Linda Bien (Concordia University), VRD Moderator, called the meeting to order at 9:45 and asked if there were any additions to the meeting's agenda which had been sent out over the VRD listserve. With no additions being made, the agenda was approved.
Linda announced that there needed to be a correction to the minutes of last year's meeting. Trudy Jacoby was cited as being from the University of Connecticut. She is actually at Trinity College in Connecticut. Without any other corrections, the minutes were approved.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Linda announced that Martha Mahard (Harvard University), incoming VRD Moderator, had provided a poster for the Poster Session entitled "Collection Development for Visual Resources Collections". It was a suggested outline for writing a collection development policy and included a handout of the text for visitors to take home. Linda suggested that if anyone had an idea for next year's poster session, they should talk to the Philadelphia Program Chairs.
Linda stated that she had set up a VRD listserve on her institution's server. It includes all but the 35 to 40 division members who did not have email addresses listed in the last ARLIS/NA Directory. There has not been a lot of traffic on this list and it should only be used for business related to the division. It should not take the place of either ARLIS-L or VRA-L.
Linda commented that it has been very important to the VRD that Maryly Snow (University of California at Berkeley) and Betsy Peck Learned (Roger Williams University) have been on the Board. Maryly commented that being on the Board has been a lot of work, but it has been very gratifying.
Linda announced that there had been three nominations for Vice-Moderator for 1997. Two of the nominees declined in favor of the third nominee, Leigh Gates (Art Institute of Chicago). Leigh was elected by acclamation.
OLD BUSINESS
Linda stated that perhaps the statement of purpose for the division should be changed. She suggested that the new statement say that the division's purpose was to serve "those who are interested in the visual documentation of the arts." A short discussion of this issue followed.
Linda related that she had been contacted by the Publications Committee about Reference Tools For Fine Arts Visual Resources Collections. They asked if it should go out of print, but Linda did a small survey and she and others think it should be revised. Carol Jackman-Schuller (McGill University) has agreed to be the editor. Anyone who wishes to revise their sections from the first edition is encouraged to contact Carol.
At this point in the meeting, Mary Graham (Arizona State Museum Library), the incoming Vice-President/President Elect, asked to address the division on behalf of the Board. She announced that Headquarters has a new membership database that can be used to generate many kinds of lists for the division. She also relayed a message from Ed Teague, ARLIS/NA webmaster, that he would be interested in putting up a special project from the division on the web site.
Linda asked Margaret Webster (Cornell University) to report on two important task forces that are involved with visual resources issues.
Joint ARLIS/VRA Professional Issues Task Force
Margaret announced that the task force was close to ending its mission. The Criteria for the Hiring and Retention of Visual Resources Professionals is now on the ARLIS/NA and VRA web sites in English and French. It is also published by both organizations in hard copy through Art Documentation and the VRA Bulletin. It has been endorsed by a few organizations such as the College Art Association. The task force is currently working on a publication which should be available next year.
Visual Resources Issues Task Force
Margaret also reported on the progress of the VRITF. This task force was charged to "clarify and recommend means for strengthening the integral nature of visual resources and art librarianship." This was an enormous task and the task force recommended that the board create an ad hoc committee to address agenda items formulated by the task force. The committee will be made up of nine members, including the Moderator and Vice-Moderator of the VRD and one board member. This committee will communicate and work with the VRA, CVRC, VRD and other groups within ARLIS/NA.
VRA Data Standards Committee Report
Elisa Lanzi (Art and Architecture Thesaurus) reported on the VRA Data Standards Committee. Members, including Lynda White (University of Virginia), Linda McRae (University of South Florida), Sherman Clarke (New York University) and Margaret Webster, have produced Version I of the Core Categories, which is now in the evaluation stage. Version II should be ready by the end of the summer and takes into consideration many suggestions made at a roundtable meeting at the VRA conference. An exciting project is being proposed to RLG, asking to use the RLIN database as a testbed for the core categories. The committee is currently looking for volunteers and approval from the RLG board. It is hoped that records can be added in the fall, evaluation take place in January and February 1998 and that a session in Philadelphia in March report on its results.
Conference on Fair Use
Linda introduced Katy Poole (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Co-Chair of the Public Policy Committee, and Gregg Most (National Gallery of Art), ARLIS/NA's representative to the CONFU proceedings. Katy Poole reported that ARLIS/NA has decided not to endorse the guidelines and that the Public Policy Committee has written a report summarizing the society's position. This report is currently available on the ARLIS/NA web site. Katy extended thanks to Gregg for attending the CONFU meetings which took up a lot of personal time and commitment. She also expressed her thanks to the members of the committee who took part in the process.
Gregg reported that although there were usually twenty people at each of the CONFU meetings, usually only three of these were from the library or user communities. Most of the participants were from the publishing industry and the resulting document tends to weigh heavily on rights holders' concerns. Gregg thinks that the fact that many of the participants did not endorse may have a great effect when the guidelines are delivered to Congress.
Maryly Snow added that NINCH has created a fair use working group that is drafting its own guidelines, so this whole issue is not over yet. Linda Bien stated that these guidelines are also very important for the Canadian members because they are dealing with these same issues.
NEW BUSINESS
Linda Bien then turned over the proceedings of the meeting to Martha Mahard, incoming VRD Moderator. Martha extended her thanks to Linda for all she had done in the past year and expressed her hopes that the coming year will be even better. Martha reminded members that next year's ARLIS/NA conference will be in Philadelphia and that VRA will also be meeting there the week before. Martha read a letter from Jenni Rodda, Present-Elect of VRA stating that VRA is really looking forward to this joint meeting and that they hope we can come up with wonderful session ideas for the time that the two conferences overlap. Martha opened up the floor for suggestions for sessions and workshops for next year's conference. The following topics were suggested:
Trudy Jacoby and Ann Whiteside stated that although this is an opportunity that should not be missed, we should not forget to focus sessions that will also interest the whole membership of ARLIS.
Martha adjourned the meeting at 11:15 with an official thank you to Linda Bien for all of her hard work in 1996.
Marty Stein
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
mkstein@neosoft.com
The following members were present at the meeting:
Leigh Gates, Art Institute of Chicago
Norine Duncan, Brown University
Lindy Narver, Huntington Library/Beverly Hills Library
Linda McRae, University of South Florida
Margaret Webster, Cornell University
Sherman Clarke, New York University
Barbara Opar, Syracuse University
Angelike Koniaris, Harvard University
Ying C. Wu, Harvard University
Peter Grewenow, University of Washington
Wayne Meyer, Ball State University
Miranda Haddock, Columbia College
Ann Whiteside, Harvard Design School
Inge Reist, Frick Art Reference Library
Daphne Dufresne, Université du Québec a Montréal
Sara Jane Pearman, Cleveland Museum of Art
Eileen Fry, Indiana University
Gregory Most, National Gallery of Art
Elisa Lanzi, Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Lynda White, University of Virginia
Trudy Jacoby, Trinity College
Betsy Peck Learned, Roger Williams University
Julie Mellby, Harvard University
Carla Freeman, Scholes Library of Ceramics
Luraine Tansey, San Jose, CA
Linda Bien, Concordia University
Martha Mahard, Harvard University
Marty Stein, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston