Organization > Chapters > Greater New York > Minutes/Reports
Summary of 2006 Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management, Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Chris Spinelli, Visual Media Administrator, New York School of Interior Design Library
From June 11 through June 16 The Art Libraries Society of North America and the Visual Resources Association sponsored the third annual Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management. Located this year at Reed College in Portland, Oregon the ARLIS/NA-VRA Summer Educational Institute provides intensive training for image collection professionals, training that most library and information science programs do not yet offer.
There were 45 of us in attendance, staying in Reed College dormitories and dining on surprisingly above average cafeteria fare. We were warned beforehand that the week would be VR boot camp: 5 full days of lectures, demos and discussions. The warnings proved accurate: one week is a short period of time and what visual resource professionals need to know is vast. The instructors did an admirable job of keeping things moving at a frantic yet manageable pace.
Each day a different topic was covered. On Sunday afternoon the co-chairs of the Implementation Committee, Trudy Jacoby, Director, Visual Resources Collection
Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, and Karin Whalen, Visual Resources Librarian, Art Department, Reed College, welcomed us to the institute. Monday was devoted to Digital Transition and Metadata with the focus on VRA Core 4. Tuesday continued the Metadata topic with the concentration on authorities and Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO). Wednesday was Imaging Day, Thursday was DAMS (Digital Asset Management Systems) day and the final day, Friday, was dedicated to Strategy.
Most of the sessions were excellent; articulate instructors presenting complicated material in a clear effective fashion. It was particularly exciting to hear Murtha Baca, Head of Vocabulary, Standards, & Digital Resource Management at the Getty Research Institute, discuss the importance of authorities and present an overview of Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO). She is a charming and powerful speaker, a woman so in charge of her material, so comfortable with her knowledge and expertise that most everything she says is clear and to the point.
Perhaps the most important lesson I learned at the SEI is the importance of understanding your institution’s culture and assessing how you and/or your department fit into this culture. By understanding the parameters of the environment you work in, you’re better prepared to initiate collaborations with other departments, this being often the only viable route to reach digitalization goals.
The 2007 ARLIS/NA-VRA Summer Educational Institute will be held at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana next June. Sign up and attend if you’re interested in intense VR training and preparation. You’ll learn a tremendous amount and have a great week back in college.
