Organizations with Similar Interests to VRA

Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)

Visual Resources Division (VRD)

Panelist: Mary Wassermann, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Description: The mission of ARLIS/NA is “to foster excellence in art librarianship and visual resources curatorship for the advancement of the visual arts.” The VRD exists within ARLIS/NA to promote communication and professional development for slide curators and others interested in visual resources for the arts. The main activity of the group is the presentation of sessions on these topics at the annual ARLIS/NA conference.

Web sites: www.arlisna.org; www.bethanywv.edu/vrd/.

Membership: Membership in ARLIS/NA and any division or section of the group is open to all who are interested in visual documentation. Costs range from $40 to $100 and on up for sustaining or sponsor categories. More information is available at www.arlisna.org/membership.html.

Publications: Art Documentation appears twice yearly and features substantial articles on issues of interest. Update is a bimonthly newsletter with timely reports on technological developments, group (such as VRD) activities, bibliographical notices, and announcements of positions available. The Occasional Papers Series features longer essays on more specialized topics which are sometimes produced in collaboration with other organizations such as VRA. Titles in this series include Collection Development Policies for Libraries and Visual Collections in the Arts, Staffing Standards for Art Libraries and Visual Resource Collections and the Art and Architecture Thesaurus Sourcebook. The annual Handbook and List of Members also is provided to members.

Listserv: ARLIS-L is a moderated online discussion group for the exchange and dissemination of information of vital interest to the members. To subscribe to the list, send the message SUBSCRIBE ARLIS-L [your name] to: LISTSERV@LSV.UKY.EDU. You will receive confirmation and instructions for contributing to the list.

Continuing Education: The annual conference, featuring guest speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and informal colloquia, is the primary form of continuing education. The conference also includes exhibits by publishers, book dealers, suppliers of electronic data and visual materials highlight the latest in products and services. Chapter and regional meetings are held at various times during the year to focus on area resources, and local experts often speak on a variety of relevant topics.

Computer-Using Educators (CUE)

Panelist: Maureen Burns, University of California/Irvine.

Constituent Groups of Interest: Members are automatically affiliated by regional designations and according to their zip codes. The Technology Coordinator special interest group may be of the most interest to VRA people.

Description: CUE is based in California and its goal is to promote and develop instructional uses of technology in all disciplines and at all educational levels from preschool through college. They have an active current membership of over 11,000 educational professionals. They support twenty-two regional affiliates and five Special Interest Groups, and present two national educational technology conferences each year. CUE is the largest organization of this type in California, and one of the largest in the country.

Web site: www.cue.org.

Membership: $40 per year; see link on main web site.

Newsletter: OnCUE is published ten times a year with four special inserts. It provides the latest tips on new hardware and software, up-to-date legislative information, articles on successful school-based technology programs, and a host of other timely, useful information.

Listserv: none.

Continuing Education: Two conferences a year, one in Northern California and one in Southern California, are the oldest and largest education technology conferences in the country. They co-sponsor the National Film and Video Festival, the California Student Media and Multimedia Festival, Pepperdine University’s Multimedia Training, etc.

Other: CUE is affiliated with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). They have a pro-active legislative service that works closely with other educational organizations, state agencies, and legislators.

Another interesting aside about CUE is that one of our long-time colleagues, Anne Renaud, who administered the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Visual Resources Collection for twenty years, has been attending the Southern California CUE conferences. She is now a technology coordinator for a high school in the Santa Barbara area and Anne vouches for the efficacy of attendance and suggests that there might be some common interests between our groups. I would like to extend this by indicating that there is a market out there for professionals with our skills and colleagues with similar interests that many of us have probably not seriously considered. Although CUE is a California organization, you should be able to easily determine what the equivalent organizations might be in your states. Your campus education departments might be worthwhile to connect with and a good way to start making educational technology contacts that can expand your horizons beyond post-secondary education.

EDUCAUSE

Panelist: Maureen Burns, University of California/Irvine.

Constituent Groups of Interest: Teaching and Learning, Multimedia, Web Administration.

Description: Two separate groups CAUSE and Educom voted to create a new consolidated association, EDUCAUSE, which was incorporated on July 1, 1998. The mission of EDUCAUSE is to help shape and enable transformational change in higher education through the introduction, use, and management of information resources and technologies in teaching, learning, scholarship, research, and institutional management. EDUCAUSE membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations serving the higher education information technology market, and other related associations and organizations. EDUCAUSE programs include professional development activities, print and electronic publications, strategic/policy initiatives, research and development, and a wealth of online information services.

Web site: www.educause.edu.

Membership: 1700 colleges, universities, and education organizations are EDUCAUSE members as well as more than 150 corporations participate and are listed at www.educause.edu/memdir/memdir.html. Membership fees are based on a campus’ full-time equivalent enrollment and are expensive. However, if your campus has joined, then you pay member fees to attend functions and subscribe to journals.

Publications: Books, monographs, periodicals, and electronic publications can be found at www.educause.edu/pub/pubs.html. The EDUCAUSE Quarterly is the practitioner’s journal (annual subscription $24) and the EDUCAUSE Review is a bimonthly magazine exploring issues at the national level (annual subscription $24). Edupage is a free e-mail service that summarizes developments in information technology. Washington Update is a weekly online newsletter covering legislation. EDUCAUSE Online is a free email service notifying readers of upcoming events and featured items.

Listserv: To subscribe or unsubscribe, you may either use the web form accessible from the pages of the individual constituent groups, or send email to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU containing the one-line message SUBSCRIBE <listname> <your name>. To send a message to the list (once you are subscribed), send e-mail to <listname>@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU.

Continuing Education: The professional development opportunities in 2001 include the management and leadership institutes and a variety of national and international conferences and educational opportunities. Notable among these is the annual EDUCAUSE conference planned for October 28-31, 2001, in Indianapolis. Awards and fellowships are available through this organization. See www.educause.edu/conference/conf.html.

Other: Finding the EDUCAUSE members or representatives on your campus may lead you to valuable contacts and resources.

Museum Computer Network (MCN)

Panelist: Susanne Warren, Warren Associates (now at the Clark Art Institute).

Description: The Museum Computer Network is a nonprofit organization of professionals dedicated to

fostering the cultural aims of museums through the use of computer technologies. Our membership is made up of museum professionals in the areas of information management (registrars, database managers, visual collections managers) and information technology (IT managers). MCN has been a leader in fostering the development and promotion of information standards and sponsors active Special Interest Groups in the areas of Intellectual Property, Standards, Digital Imaging, Controlled Vocabulary, and Museum Libraries and Resource Centers.

Web site: www.mcn.edu.

Membership: Individual: $60/year; Institutional: $200/year; Industry/Corporate: $300/year. Further information at www.mcn.edu/membership.htm or by emailing membership@mcn.edu.

Newsletter: eSpectra, www.mcn.edu/espectra, is MCN’s online newsletter, which includes a listing of new online resources and a digest of news of importance to MCN members and the museum computing community at large. Spectra is the MCN quarterly journal.

Listserv: MCN-L has been in operation since 1995. See www.mcn.edu/mcnl.htm for more information.

Continuing Education: MCN provides a full roster of workshops at its annual conference on a variety of topics. Some examples are digital imaging, creating universally accessible web sites, implementation of standards, QuickTime VR, negotiating web site development agreements, creating a digital imaging lab, and facilitating and managing change.

Society of American Archivists (SAA)

Visual Materials (VM) Section

Panelist: None; summary compiled by Jeanette Mills.

Description: The VM Section is for “Archivists who administer (collect, arrange, preserve, describe and interpret) still photographs, moving images, art, and graphic materials” (from www.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section9.htm - description).

Web site: www.archivists.org.

Membership: One must be an SAA member to join the VM Section. Membership information is at www.archivists.org/membership/index.html. The membership cost range is from $40 to $180.

Publications: SAA publishes numerous items. The VM Section newsletter is titled Views: The Newsletter of the Visual Materials Section, and it is published three times a year. Back issues are available in PDF format at www.gsu.edu/~libpjr/vm/views.htm.

Listserv: The VM listserv is open to non-members, but one must be subscribed in order to post messages. More information is available at www.archivists.org/listservs/#visualmat; be sure to read the “terms of participation” page.

Continuing Education: SAA provides a variety of educational opportunities. For more information see www.archivists.org/prof-education/index.html. They do offer courses on “The Administration of Photographic Collections” and “Digital Imaging Technology” (www.archivists.org/prof-education/course_catalog.html#Special_Media.

Other: SAA also has a Visual Materials Cataloging and Access Roundtable, which “Provides a forum for archivists with visual collections to discuss cataloging and access issues” (from www.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section10.htm - description). They share the VM Section’s listserv. There also is a roundtable for Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and their web site is called the EAD help pages: jefferson.village.virginia.edu/ead/.

Special Library Association (SLA)

Museum Arts and Humanities Division (MAHD or DMAH)

Panelist: None; summary compiled by Jeanette Mills.

Description: The MAHD is for library and information science professionals in museums, historical societies, institutions, organizations, and libraries who work with collections of or related to the arts, architecture, and the humanities. It also provides a forum for people interested in the publishing process for both print and non-print materials. See longer description at www.sla.org/content/chdiv/divisions/division.cfm (one must select the division name in the box that appears on this page).

Web site: www.sla.org.

Membership: One must be an SLA member to join the MAHD. Membership information is at www.sla.org/content/memberservice/joinsla/index.cfm. The membership cost range is from $35 to $500.

Publications: SLA publishes numerous items. MAHD provides the MAHD Bulletin to its members four times a year.

Listserv: The MAHD listserv is open only to members and only members can post to it. The address information is on the Division’s web page; the URL is in the description above.

Continuing Education: SLA provides a variety of educational opportunities. For more information see www.sla.org/content/learn/index.cfm.

Other: SLA has 57 regional chapters, 25 divisions, and 12 caucuses. More about all of these is available at www.sla.org/content/chdiv/index.cfm.