (CC0) Public Domain Dedication for sharing its high quality true-color digital images and metadata about the works in its collection. They actively seek to have people reuse images of artwork in their collection through their annual Rijksstudio competition, where members of the public are invited to collect, download images and create their own artwork. http://bit.ly/1aHqdfz Check out the top 75 entries from 2015 http://bit.ly/2lMID9nCreative Commons licenses are not all the same. They are legal tools that let creators and rights holders offer certain rights while reserving others. When museums grant these CC licenses you need to be aware of any restrictions place on your usage of the image through any of the six main licenses https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/ Always look at the terms of use page for any museum whose artworks you seek to use.Several sites using Creative Commons licenses to share images:

• Internet Archive Book Images on Flickr Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/
• Images with "No Known Copyright Restrictions" in The Commons on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/commons
• List of open collections from Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museum) https://openglam.org/
• Wellcome Images Collection https://wellcomeimages.org/ note: changes in use as of April 2017 https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/page/News.html
• Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images

Here are some museums and libraries with free downloadable images. Note differences in Creative Commons licenses used.

• Bodlein Library http://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ Terms of use: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
• The British Museum http://www.britishmuseum.org/  Terms of use:http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
• The Cleveland Art Museum http://www.clevelandart.org  Terms of use: All text and images published in www.clevelandart.org are for personal use only. Any commercial use or publication is strictly prohibited.
• The Frick Collection http://www.frick.org/ This site is for personal, educational, non-commercial use only and may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of The Frick Collection.
• The J. Paul Getty Museum: Open Content Program (would like a source credit in caption) http://bit.ly/2krgAMl) http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/
• Los Angeles County Museum http://www.lacma.org/ Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site Terms of use: http://www.lacma.org/about/contact-us/terms-use
• Louvre (Photographs credited © RMN, Musee du Louvre are the property of the RMN. Non-commercial reuse is authorized, provided the source and author are acknowledged.
• The National Gallery, London https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ 2,300 free downloads. Terms of use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• The New York Public Library https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/  Terms of use: https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/legal-notices/website-terms-and-conditions. Low Resolution Files (Only Non-Commercial Uses Allowed).  Materials downloaded from the NYPL Websites may only be used for personal, educational, or research purposes.  They may not be used for commercial purposes.
• Victoria and Albert Museum http://collections.vam.ac.uk/  (can download a low res image)Terms of use: non-commercial use:  https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/terms-of-use#3
• The Walters Art Gallery https://thewalters.org/ works of art download site: http://art.thewalters.org/ The Creative Commons License the Walters has chosen to use is explained in more detail at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
• World Images, database of Images from California State University IMAGE Project http://image.calstate.edu/ Images are free when used for non-profit educational purposes, with appropriate credit given to the copyright holders who retain all rights to the images.

Many contemporary and artists early in their careers do not have museum representation, so finding images and videos to use in teaching requires looking in other places. Try the artist’s own website (not a fan’s web site). Here are some other good places to start.

• Art21 the companion website to the Art21 TV show on PBS, promotes artists of the 21st century by chronicling the artists at work through video, interviews and exploration of new artistic ideas.
• Art Babble website that displays high quality art-related video content from more than 50 cultural institutions from around the world.
• ArtNet Founded in 1989, and online since 1995, artnet is the leading resource for the international art market, and the principal platform for art auctions on the Internet. We offer a wide range of art market resources, providing a place for people in the art world to buy, sell, and research Fine Art, Design, and Decorative Art.  ArtNet News frequently does lists of who to watch. For example Millennial Artists to Watch in 2016 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/millennial-artists-to-watch-2016-644570
• ArtSlant You can narrow down to a specific city or look at worldwide listings. They have an artists A-Z list too
• Artsy  features the world’s leading galleries, museum collections, foundations, artist estates, art fairs, and benefit auctions, all in one place. A growing database of 300,000 images of art, architecture, and design by 40,000 artists spans historical, modern, and contemporary works, and includes the largest online database of contemporary art.
• E-Flux Journal  is a publishing platform and archive, artist project, curatorial platform, and enterprise, which was founded in 1998. Its news digest, events, exhibitions, schools, journal, books, and the art projects produced and/or disseminated by e-flux describe strains of critical discourse surrounding contemporary art, culture, and theory internationally.
• Hyperallergic Archives Sensitive to Art and its Discontents “Hyperallergic is a forum for playful, serious, and radical perspectives on art and culture in the world today.”
• UBS Planet Art (free app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/planet-art-your-source-for/id937737095?mt=8 ) “The world’s definitive source of art news and information. Planet Art is your personal guide to the contemporary art world, bringing news from a range of leading publications, institutions, and influencers together in one convenient, beautiful app. Better understanding of the art world is just a tap away."
• Bomb magazine: “BOMB Magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. BOMB's founders—New York City based artists and writers—created BOMB because they saw a disparity between the way artists talked about their work among themselves and the way critics described it.”
• Universes in Universe: Worlds of Art  A global online resource

Kathy EvansPurdue University

Fair Use Week

The Intellectual Property Rights committee will be taking over the VRA's social media accounts during Fair Use Week February 20–24 to promote fair use resources and practices and to drum up support for fair use. Follow along with us  @VisResAssn  and https://www.facebook.com/VisualResourcesAssociation!If you'd like to get involved with the all the posting and liking, there's still room and time to participate! Please email Lael Ensor (lensor@jhu.edu) or Bridget Madden (bridgetm@uchicago.edu) for more information.

VRA 2017: Volunteer Studio

Hello VRA members,Just a reminder that the VRA's 2017 Annual Conference is fast approaching (March 29-April 1), along with the early-bird rate deadline (February 28th). Here is a link to the program and here is a link to the registration page.If you haven't done so already, please remember to register for the VRA Volunteer Studio, which is FREE and the VRA Foundation is generously sponsoring. Everyone is welcome!The VRA Volunteer Studio will take place on Thursday, March 30th from 12:10 – 2:10pm and includes lunch!Lunch items will feature local favorites such as one of Louisville's more famous dishes, the hot brown. But, if you are not into open-faced sandwiches covered with turkey, bacon, and creamy sauce, there will be vegetarian options available as well.After lunch, the Studio facilitators (representing diverse aspects of the profession and the Association) will offer opportunities for attendees to engage in “real-life” issues/projects that are being addressed within the Association. I, for example, will be facilitating a discussion table that represents the VRA Executive Board, and would like to talk with anyone who is interested about our changing professional roles and the future of the VRA. So, if you've ever had questions about how your skills might align with the needs of the VRA in meaningful ways, the nitty-gritty of Association work, or the benefits our volunteers gain from active participating in the VRA--the Studio will be a place for you to explore those questions. Or--just come for lunch and observation. Either way, the Volunteer Studio will provide a multi-directional learning and conversation space for all.To helps us get a general sense of our catering needs for the Volunteer Studio, please remember to select it on your conference registration form as an event that you will be participating in.If you have already registered, and need to make that selection retrospectively, please email Jasmine Burns and she will make the adjustment on your behalf.Have a great weekend!Jen

VRA 2017 Keynote Speaker: Brent Seales

This year’s convocation speaker, Dr. Brent Seales, paradoxically works with cutting-edge technology as well as some of the world’s earliest artifacts. Dr. Seales received his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Currently, our guest speaker is a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and what’s more, the director of the Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments (VIS Center) at the University of Kentucky. Another notable period in his career trajectory occurred in 2012-2013, when he was a visiting scientist with Google in Paris.His work researching digital imaging in the fields of cultural heritage at the enviable VIS Center (basically a Visual Resources Center on steroids), is what makes Seales such an exciting and timely addition to this year’s program. The VIS website describes the Center as having produced fascinating research using advanced technologies that incorporate “computer vision and image processing, data acquisition, graphics, human-computer interaction, multimedia, and networking that are dedicated to research and development of computer-generated immersive environments, ambient environments, dynamic scene acquisition and preservation, advanced telepresence and telecommunications, and visualization applications in such areas as education and training, medicine, manufacturing, security, and daily life.”Receiving international acclaim, the VIS Center has partnered with such renowned institutions such as the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, The British Museum, IBM, FBI, Archivision, and a number of universities.One of his most compelling projects developed at the VIS Center is known as EDUCE (Enhanced Digital Unwrapping for Conservation and Exploration). It aims to produce readable images of ancient texts too fragile to open by using a virtual unwrapping tool similar to X-ray technology. Fortunately, (spoiler alert) for one particularly damaged ancient scroll from Ein Gedi, which resembles a lump of coal, Seales and his research team achieved the seemingly impossible by developing a software that involves layering digital images over the primary source, then altering the documents color and resolution. Thanks to Dr. Brent Seales for having securely laid the groundwork, we can only hope that such emerging technologies become common-place in the future within our field of visual resources.Make sure to attend this engaging talk on Wednesday, March 29th from 5:00-6:30pm.

VRA Travel Awards

The VRA Travel Awards Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of Travel Awards for the 2017 VRA conference in Louisville:Kathe Hicks Albrecht Award — Elliot McNally, Savannah College of Art & DesignNew Horizons Full Award — Joanne Lammers, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & SciencesNew Horizons Full Award — Jamie Zeffery, California State University, Los AngelesNew Horizons Student Award and Luraine Tansey/VRA Travel Award— Andrew Wang, Indiana UniversityLuraine Tansey/VRA Travel Awards:Kristin Britanik, The Andy Warhol MuseumSusan Jane Williams, Independent Cataloging and Consulting ServicesIan McDermott, LaGuardia Community College, CUNYSheryl Frisch, Cal Poly, San Luis ObispoKate Thornhill, Oregon Health & Science UniversityMeghan Musolff, University of Michigan LibraryZoe Waldron, New York Public LibraryCongratulations to the award recipients, and thank you to all applicants for their interest and excellent applications.Additional thanks go to contributors to the travel awards fund, our generous travel award sponsors, the VRA Executive Board and the Travel Awards Committee.We're looking forward to seeing all of you in Louisville,Marcia Focht and Michael DonovanCo-Chairs, Travel Awards Committee

Membership Recruiting Challenge

VRA Members,Our Membership renewal drive a little different this year, as I’m sure you’ve seen. One of the new incentives the Board is initiating this year is a Membership Referral Challenge! The New Member Form now includes a place to indicate whether an individual referred the new member to the organization. The members who refer both the highest number of individual new members and the highest number of institutional members will receive an upgrade to a concierge room at the 34^th Annual VRA Conference in Lousiville. This room upgrade includes:

• Concierge lounge access (open Monday-Friday, closed on weekends)
• Complimentary food including continental breakfasts, midday snacks, hors d’oevres, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverages
• An honor bar
• Complimentary business services

The challenge will extend through February 28^th 2017, the last day of Early-Bird Conference Registration. Let’s encourage our colleagues and students to consider the benefits that VRA membership offers.Melanie Clark

2016 DLF Fellows

Dear all — this is just a quick line to share a public announcement about the first group of fellows in our Kress-funded program: https://www.diglib.org/archives/12750/This includes the four folks who will be attending the DLF Forum in Milwaukee and one DLFer headed to MCN.Many thanks to Becca for putting together such a nice round-up of statements and smiling faces!We’ll be promoting the ARLIS/NA, AIC, and VRA travel opportunities to DLF community members in good time — starting with ARLIS/NA (deadline November 1st!).All best,Bethany NowviskieDirector of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) at CLIRResearch Associate Professor of Digital Humanities, UVadiglib.org | clir.org | ndsa.org | nowviskie.org | she/her/hers

VRA 2017 Conference Branding Winner

Please join me in congratulating Meghan Rubenstein, winner of the 2017 VRA Conference Branding Contest! Meghan’s winning logo design is below. It will be used on the 2017 VRA Conference website as well as other marketing and print materials for the conference.We would also like to thank each individual who put their creative talents into designs for this contest. Members using their creative ideas for such efforts is an important part of what allows our organization to thrive. I look forward to seeing you all in Louisville!Melanie ClarkPublic Relations and Communications Officer

VRA 2017 Conference Call for Posters

The Visual Resources Association’s 34th Annual Conference will be held in Louisville, Kentucky from Wednesday, March 29^th, 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 posters.  All proposals are welcome.Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2016.Participants in the Poster Session present a professional topic both graphically and through direct interaction with conference attendees.  This format encourages one-on-one discussions and self-paced viewing. Posters depict workplace initiatives, research works in process, and other library/visual resource topics of contemporary interest.Submit your poster proposal via our online submission form.A poster consists of a visual display accompanied by pertinent handouts; The visual poster display can take any form or look, provided it is confined to the 30” x 42” area. Creating the opportunity for conversation is the main goal of the poster session.Beyond the display panels and certain basic mounting supplies, poster presenters will be required to bring all materials and mount their own display at the designated time. Full details will be provided in December, following selection and confirmation of poster presenters. Successful applicants will be notified by October 15, 2016.

Have a great day.

Chris Strasbaugh

VRA 2015-2016 Report on Professional Status

Dear VRA colleagues,I am pleased to announce the completion and availability of the VRA 2015-2016 Professional Status Task Force Report on Professional Status.*  This report provides extremely valuable information about the landscape of our professions and the needs of members and non-members working within a variety of visual resource environments.  The Executive Board encourages you all to take some time to read the report, and we believe it will be of particular interest and use to our many committees, task forces, chapters, etc. Please don't hesitate to contact the VRA Board with questions about this information. We can be reached at board@vraweb.org.Please join me in thanking the members of the 2015 Professional Status Task Force for there dedication to their charge and for the thoughtful, creative, and collaborative time and energy they invested in the VRA over the past two years.

• Virginia (Macie) Hall, Senior Instructional Designer, Center for Educational Resources, Johns Hopkins University, Co-chair
• Ana Cox, Assistant Archivist, New York Public Radio Archives
• Liz Gushee, Head, Digital Collections Services, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
• Amy McKenna, Assistant Visual Resources Curator, Art Department, Williams College
• Rebecca Moss, Assistant Director, LATIS, University of Minnesota
• Greg Reser, Metadata Analyst, University of California San Diego
• Jen Green, Digital Scholarship Librarian, Scholarly Communication, Copyright, and Publishing Program, Dartmouth College, (Co-chair through March 2016)

*You may also access the report within Memberclicks (go to: Community > Info >Task Force and Advisory Group Reports). The Board will also be submitting the report to the VRA Bulletin for publication in a future issue.Kind regards,Jen Green

Design Your VRA Conference Branding!

VRA Members,Need a project to put your visual mind to? The VRA Board invites you to participate in a design contest for the 2017 VRA Conference visual branding. The winning design will be used on the 2017 Conference website and print materials. Our conference branding in the past has consisted of logos, banners, or both (see examples below). We are leaving it flexible for you to be creative with your designs. The design may include original artwork, a photo, or a hybrid. Designs should be representative of Louisville, i.e. the skyline, waterfront, or things Louisville is known for (horses, baseball, bourbon, or arts scene, etc.).SpecificationsDimensions: 3000 pixels on the long side, 300 dpiPreferred file format: TIFFFile size limit: 25MBRequired textual content: VRA 34 / Louisville KY / 2017Optional content: "Unbridled Opportunities" / March 28-April 1, 2017You may submit as many entries as you like, and we encourage you to involve students with an interest in attending the conference, even if they are not currently VRA members. The VRA Board will select a design and the winner will receive attribution on the 2017 conference website, as well as a $50 discount on 2017 Conference registration OR, if the winner is unable to attend the conference, a $50 discount on next year’s membership.Designs should be submitted to: melanie.clark@ttu.eduSubmission deadline: September 2, 2016Winner announced: September 9, 2016VRA reserves the right to make minor modifications for various print formats.Examples from past conferences:

• http://www.vraweb.org/conferences/vra32/
• http://www.vraweb.org/conferences/vra33/
• httpS://vraweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Minneapolis_2011_web.pdf
• http://www.vraweb.org/conferences/vra30/
• http://vrawebor.ipower.com/conferences/toronto2009/index.html
• http://vrawebor.ipower.com/conferences/sandiego2008/index.html

Melanie ClarkArchitecture Image LibrarianArchitecture LibraryTexas Tech University806-834-5377melanie.clark@ttu.edu

Message from the VRA President: New appointments and Executive Board activities

I hope you are all well and enjoying the first days of summer. I’m emailing to let you know what the VRA Executive Board has been up to since our annual conference in Seattle.We are pleased to announce the following new Task Forces and appointments:VRA Strategic Plan Task Force:The Board has appointed Jolene de Verges, Southern Methodist University, and Elaine Paul, University of Colorado, Boulder to co-Chair the Strategic Plan Task Force (SPTF) as well as the following members to work with them on the SPTF :

• Heidi Eyestone, Carleton College
• Sarah Gillis, Worcester Art Museum
• Beth Wodnick Haas, Princeton University
• Billy Kwan, New York School of Interior Design
• Meghan Musolff, University of Michigan
• Molly Tighe, Chatham University

The charge and timeline:Beginning with a review of the 2008 VRA Strategic Plan, the data gathered by the ARLIS/NA - VRA Joint Task Force on Professional Standards Criteria, and the 2016 final report of the Professional Status Task Force, the Task Force will provide a status assessment and proceed to make recommendations for initiatives going forward. The Task Force will focus on the areas of: programs and services, membership, technology, financial structure, organization and governance, and leadership in the field.Initiatives will be developed according to the following criteria:– achievable within a 5 year period to commence in January 2018– include measurable activities and tasks– provide an estimated chronology of eventsRecommendations will take the form of a written report that will be delivered to the Executive Board by June 30, 2017. The report will then be presented to the VRA membership at the 2018 annual conference.Online Learning Task Force:The Board has appointed Marsha Taichman, Cornell University, to chair the Online Learning Task Force (OLTF) as well as the following members to serve on the OLTF:Betha Whitlow, Washington UniversityStephen Patton, Indiana State UniversityMarie Elia, University of BuffaloJasmine Burns, Indiana UniversityChris Strasbaugh, Ohio State UniversityThe charge and timeline:Beginning with an environmental scan of online learning approaches in similar organizations, such as the Art Libraries Society of North America, the Music Library Association, the Special Library Association, a review of the 2016 Professional Status Task Force report, and a brief report from the President’s April 2016 leadership webinar, the Task Force will identify the various factors for consideration relating to VRA's pursuit of online professional development opportunities. These will support the professional development needs of our members, provide new benefits of membership, serve as outreach to potential new members, offer a potential source of Association revenue, and further establish VRA as an authority on a variety of digital content issues. In its investigations, the Task Force will confer with various stakeholders, including the Education Committee, the VRA Foundation, the Executive Board in general and the Vice President for Conference Program in particular, as well as the VRA membership. The Task Force will offer at least two additional pilot webinars, from which it can assess and document successes and challenges. In its final report, to be delivered to the Executive Board by January 31, 2017, the Task Force will provide a set of recommendations for proceeding with this initiative. The factors addressed will include:

• technical considerations for the GoToMeeting platform and other potential complementary software
• mechanisms for soliciting and selecting relevant content and instructors; frequency of offerings; low-cost budget models with potential fee structures, if any
• means of assessment
• methods of coordinating educational content within VRA and VRAF, such as annual and regional conferences, regional workshops, and SEI
• recommendations for models of ongoing Association oversight

Social Networking Coordinator:I’d like to extend sincere thanks to Stephanie Beene for the energy and time that she invested over the past year as our Social Networking Coordinator.  I know that many members appreciated information that she posted about conference news, events, etc. in our social networking environments.  Stephanie has stepped down from the position, and I am pleased to announce and welcome Kate Thornhill, Oregon Health and Science University, as our newly appointed Social Networking Coordinator.  Kate will be stepping into that role as of July 1, 2016.The charge:Engage in outreach for VRA by following the Visual Resources Association’s Social Media Plan to efficiently and regularly post relevant, informative, or eye-catching content to the various Web 2.0 sites in which VRA participates (currently Twitter and Facebook).Membership Services CoordinatorLise Hawkos has renewed her contract with the VRA for FY2017. We are pleased to be able to continue this relationship with Lise and are grateful for the time she invests in supporting our members.A summary of Board member activities:Some of you may have heard from the Board through response letters to your annual reports, which document the activities of Chapters, Committees, Task Forces, Liaisons, Appointees, etc. All Board members share in the effort of responding to these reports, and we are truly inspired by the work that is happening as a result of our your time and dedication to your professions and the VRA.Speaking of dedication and time, I would like to thank my fellow Executive Board members for their remarkable commitment to both VRA and the profession. We have been meeting weekly online and monthly via conference calls to address a wide range of Association business. While attending to a large number of organizational issues, each Board member has also been busy focusing on the specific duties associated with his or her position.Following the annual conference, Secretary Jasmine Burns transcribed and condensed notes from the Board’s two annual meetings, our joint VRA/VRAF Business meeting, and our joint VRA/ARLIS-NA Business meeting in Seattle into our official minutes. This is no small task, considering that the VRA Board business meeting alone spanned 17 hours over the course of two days. Jasmine also worked to revise our mid-year report template so that we are able to better track leadership changes. Reports were due on June 15th, so Jasmine is in the process of organizing them so that Board members can access and review them efficiently before we conduct our Mid-year Board meeting.Vice President for Conference Program, Chris Strasbaugh, administered post-conference surveys for attendees and non-attendees. Chris is using the results of that survey to plan conference content that will meet your professional development needs. The 2017 Annual Conference will be held at the Louisville Marriott Downtown in Louisville, Kentucky from March 29th-April 1st.  You may have seen Chris’ call for proposals on VRA-L.  Chris also distributes this to other affiliated and like-minded associations, so ideas for a great conference are being generated as we speak.  There’s still time to submit a proposal, but the deadline is approaching quickly.  Please don’t be shy about proposing your content ideas by July 5th, 2016.Vice President for Conference Arrangements, Ryan Brubacher, has been working with both the Louisville Marriott staff and Tom Costello, our conference destination consultant, to address logistics surrounding the VRA mid-year board meeting (July 25-27th, 2016) and the annual conference (March 29 – April 1, 2017). Ryan also coordinated the renewal of Tom’s contract with the VRA, for which we are grateful.  Tom does extensive work in collaboration with Ryan to investigate and secure venue options for our annual conferences as well as communicate with hotel staff about our needs during the conference. An investigation of potential 2018 conference venues is currently underway.Public Relations Communications Officer, Melanie Clark, has been working diligently with Heather Rayl, Website Content Manager, to keep our website functional and up-to-date. Melanie has updated org email addresses for various VRA leadership positions and managed numerous projects for various groups in Basecamp, the Association’s project management software. Melanie will be updating the VRA web soon to reflect the new appointments mentioned above.Treasurer, Jeannine Keefer, has processed many conference expense payments and requests for reimbursements. She has been working to close the current FY2016 budget and prepare FY2017 budget.  Jeannine has also coordinated the contract renewal of our Accountant, Eileen Xethelis (CFO Consulting Partners LLC), who provides valuable consulting services for the VRA.  Jeannine also serves as a member of the Financial Advisory Committee and communicates as needed with members of the VRA Foundation about financial and fundraising matters.Past President, Elaine Paul, has worked with past presidents Maureen Burns and Jolene de Verges on updating the Organizational Policies and Procedures Manual and (as previously mentioned) will co-chair the SPTF with Jolene de Verges. Elaine has been an invaluable source of information and guidance for me in transitioning into my role as President.Up next…

• The Board will receive the Professional Status Task Force report on June 30th, and we look forward to reviewing and using it as a tool to assess member and non-member professional needs and help us think about benefits that we can offer current and prospective members.  This report will be useful to many of our committees for various reasons, and we look forward to sharing it with all of you soon.
• As always, we strive to address membership recruitment and retention. We will continue work with the Membership Committee and with the Membership Services Coordinator on outreach activities relating to this year’s membership renewal campaign. VRA’s leaders met online in April to discuss the Association’s identity and how we all can effectively communicate this with others and connect it to the work we are doing.  The ideas and concerns that we share are important to address as we think about the health of the Association and our professional roles.  I would like to offer periodic online discussions with VRA leaders, and the Board is also investigating ways to bring this discussion forward at a broader scale—perhaps during the annual conference.
• The dialog about the cultivation and efficiency of leadership within VRA will remain a priority. While online and conference discussions with leaders have been important, we are thinking creatively about how to make it easier for new members to learn about and become involved in the VRA.   Ideas are emerging around how this might be formatted as a conference event, and we will provide more information about that in the next months.
• We will continue the ongoing focus on outreach to and collaboration with other organizations in the coming year. We are working again this year with the DLF and CLIR to coordinate another cross-pollinator grant that would support a VRA member’s attendance to 2016 DLF conference and a DLF member’s attendance to the 2017 VRA conference.  I will update you on that is more information becomes available.
• Fundraising for the Association, our annual conference, and the vital travel awards program is an ongoing topic. We will work with the Development Committee, the Travel Awards Committee, and the VRA Foundation to continue harmonizing our various fundraising activities, and to develop new strategies for raising money for VRA and travel awards.
• The publishing and communications program for the Association is also an area of continued focus.  We encourage submissions from all of you, and you can review the guidelines here: http://online.vraweb.org/vrab/submguide.html . Currently, access VRA Bulletin content is a member-only benefit for the duration of a 6 month embargo period, after which the content is made available openly. The Board will be reviewing this model with Maureen Burns (Content Editor) and Hannah Marshall (Production Editor) within the upcoming months.  It is important to re-evaluate from time-to-time how we make information about the work we do accessible to each other and others beyond the VRA.

We on the Board now turn our attention to the mid-year Board meeting in Louisville next month, and this begins our focused planning for the 2017 conference. We wish you a happy, healthy, and productive summer. Please do not hesitate to contact us (or me personally) with questions or concerns:board@vraweb.orgjennifer.w.green@dartmouth.eduSincerely,Jen Green, VRA President 

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 29^th, 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 

VRA-SAH Survey Available Until May 9

The VRA and the Society of Architectural Historians are partnering on a project to salvage and process collections of 35mm slides of architectural value and interest.   This survey will help identify potential institutional partners.  Please take a moment to read more about the project here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BJ6RBMBThe survey closes May 9.   If you have any questions, please contact Jackie Spafford

VRA Executive Board Elections - Nominations Sought

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR 2016 VRA EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTIONSThree key positions on the VRA Executive Board come vacant at the 2017 annual conference:

• President-Elect
• Vice President for Conference Program
• Secretary

The Nominating Committee 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 VRA Executive Board please feel free to contact any previous or current officer; 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 or any member of the Committee.The VRA Bylaws provide additional information about the terms and duties of each officer position.Thank you,VRA 2016 Nominating CommitteeJolene de Verges, Southern Methodist University (Co-Chair)Steven P. Kowalik, Hunter College (Co-Chair)Elaine Paul, University of Colorado, Boulder

VRA Honors VRA Core 4.0 Developers Esme Cowles, Ben Kessler, Trish Rose-Sandler, and Jan Eklund with 2015 Nancy DeLaurier Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETHE VRA HONORS ESMÉ COWLES, JAN EKLUND, BEN KESSLER, AND TRISH ROSE-SANDLER WITH 2015 NANCY DELAURIER AWARDMarch 18, 2016 -¬- The Visual Resources Association is pleased to announce Esmé Cowles, Jan Eklund, Ben Kessler, and Trish Rose-Sandler as the 2015 of the Nancy DeLaurier Award in recognition of their groundbreaking work in developing VRA Core 4.0 and the accompanying XML schema. The award was presented by Johanna Bauman and Maureen Burns at the third ARLIS/NA + VRA joint conference convocation ceremony held in Seattle, Washington on Friday, March 11, 2016.The Nancy DeLaurier Award, named for one of the pioneers of the visual resources profession, annually honors a visual resources professional or a group of visual resources professionals for distinguished achievement in the field. “Achievement” is measured by immediate impact, and may take the form of published work, oral presentation, project management, software development, technology application, website creation, or other outstanding effort. Johanna Bauman observed, “as a data structure standard, VRA Core 4.0 now stands along Cataloging Cultural Objects and the Getty Vocabularies in receiving official recognition with the receipt of this DeLaurier Award, and the colleagues primarily responsible for this standards trifecta have now been fully acknowledged.”The many letters of support for the VRA Core 4.0 nomination highlight the distinction of this accomplishment. Marcia Zeng remarked, “VRA Core 4.0 has charted a patch to transcent the information silos of past systems by facilitating the construction of interoperable and sharable data…The impact of VRA Core 4.0 is so significant that virtually all ALA accredited library and information science programs now teach it.”In Trish’s acceptance speech she noted: "Our goal with Core 4 was to provide a data structure that was both modular and flexible so that it could easily be adapted to … changes and the recent RDF expression of the Core indicates its inherent versatility." She continues with a warning, “…a data standard is not just something you publish and walk away from if you really want to see it survive and thrive. It is a living, breathing thing that has to be actively sustained.”The members of the VRA Awards Committee are: Margaret Webster (Chair), Linda Callahan, Lise Hawkos, Jodi Hoover, Erin, McCall, Martine Sherrill, Marsha Taichman, and John Trendler (Awards Committee Board Liaison).About the Visual Resources AssociationThe Visual Resources Association (VRA) is a multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image and media management within the educational, cultural heritage, and commercial environments. The Association is committed to providing leadership in the visual resources field, developing and advocating standards, and offering educational tools and opportunities for the benefit of the community at large. VRA implements these goals through publication programs and educational activities.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::VRA Core on the WebVRA Core Schemas and Documentation (Library of Congress Official Site)VRA Core Support Pages

VRA President's Post Conference Letter

Hello, VRA colleagues --

I was thrilled to see many of you in Seattle for the 3rd Annual VRA + ARLIS/NA Joint Conference. This year’s joint conference exposed us to cutting-edge information, inspiring ideas, and opportunities to collaborate with colleagues beyond the VRA. I, personally, left the conference feeling saturated with new ideas and perspectives to pursue in my work, and I hope that you did as well.  I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience both VRA and ARLIS communities jointly; two organizations that engage in rich conversations, share ideas openly, and adapt quickly to change.

Before I launch into the daunting task of acknowledging and reflecting on the impressive qualities of this year’s joint conference and conference participants, I’d like to remind you all that the attendees’ post-conference evaluation survey is open ( https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BPL99TV )and will remain open until March 31st, 2016. The Executive Board encourages everyone to take just a few moments to share feedback, which will be vital to planning future conferences.

First and foremost, I want to thank all members of the Joint Conference Planning Committee for the collegial and efficient ways that they worked across both VRA and ARLIS/NA to ensure a successful conference.  Their collaborative perspectives and working relationships set the tone for all conference planning and arrangements. I will mention many of them by name throughout the course of this message, but for a more complete list of those involved in making this joint conference happen, please visit the joint conference website.

Honoring our members.

Our annual conference gathering gives us the opportunity to personally honor colleagues for distinguished achievement and outstanding career contributions to the field of visual resources and image management.

Congratulations go to this year’s joint recipients of The Nancy DeLaurier Award: VRA Core 4.0 creators Kevin Esmé Cowles, Janice Eklund, Benjamin Kessler, and Trish Rose-Sandler. Their groundbreaking work developing VRA Core 4.0 and the accompanying metadata schema has made a huge impact on colleagues working in a variety of disciplines both nationally and internationally. In her letter of support for the recipients, Elisa Lanzi writes, “I’ve just returned from the Digital Library Federation conference.  I love the fact that VRA Core 4.0 is mentioned in presentations right alongside Dublin Core.  Trish, Jan, Ben, and Esme made that happen by signing on for the long haul and applying brilliant and strategic thinking to improve access to cultural heritage content.” During their acceptance speech, Trish gave a special thanks many members who’ve contributed to VRA Core 4.0 and also recognized the diligent work of VRA Core Oversight Committee members.  Trish, Jan, Ben, and Esme have exhibited particular leadership, expertise, determination, and vision to ensure that the talented contributions of many are focused and sustained.

For her many years of remarkable dedication, leadership, and service to both VRA and ARLIS/NA and to the visual resources and library professions, VRA and ARLIS/NA presented this year’s Distinguished Service Awards to Ann Baird Whiteside. In addition to serving as President of both organizations, Ann has been an initiator and leader on numerous projects such as CCO, SAHARA, and VRA Core 4.0 and has made significant contributions to ARTstor’s Shared Shelf Platform.  Ann has also worked effectively across multiple disciplines and organizations.  In her letter of support, Jolene de Verges comments, “As a leader in both ARLIS/NA and VRA, Ann has built bridges between the visual resources professional and traditional librarianship. She chaired the ARLIS/NA-VRA Joint Conference Task Force which led to a set of recommendations for streamlining the process of planning all future joint conferences between the two organizations.”

Many thanks to the Nominating Committee, chaired by Margaret Webster, and to the nominators for their work in ensuring that these contributions to the field have been formally recognized and celebrated.

The recipients of the 2016 Travel Awards, along with the generous donors who have made these awards available, were recognized this year during the Annual Business Meeting. A total of 10 awards were given out in support of attendance at this year’s conference. The Travel Awards Committee, led by Co-Chairs Vicky Brown and Jeannine Keefer, reviewed the applications and coordinated fundraising with the Development Committee, co-chaired by Barbara Brenny and Marie Elia. Our deep appreciation for the generosity of donor sponsored travel awards goes to Kathe Hicks Albrecht and the anonymous donor who supports the “New Horizons” travel award fund. Last, but certainly not least, VRA is grateful that members like you support the Luraine Tansey Educational Fund Awards. It is heartwarming to see so many of us helping both new and veteran members attend and benefit from our annual conferences.

Absorbing new content and ideas.

The Seattle program was engaging and diverse.  It emerged from 95 submitted paper or session proposals, resulting in 39 sessions; 15 submitted workshop proposals, resulting in 6 workshops: 55 submitted poster proposals, resulting in 40 posters, and 11 SIG/SUG meetings. Topics included digital humanities, visual literacy, geospatial and visualization projects, image rights and reproductions, new technologies, museum education, environmental design, makerspaces, e-book publishing, materials education and research, diversity within our professions, RDF and LOD, crowdsourcing, cataloging, archives, visualization, open access, and more. Additionally, there were a number of productive organizational and chapter meetings held in Seattle.

Our deep thanks go to our Vice President for Conference Program, Chris Strasbaugh, for his outstanding work as he co-coordinated the program and schedule in collaboration with Program Committee Co-Chairs Dan McClure (ARLIS/NA), Denise Hattwig(ARLIS/NA) and Mar González Palacios (AASL, ARLIS/NA); to the Education Committee, co-chaired by Beth Wodnick Haas, Ryan Brubacher (past) and Marsha Taichman (present), for their invaluable contributions toward programming; and to the many presenters, instructors, and moderators who offered such timely, relevant, and forward-thinking content. Your knowledge and experiences should be disseminated to an international audience.  I hope that if you presented at the conference that you will consider taking that presentation to the next level by publishing it as an article for the VRA Bulletin (http://online.vraweb.org/).

Sarah Bergmann, design thinker and founder of the Pollinator Pathway, spoke during Convocation and shared thought-provoking perspectives on how the plight of the honey bee inspired her to consider symbiotic relationships and the importance of building and maintaining pathways to support these relationships. While Sarah’s consideration of bees inspired her to build pathways that connect city dwellers to existing green spaces, her work inspired us to think about the benefits that might be realized when we build connections across disciplines and professional organizations. Sarah’s talk was a compelling way to draw our 3rd Annual Joint conference to an end.

Enjoying the venues and the city.

Joint Conference co-chairs, Josh Polansky and Alan Michelson deserve a standing ovation for the time, enthusiasm, and thought that they each invested in this joint conference. Josh and Alan really went above and beyond in many ways to ensure that conference attendees had a positive and enriching experience in Seattle.

Sessions, workshops, speakers, meetings, and social excursions involving scheduling, AV, catering, or all of the above ran seamlessly during our entire time at The Westin Seattle Downtown. There were many others involved in the joint conference planning process who deserve our thanks when it comes to our comfort at the Westin and around Seattle, including Past-Presidents Elaine Paul (VRA) and Kristen Regina (ARLIS/NA), Local Arrangements Chairs, Cindy Abel Morris (VRA) and Traci Timmons (ARLIS/NA).   Special thanks also go to Robert Kopchinski, ARLIS/NA Executive Director, who exhibited remarkable skill coordinating, communicating, and managing a variety of conference needs and requests from both VRA and ARLIS/NA. And, of course, all of the staff at The Westin deserve recognition for their gracious service.

The city of Seattle was an added bonus alongside the excellent conference program. The Joint Conference Co-Chairs and Local Arrangements Co-Chairs helped develop tours and call attention to the city’s many fine museums, restaurants, and shopping venues, as well as offered attentive and thoughtful support and advice to attendees during the conference. From the Welcome Reception at the Seattle Art Museum to the Convocation Reception at the Seattle Public Library attendees had opportunities to explore many of the highlights that Seattle has to offer (rain or shine). Thank you to volunteers who assisted in leading these tours.

Secretary Jasmine Burns worked collaboratively with ARLIS/NA members Tad Suzuki and Suzanne Rackover to coordinate numerous registration desk volunteers, prepare conference badges and bags, and be simply hospitable during the entire conference. Thank you to all who volunteered their time to create such a welcoming and informative resource for attendees.

Past Public Relations and Communications Officer John Trendler worked with Sarah Seymore to create the conference website (http://www.arlisna-vra.org/seattle2016/index.php)

Past Treasurer Allan Kohl contributed his attention and wisdom to the joint conference budget, and as always, exhibited great care in his stewardship of the Association’s finances.

Being a new member or a first-time attendee.

Past Presidents, Kristen Regina (ARLIS/NA) and Elaine Paul (VRA) welcomed conference newcomers at the New Members and First-Time Attendees Reception, which was planned and facilitated by both VRA and ARLIS Membership Committees. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages were served while volunteer members from both organizations introduced a matchmaking activity that supported mingling and network building.

Karen Bouchard took the lead this year to offer conference mentors for those interested in connecting with a new colleague at the conference. This is a program that the VRA offers each year. If you are a new member who has yet to find your niche in VRA, please know that all committee chairs welcome inquiries about their work, and there are many opportunities to become involved (httpS://vraweb.org/about/committees/). You do not need to be an expert from the start; you simply need a willingness to learn and contribute. You will find that the rewards exceed the investment many times over. Please feel welcome to reach out to me as well.

Thanking our sponsors for their support.

Development Committee co-chair, Barbara Brenny, worked with ARLIS/NA Joint Conference Development Coordinators Clayton Kirking, Suzanne Rackover, and Jane Carlin to communicate closely with our conference sponsors, who provided very generous support, without which we could not offer such outstanding programming and venues. Our deep gratitude goes to our sponsors, donors, and friends for their ongoing generosity.  For a complete list of all joint conference sponsors and the levels at which they contributed, please visit the conference website’s Sponsors page.

Finally, annual conferences and joint conferences would not exist without the participation of attendees. This year’s attendance exceeded our expectations, which enriched this opportunity for us to meet and share knowledge, build connections with one another, and help shape the direction of our profession. Whether or not you were able to join us in Seattle, I hope to reconnect with as many of you as possible next year in Louisville, Kentucky.

With sincere thanks,

Jen Green

p.s. There was a professional photographer at the conference who snapped many shots. These images will be shared with the VRA Board soon, and then we can find a way to share them with you. If you took photos at the conference, feel free to join the VRA Flickr Events group and post them at https://www.flickr.com/groups/vra_events/pool/. There is also a VRA Flickr Group to share images of more general interest. If you took photographs while touring Seattle or other parts of Washington, feel free to post them here: https://www.flickr.com/groups/visualresources/pool/