vra 2014 the teaching turn, bernhard
DESCRIPTION
Presented by Anna Bernhard at the Annual Conference of the Visual Resources Association, March 12-15, 2014 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Session #4: The Teaching Turn: From Static Collections to Dynamic Learning Centers ORGANIZER: Heather Lowe, California State University, San Bernardino (on behalf of the VRA Emerging Professionals and Students Group) MODERATOR: Jasmine Burns, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee PRESENTERS: • Stephen Cardinale, University of Colorado, Boulder • Anna Bernhard, Colorado State University • Molly Schoen, University of Michigan • Chris Strasbaugh, Vanderbilt University Much of the business of creating and disseminating images has moved away from individual academic departments and isolated image collections toward centralized cross-discipline departments. This has left many visual resource centers looking for new ways to engage users and support the educational goals of their institutions. One way centers are meeting these new challenges is by transforming from being a storage silo for physical slide collections to being a collaborative learning space where students and faculty alike can come to work on projects and refine imaging and videography skills. As many resource centers make this move toward more teaching and learning, the physical spaces and skill sets of employees have also shifted. This session will examine case studies of visual resource centers programming that is directed to teaching imaging skills and how this new role is shifting their profile within their institutions.TRANSCRIPT
The VRC Practicum:
Educating and Engaging Student Workers
and, quite possibly, future VR professionals
Anna BernhardColorado State University
Course DescriptionArt 487: Digital Collection Management
Spring 2014
Using the CSU slide archive as a case study, this internship will introduce students to the
principles of collection and information management. The cornerstone of museum and heritage work, the role of collection
management has only expanded during the digital age. The objective of this internship is to provide students with professional skills
that will help prepare them for future careers in the art and design world.
Course Objectives
Standards and Objectives: Upon completion of the internship students will be familiar with:
-The role of collection and information management within the art world
-The need for evaluation, community studies, and management of user expectations
-Concepts of budget, planning, and workflow management
-The creation of collection development policies (statement of purpose, definition and scope, deacessing and disposal, copyright policies, local cataloging standards, etc.)
-Cataloging and digitization procedures
-Digital outreach and curation
Individual Student Expectations-Cataloging work Our cataloging work is done on Gallery Systems’ Embark database. While the majority of the cataloging work will be straightforward data entry, students will also be included in discussions regarding database maintenance and formatting.
-Digitizing work Slides and art images will be digitized on the copy stand in the small dark room in F111. This should be a fast process. Image manipulation and corrections should be kept to a minimum and done on the Mac laptops with Photoshop. Try to get an accurate representation of the slide image but be prepared to move along through this process.
-Blogging Every week each student is expected to create one blog entry highlighting an image, a group of images, or a local art event of interest. These blogs will be published on the Wold website under the author’s name.
-Working documents as an alternative to blog entries students are welcome to help edit and draft CSU’s working documents, which will be discussed in week two and three. These documents will eventually become official policy and shared with the public.
-Interview Questions All students are expected to attend these meetings and be engaged. Readings will be provided prior to the interview to give students a better concept of the nature of the work and a better foundation for developing worthwhile questions. Student should prepare at least 3 interview questions for the interview. These questions should be prepared and sent to me via email by 5 pm the day prior to the interview.
Individual Student Expectations continued
Workflow
Second session: Art Images and their Role in Teaching Art History
WEEK THREE (February 3-7):
In Session: February 4th 1-2
Classroom Component: Discussion about project’s copyright issues, databases evaluation, and project publicity. We’ll also go through the our working copyright and deaccessioning and disposal documents.
Readings:http://www.vraweb.org/resources/ipr/multimedia.htmlhttp://www.districtdispatch.org/category/copyright/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~csundt/copyweb/http://fairuse.stanford.edu/ Practicum: Independent cataloging, digitization, and outreach work (Blog/Gallery)
Interviewees 2013-Suzanne Hale, Collection Manager at CSU University Art Museum
-Chris Hall, Curator at Maine Maritime Museum
-Andrianna Del Collo, Archivist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
-Nicole Santiago, Project Chart Recipient and Public Programs Assistant at NYPL
-Megan Osborne, Collection Manager Avenir Museum of Design & Merchandising at CSU
-Do you think that selling art that was originally created in a sort of anti-academic or populist frame of mind (or far removed from Western commercialism, as with much of African/Oceanic art) for exorbitant prices defeats the spirit of the artwork?
In case you ever come…
Feedback from students:
“I wish there was more than one day spent on the law aspect of digital art images. I feel that most art students aren’t well versed in media and usage which is ironic…”
“Aspects of digital collection process that would have been beneficial to cover more…would be the legal requirements for cataloging collections…”
Feedback from Students continued…
“I did learn a ton that will help me in my future aspirations for jobs. I never want to catalog slides again but I have found a deep interest in wanting to work in a field that preserves materials…”
“Overall, the internship was a great way to learn broadly the issues that surround and practices that are involved in digital collections management process…it was of great value to me personally as I do wish to go into this area as a career and eventually practice professionally…”
Moving forward
-Have students do an initial paper or written reflection about key terms and concepts
-Have students peer-review their cataloging and discuss this as a group
-Finally, I want to change Art 487 into a year long two part course.
