Heurich House Museum Fall Collections Internship – Washington, D.C. – Unpaid

About the Heurich House Museum

The Heurich House Museum preserves the legacy of Christian Heurich and enriches the creative economy of Washington, DC. The private non-profit Heurich House Museum preserves the historic Heurich House mansion as a museum and community center. The mansion, which was built from 1892-94, was the home of German immigrant, local brewer, and philanthropist Christian Heurich (1842-1945). Recognized as Washington, DC’s most successful brewer, he ran the Chr. Heurich Brewing Co. until his death at 102. The mansion is notable for its technological innovations, original interiors, and rich archival collection of one of the most important local families. The museum is open for regular public events and public tours. Private tours and event rentals are also available.

The museum educates the public about the life and times of Christian Heurich and promotes a deeper understanding of late-Victorian architecture, technological innovation in the built environment, the brewing industry of Washington, DC, and the German immigrant experience in America.

The Heurich House Museum is seeking a Collections Intern to assist the Collections Manager with collections-related projects. The ideal candidate should be willing to jump into any task, get their hands dirty, ask questions, and have a good attitude.

Job Description

The Collections Manager oversees the stewardship of the Heurich House Museum’s collections, archives, and research materials. Under the supervision of the Collections Manager, the Collections Intern will work in coordination with staff, guides, and volunteers in a variety of capacities and on a range of tasks, which may include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Photographing, inventorying, and cataloging collections; 
• Monitoring and recording of environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity, lighting, etc.); 
• Processing donations and incoming loans; 
• Aiding in the installation and de-installation of exhibited collections; 
• Helping with basic collection maintenance, including cleaning;
• Other collections-related projects as assigned. 

This is an internship for credit only. Interns must be able to complete this for college or university credit.

Required Experience, Skills, and Availability

• Must be enrolled in a B.A., M.A., or graduate degree program at a college or university of recognized standing with major course work in museum studies or related field 
• Self-starter and team player
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Creative problem solver and highly organized
• Good attitude
• Availability on weekdays required – Preferred availability Mondays through Wednesdays (hours between 10am to 6pm)
• Number of hours per week is flexible based on program requirements

Email resume, cover letter, and 1-2 page writing sample to hr@heurichhouse.org. No phone calls.

The Heurich House Museum values diversity of culture and thought and seeks talented, qualified employees in all its operations regardless of race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other protected classification under country or local law.

VREPS Interview with Judy Colbert

Judy Colbert

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?
I was also interested in gems and jewelry, so once I left the L.A. Times, I enrolled in the graduate gemologist program at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). After graduating, I worked briefly at a jewelry manufacturer and saw there was an opening for a slide librarian at GIA. I thought I was a good fit, combining my photo and gemology backgrounds. Evidently, GIA thought so too and I was hired. I’ve been at GIA for 23 years and my current title is Manager of Visual Resources. We made the transition from slides to digital images starting in 1999. By 2004, we had a sophisticated digital asset management system in place. At one time, I managed a staff of four, but the department was divided and now I oversee two visual resources staff.

What is your favorite part about your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
Viewing images of spectacular gems and jewelry is always a treat. I also get to see the real deal quite often. I have been asked to write articles recently and I enjoy researching and finding images through various sources to accompany them. I’ve written a lengthier article about a prominent Beverly Hills jeweler (yet to be published) which involved a lot of research and interviews. That was fun.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
I go through email messages to see if there are any requests that have come in for image research or licensing. I either take care of them myself or delegate to another staff member. Part of my duties involves spending time on the reference desk of the GIA library. We’re a closed stack library so I help students with book recommendations and checkout. I also answer reference questions related to gems and jewelry from the jewelry trade and the public. After my reference duties, I work on short articles for a web-based pilot project for GIA alumni.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
A big challenge for me when I first started as a slide librarian at GIA was trying to keep up with all the work involved as a one-person department. I was able to get work-study students to help out for a while and then slowly added more staff as the workload and demands grew.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Managing staff. I’ve been in managerial positions for the greater part of my working career and it’s never been my favorite part of the job. I never wanted to be in management, but I always end up in that position.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’m proud of being part of the planning stages of our DAM system (a two-year organization-wide effort) and building it up and gaining user acceptance. I’m also proud of obtaining a professional certificate in intellectual property which involved 215 hours of instruction through UCSD’s extension program.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources? The variety of photographic resources that are available online now. It’s great to see so much available now that wasn’t accessible just a few years ago.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
Jewelry history conference and antique jewelry trade shows.

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
American Association of Picture Professionals (ASPP), Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA), GIA Alumni Association, American Society of Jewelry Historians. Definitely valuable because of networking and educational opportunities.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?
Be sure to find a job that is related to interests you’re passionate about, or at least enjoy. There may be parts of the job you don’t enjoy, but if the subject matter interests you, then it makes it a lot easier to do the job. Also, find an organization, company or school that you admire and would be happy to work at.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
Movies, theater, art, food and wine, my dog

Reach out to Judy at 📧jcolbert@gia.edu

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed or suffering from imposter syndrome in the Visual Resources field? Sign up to be a mentee in the VRA’s Year-round Mentorship Program! Learn more: http://vraweb.org/opportunities/mentorship/ or connect with other VREPS on Slack!

VREPS Interview with Teresa Transou

Teresa Transou

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?
I began working in the field of ‘visual resources’ as an Art History undergrad at West Virginia University. I was given a scholarship that entailed working in the Slide Library at WVU. At that time, in the early 2000s, WVU was beginning to digitize their massive slide collection. I was tasked with scanning, sorting, and generating metadata in a very rudimentary manner compared to how things are done today. From that work as an undergraduate, I worked as the main point of contact with our slide library as an Art History Graduate student. WVU uses MDID, and by the late 2000s, I worked closely with librarian Beth Royall to fill the MDID server with thousands of digitized images. I was fortunate to have worked with Beth Royall as she taught me a great deal about the ‘library’ side of database management. My early college education in Commercial Design was important in my usage of image editing software as well. As I wrapped up my graduate education, I opted to find work while trying to decide whether or not to seek a PhD. I was extremely fortunate to be hired in late 2008 by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I have been at Greensboro since, and during that time UNCG has transitioned from MDID to ArtSTOR and JSTOR Forum. We have scanned over 100,000 slides in my now 10 years at UNCG, and maintain a digital collection of nearly 70,000 high quality images.

What is your favorite part of your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
My favorite part of my job is the independence to work in a manner that suits my skills. As a solo professional, I have the flexibility to move through my department and fill needs as necessary. Also as a solo professional, I have the freedom to research and plan without hinderance. Currently, my space is being reconfigured after the department has switched wholly to digital images. The reconfiguring project is slow going as there is no budget for the space, and any financial help is usually in the form of leftover monies or one-time funds.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
A typical day starts, naturally, with coffee! Being a solo professional, you need to be an expert at time management. A typical day, after sufficient amounts of coffee, is responding to emails, ordering books for the Art department, managing work-study and graduate students to scan or organize images, dealing with faculty when classroom computers/projectors have hiccups, getting to know the University Librarians on a first name basis, and looking a lots and lots of interesting art.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
Some of the challenges I came across when I was first hired are some of the same challenges I have 10 years later: funding. The Visual Resources Library at UNCG does not have an operating budget–not even a line in the department budget. Negotiating the replacement of computers, scanners, and projectors has been turned into a fine art, and I am content to use suitable hand-me-downs from our digital labs. I chalk that up to having good relationships with my department head and faculty members, including those who manage the digital labs. I also attribute the success of dealing with little to no money to operate to the skill of self-promotion, especially as a solo professional.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Though I had some basic courses in photography, I have had to learn how to use digital cameras for copy-stand work. Most of this work was learned through trial and error and lot of YouTube videos. Since learning more about basic copy-stand photography, I have gone on to work on bulking up my skill with architectural photography worthy to add to our database.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I feel my best accomplishment in terms of my work is negotiating the funding and transition from MDID to JSTOR Forum. The transition was needed, and I was very concerned that the cost of a subscription to ArtSTOR and migration would be too high. UNCG has been using ArtSTOR and JSTOR Forum for several years now, and as a university, I feel we are very satisfied with this move.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
This is a tough question in the sense that I really do not know how to answer it. I have found that other professionals in the field have been wonderful mentors and friends, open to help with questions we may have as professionals. I also feel that a lot of concerns we may have as professionals are discussed at our conferences and chapter meetings.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources?
The need to consistently learn to keep up with emerging technologies.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
I am currently obtaining a certificate in Historic Preservation and have found a lot of crossovers into the visual resources field. The digitization of analog sources and generation of metadata in the Historic Preservation field is often an internship/job opportunity. I have also found that working in Historic Preservation there are more opportunities to research personal interests and develop academic papers

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
Be flexible and be knowledgeable. I feel I have had to keep myself educated on more than the visual resources field. With my background in Art History, I have had to pick up a lot of Library Sciences along the way! Make yourself indispensable, whether it be in dealing with faculty members or students, whether it be dealing with technology, etc. Make allies who understand that your center/library is an important forum for new and innovative ideas as well as a digital (or analog) warehouse of visual resources!

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
While working on my certificate in Historic Preservation, I have been working on a multi-phase project to develop a history of my hometown in West Virginia. I started with a paper I presented at Fontbonne University in May 2018. The project is a collaboration with current and past residents of Camden-On-Gauley, WV through social media. I have a great interest in Appalachian history and image making in the region (vernacular photography and art). Along the same vein, I love to knit, crochet, and cross stitch. A love of fiber arts was passed down to me, and I continue the family tradition of knitting and crocheting and quilting. I enjoy reading the cultural histories of fiber arts. I also enjoy writing fictional vignettes for my friends and for myself. I strive to write every day, either academically or for fun.

Anything else you would like to add?!
This year, I suggested a new SIG for Solo Professionals. However, I was unable to secure funding from my department to attend. While somewhat ironic, it is illustrative of one issue I was hoping to address with the SIG. I hope, in the meantime, that others will be able to take over the SIG so that we can form new and important bonds between solo professionals.

Reach out to Teresa at 📧 tlcunnin@uncg.edu

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed or suffering from imposter syndrome in the Visual Resources field? Sign up to be a mentee in the VRA’s Year-round Mentorship Program! Learn more: http://vraweb.org/opportunities/mentorship/ or connect with other VREPS on Slack!

VREPS Interview with Sarah Bavier

Sarah Bavier

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?
I worked in a Visual Resources Collection as an art history undergrad and loved it. After graduating earlier than expected I wasn’t prepared to go straight to graduate school so I found a job in arts publishing. Eventually, I began working remotely and ended up at the Reed College VRC as the Digital Resources Specialist. At that time the VRC was a part of the art department and I mostly oversaw the digitization of visual resources for the art and humanities courses. After the original VR curator retired the department became a part of the library and our work expanded quite a bit. While working as a paraprofessional I went back to school and got an MLIS from the University of Washington. After graduating my supervisor took another opportunity mid-year leaving the Visual Resources Librarian position vacant. I acted as interim librarian for a year and here we are. I now manage the Visual Resources Center and am the liaison librarian to art history and studio art.

What is your favorite part of your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
I love when a patron asks for help researching an image and we are able to find what they’re looking for with almost no information to go off of. Once I had a faculty member ask us to find an image of an exhibition poster that they had seen “somewhere in NYC, sometime in the 70s.’ It took a while, but we were able to track it down and they were grateful. Currently, we are working with Special Collections and Archives to photograph all of the artist books in our collection and laying the groundwork to revamp our artist book digital collection. The collection has a ton of potential but was initially a grant-funded project and it hasn’t gotten enough love over the years.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
Since we are a unit of the library and I wear many hats there isn’t really a typical day for me. I could be overseeing image reserves, doing library reference/instruction, working on software development or processing images for the campus art gallery. Since I’m at an academic library there is a cyclical aspect to my work depending on the time of year, but most days are completely different.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
Advocacy. When I started working in visual resources the transition from analog to digital media had just begun and I don’t think people could predict how increasingly visual the world would become. That coupled with the 2007 financial crisis led to a lot of uncertainty that I think is still being felt today.

I am fortunate to support an art department who sees our value and allows us to have a great degree of independence. Before the VRC was integrated into the library there were some gaps in service and workflows that needed to be rethought. Our daily activities were not supporting the community as best they could so I identified problem areas and figured out how to solve them.

We have a large textbook reserve program so I rebranded our imaging service as image reserves. We’ve undertaken large scale projects to replace high-use images that had been scanned not using best practices and I always look for opportunities to engage faculty who have never used images in their classrooms.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
I learned both copy stand photography and advanced image editing on the job. I had one year of fashion school to fall back on for things like color theory, but otherwise, everything was learned through practice and trial/error.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
Building and overseeing the migration of our digital collections from a proprietary digital asset management system to a homegrown one. It’s a work in progress, but I am super proud of it considering there are only 6 of us on the team.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
I’d love to see more collaboration with organizations like DLF, LITA or code4lib. It’s always enlightening to hear what folks outside of traditional VRCs are thinking about. Some of my most inspirational conversations have been with public librarians so more cross-pollination is always good.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources?
More institutions are releasing high-resolution images for educational use and undertaking digital humanities projects. The availability of these materials makes my job easier, but more importantly, it inspires the community and increases the quality of scholarship produced.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
Library Juice and the other professional organizations I am a part of.

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
ARLIS-NA, ALA, OLA, ACRL. Professional organizations are definitely valuable especially when you are just beginning your career. Aside from providing networking opportunities, they are a reliable sounding board.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
Never turn down an opportunity to learn something new. The arts publishing job I got right out of undergrad did not deal with visual resources and was far from glamorous, but the skills I learned there are directly applicable to the work I do today.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
Restoring my funky mid-century house, cooking/baking, spending time with my partner and playing action RPGs and survival horror video games.

Reach out to Sarah at 📧sbavier@reed.edu or 👋 meet them at VRA 2019 in Los Angeles!

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed or suffering from imposter syndrome in the Visual Resources field? Sign up to be a mentee in the VRA’s Year-round Mentorship Program! Learn more: http://vraweb.org/opportunities/mentorship/ or connect with other VREPS on Slack!

VREPS Interview with Margaret McKee

Margaret McKee

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?
Sometimes the part-time student work positions you have in undergrad send you on unexpected career trajectories! I have a BAFA in art history and had a student work position in the slide library, where I did copy photography; masked, mounted, and labeled slides; and spent hours fussing over a thematic reorganization of the Picasso drawer. When I found it impossible to pick an area to focus on in time to apply to master’s programs in art history, I decided to pursue a master’s in library studies instead. I figured being a librarian was the perfect career for someone interested in everything! I never imagined I would see a 35mm slide again, but when I graduated with my library degree there was an opening for a slide librarian within the art history and studio art department of a local university, and with the combination of my degrees and my student work experience I was able to secure the position.

After two years as a solo slide librarian at a university, I joined the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in their image library. The MFAH has a studio art school, so our department served the image needs of both the museum and the school. At first, I was primarily responsible for shooting and cataloging copy photography needed for lectures, but as time went on I was given responsibility for licensing images of collection objects to external requesters and then securing images and permissions for MFAH publications.

A few years ago an opening became available handling rights and reproductions at the Menil Collection, and it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up to gain more experience without relocating. About a year and a half ago I moved into the role of Digital Asset Manager, so I’m now head of a three-person department responsible for imaging services, rights and reproductions, and digital asset management. Our department is under the umbrella of the larger Collection Management department.

What is your favorite part of your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
My favorite part about my work is that it allows me to collaborate with almost every department at my institution. I work with funny, kind, fascinating people, and I enjoy getting to know them as we work on projects together.

We are in the midst of a flurry of grant-funded digitization. The Houston Endowment’s support has allowed us to equip an industry-standard photo studio, which serves as an interdepartmental space where conservation imaging and collections photography are captured cooperatively, minimizing unnecessary handling of objects. Our Conservation Imaging Specialist, Adam Neese, and I have worked closely to establish workflows and standards for this project that we hope will serve us well beyond the end of the granting period. We were lucky enough to be able to bring on Paul Hester, a long-time Menil collaborator, as the grant photographer two days a week. Last week a career-spanning exhibition of Paul’s work opened at Rice University.

Another current project is creating a new JSTOR Forum project with our librarian, Lauren Gottlieb-Miller, that will become an Artstor Public Collection once it’s ready for prime time. We are creating a visual finding aid for one of the library’s rare book collections, and Lauren and I were excited to tackle a discrete project that can be finished within a few months. It’s great to identify projects like that to give you a feeling of accomplishment when everything else you’re working on seems Sisyphean!

What does a typical work day look like for you?
Every day is different, which I love, but I’m trying to routinize my work more and block out time regularly for the different projects I should be making progress on. I spend a lot of my time communicating and planning, making sure my department’s work goes smoothly and people have the information and resources they need to do their jobs. Then there are my own tasks that I need to see to, like reviewing images in our collection management system that will be pushed to our online collection pages and reconciling our photo shoot lists with image files received to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

At the Menil, we work 9 to 5, and I try to stick to that unless there’s a looming deadline or I’m on a roll and can’t resist staying late. (I’m an afternoon/evening person.) Many of my colleagues here are also working artists, so it’s important to them to have a schedule that gives them time to devote to their art.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
When I started out as a university slide librarian in 2003, I was a department of one and felt quite isolated. The VRA was a great resource, and I often turned to the listserv for advice. The university also gave me all the support I could handle in the form of student workers, and building relationships with them was a great boost for me. I’m still close friends with one of them and traveled to St. Louis for her wedding.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
I think community outreach needs to be emphasized more. Organizing community scanning days, reaching out to local groups that probably have visual resources that should be preserved for the future—these could be great ways to share our skills and increase our feelings of professional fulfillment.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
Well, I’m on just about any listserv that will have me, and I’m always signing up for any even somewhat relevant free webinar I come across! I’ve also taken a few wonderful online classes, including Anne Young’s Rights & Reproductions: Guidelines and Best Practices course through Museum Study and Harvard’s free CopyrightX course. I’m currently taking Mu.SA’s Essential Digital Skills for Museum Professionals MOOC after hearing it mentioned in a session at the MCN conference this November.

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
I’m a member of MCN, which attracts all kinds of museum professionals who are interested in technology and digital practices in museums. While I’m usually there to try to connect with other digital asset managers, I also like hearing about all the digital projects going on at different museums because it helps me think about how my role might be able to facilitate something similar at my own institution.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
I volunteer for an organization called Sight into Sound, which provides audio information for the blind, visually impaired, and physically handicapped. At first, I recorded audio books for them, but now I read the Houston Chronicle live on the air on Sunday mornings. It’s a great way to stay up to date on local news and also helps me overcome my perfectionist tendencies. If I stumble over a word, I have to shake it off and keep going!

It may sound cheesy, but I really do think you receive more than you give through volunteering. It’s a wonderful way to learn a new skill, make new friends, and give yourself a window into a totally different world. Having a weekly volunteer commitment can help give you perspective if you’re feeling consumed by the stressors of your particular workplace.

Reach out to Margaret at 📧 mmckee@menil.org or 👋 meet her at VRA 2019 in Los Angeles! You can also find photos of her cats on Instagram @mmemargaret 🐈🐈🐈

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed or suffering from imposter syndrome in the Visual Resources field? Sign up to be a mentee in the VRA’s Year-round Mentorship Program! Learn more: http://vraweb.org/opportunities/mentorship/ or connect with other VREPS on Slack!

VREPS Interview with Grace Barth

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Grace Barth

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?

My background is in Art History and libraries, and I got into visual resources as it was the perfect combination of both interests for me. I began working in visual resources as an undergraduate student, took a part-time position while completing my MLIS, and began full-time work about six months after graduation. Currently, I am the Head of Digital Collections for James Madison University Libraries and have been in this position for about two years.

What is your favorite part about your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?

I love working with the rare and unique materials housed in our Special Collections, as well as identifying collections that are good candidates for online access, and partnering with others across campus to manage journals, conferences, and other scholarship in our institutional repository. Some of our current projects are processing a large donation of digitized and born-digital audiovisual content from our campus poetry center, working on assigning DOIs to electronic theses and dissertations, and piloting the Google Cultural Institute platform for digital exhibitions.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

A typical day includes meeting with staff about various collections being digitized, cataloged, and put online; working with faculty and students using our platforms to create projects or share scholarship; and working with library staff in technology, special collections, and metadata to coordinate larger cross-departmental projects.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?

It was really difficult to find full-time work in the field without needing to relocate.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?

My role has evolved to include support for digital scholarship and scholarly communication work on campus. In graduate school, I was heavily focused on digitization and the inner workings of databases, and while that knowledge is still valuable, I now do a lot of end-user training and project scoping in more of a consultative and outreach capacity.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

I’m very proud of the work I did while running the visual resources center on campus– digitizing the legacy slide collection and directing a large renovation project to re-envision the space were my two largest accomplishments during my time there because they had a clear positive impact on the students and faculty.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?

Digital Library Federation and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.

What other professional organizations are you a part of? Do you find professional organizations valuable?

I find professional organizations very valuable for bouncing ideas of off others, sharing resources and workflows, and building my network. I’m a member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?

Be flexible and open to where your skills and experience might take you!

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Know someone working in a museum, archive, or arts institution? Let them know about the Visual Resources Association! Explore what a VRA membership has to offer! Don’t forget to join other emerging professionals and students in visual resources on Slack. 

VREPS Interview with Chris Strasbaugh

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Chris Strasbaugh

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?
I am a photographer turned art historian that found a home in visual resources by luck in grad school. The Visual Resources Library needed a photographer and I needed a job. From there I discovered that this is the perfect mix of imaging, technology, and education.

What is your favorite part about your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
Teaching and employing emerging tech into the teaching and learning of the school. Drones and virtual reality are my two main projects right now and I am working on finding ways to combine the two to create georeferenced sites that can be experienced and explored in VR.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
10,000-15,000 steps. I manage a staff of 9 student employees that reside in the Knowlton School Archive as well as the Digital Library. I am firm believer that in-person communication is what creates opportunities, innovations, collaborations so I make sure to spend parts of my day checking-in with other staff, faculty, and students to see what they are working on or exploring. It helps to connect people together and allows me to know where to spend my energy for long-term projects.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
There is a big learning curve as well as a need to show relevance. Relevance was the most important part so I focused on small things like creating an open environment, teaching visual literacy and search techniques, and made improvements in areas that I was comfortable. This built trust and allowed for support for attending the VRA conference which has also been so important.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Pretty much everything regarding metadata, archival techniques, and visual literacy.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
Presenting on hacking imaging technology at the Rijksmuseum for the 2+3D Prophecies conference, being staff photographer for two excavations in Greece and Israel, and getting drones and VR implemented into the curriculum in Knowlton School.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources.
I love how visual resources is expanding into so many fields and industries. We are well outside the slide library, or even image collections, and include anyone that deals with data that describes places, people, or things. We really are ahead of so many and have so much to teach others.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
See the small things that can make a big difference. For me it was just keep the door open to the VRC and it is amazing at the difference that made in my career.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
I love working with kids and can talk for days about Disney.

Reach out to Chris at 📧strasbaugh.2@osu.edu or 👋 meet him at VRA 2019 in Los Angeles!

VREPS Interview with Jesse Henderson

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Jesse Henderson

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?

I studied Fine Art in my undergrad with a minor in Art History. When I decided to go to library school and was planning on how I would focus on what I would do in the library world, my most vivid library memory was in the visual resources collection at the University of Hull where I did a year abroad and took mostly art history courses. It was the first place where as a student I had to dip into the teaching collection and give a lecture as part of my student work and I remember being fascinated by the slide collection (they had sleeves of slides in hanging folders – never seen a collection stored like that since). So when I got into library school, I focused all of my assignments, when possible, on image collections. I took a lot of cataloging courses, did a history of libraries paper on slide libraries, and even solicited the VRA listserv for the completion of that paper. I asked VR folks to send me images of their library spaces and I took those digital images, turned them into slides and gave my lectures with slides. I was committed! I was lucky enough, right out of library school to find a job that was in the VR field, and also was a slide collection that needed to be transitioned to digital. This was in 2006.

What is your favorite part of your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
I worked at Colgate University at the Visual Resources Curator from 2006 through 2013 then took a job at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the library system in the Digital Collections unit. My current title is Digital Services Librarian, but I have moved up from being a reformatting/digitization supervisor to Production manager. My favorite part of this work is getting to work with some actual primary sources. When working strictly in VR I really enjoyed the exposure to the content and researching and learning about artists through the faculty I supported. I miss that in this job, but this job does have the perk of getting to handle such items as manor rolls from the 1300s and go through boxes of archival papers, and beautiful artist books.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
A typical day for me involves a lot of meetings and email at this point. As Production Manager, I need to keep all of our projects moving through our production unit, so I am the communication point person with a lot of our content providers. I am also in a lot of meetings coordinating projects or larger digital library services efforts for our libraries. However, I still have my feet in the world of digitization as well, so I still have some days where I get to photograph an item and process the beautiful digital surrogates we’ve produced.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
I think some of the biggest challenges came with learning about digitization and how to do it right. Also, knowing what guidelines to follow. When starting out at Colgate I had to do the research and choose a system to get them into a digital teaching collection. Knowing at which resolution to scan, how many copies to save, all that jazz… It was intimidating to make a call on some of that stuff as I didn’t ever feel like I knew enough. Reaching out to the community via the listserv helped as well as attending SEI, which I highly recommend!

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Digitization! There weren’t any courses on digitization in library school. I learned a lot about description, management, and decision-making, and less about the nuts and bolts of digitization. I feel much more authoritative on it now, but still only about so many things. It’s a big field.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’m very proud of the work I did at Colgate to transition them from analog to digital. That was a huge undertaking and I think I left them in ok shape when I ended up moving to Wisconsin. Here in Wisconsin, I led an effort in our unit to upgrade our digitization equipment. Now we are using updated workflows, software, and capture equipment that has changed what kinds of materials we can handle, how quickly we can turn around projects and the quality of digital product we are generating.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
Not entirely sure. This has been a great community to lean on. I think there are many image management professionals out there which are operating very much outside of the art/museum realm and could really use the expertise of this community. So perhaps marketing to broader audiences would be my answer.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources?
The visual!! I love images so I’m happy I get to work with visual materials quite a bit vs. too many spreadsheets. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some databases… but the visual, in general, is where it’s at!

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
I mostly reach out to peer colleagues in the Big Ten at this point. And others I’ve met through VRA and the Summer Educational Institute (SEI).

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
I currently only really belong to DLF but that is through an institutional membership at the UW. I think they are very valuable for beginning professionals. The VRA was very important to the beginning of my career.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
Reach out and network and don’t hesitate to email folks directly if you don’t get the answers to might need from larger listservs.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
I’m a big gardener and also still enjoy drawing and painting.

Reach out to Jesse at 📧jesse.henderson@wisc.edu or visit our digital collections at https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/ and follow them on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed or suffering from imposter syndrome in the Visual Resources field? Sign up to be a mentee in the VRA’s Year-round Mentorship Program! Learn more: http://vraweb.org/opportunities/mentorship/ or connect with other VREPS on Slack!

 

VREPS Profiles: Heidi Rempel

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Heidi Rempel

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?

When I initially started trying to figure out what to do after college graduation, my goal was to get a Ph.D. in art history and teach. I opted for a terminal MA in art history instead, as my husband is from the UK and we wanted to live near his family for a few years, and in the interim the 2008 world economic crash happened, I had a baby, and I saw my fellow MA grads struggling to first get their doctorates and then deal with frequent moves. I felt that wasn’t for me.

While I was studying for my MA at UT Austin, I was privileged to work in their exceptional VRC, which is now defunct as an independent entity but, at the time, was a hub of activity for faculty and graduate students in the art history program. I really enjoyed that work and wanted to use my art history background to some good purpose, so I opted to go for an MSLIS, which I received in 2012 from Syracuse University. Within the following year, I became the VR Curator at William Paterson University, where I split my duties between the art department and University Galleries.

The decision was made to redevelop the Galleries portion of my job to be far more focused on art collections management and installation, so since my contract ended in June of 2017, I’ve been applying for other positions and piecing together opportunities when possible. Currently, I’m working on a grant-funded digitization project and am still looking for full-time employment, probably in library technology and/or digital collections management.

What is your favorite part about your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
I absolutely love the project that I’m currently working on–you can check it out at maritimedigitalcollections.com  It’s a digitization project working with old letters and records from the Sailors’ Snug Harbor, the first retirement home in the country for old and infirm sailors, founded in the early nineteenth century through a bequest by Richard Robert Randall, whose father had been a sea captain during the Revolutionary War. Notable aspects of the collection, in addition to its value for genealogists, sociologists, and maritime history buffs include an early nineteenth-century travel narrative owned by Herman Melville, which probably passed into the collection of the library at the Harbor while his youngest brother, Thomas, was governor. Working with original materials is incredibly satisfying and I have loved getting to know the inmates, or “Old Snugs” through their correspondence.

Currently I’m digitizing inmate letters to the governor from the late 1800s and highlights of those include complaints about the smell of the privies, a plea to move to a different room because of a roommate’s snoring and foul language, and anonymous denouncements of a man who is slipping out at night to bartend at a local pub.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
I set out my day and typically alternate between digitizing materials and then cataloging them. I supervise a graduate assistant, so I may review and do QA on the records he’s cataloged, and try to always take a little time to greet the librarians and check in with how the rest of the library is doing since I’m quite isolated in my little digital lab cave!

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
I think the greatest challenge is finding work coming out of having limited VRC experience, as well as a family. I looked all over the country and had to rule out some positions/moves due to personal issues such as salary and location. As the parent of an autistic child, it was important to me to be in a place where high-quality education and support were available for him.

Once I started my position, I think the greatest shock was, as it perhaps always is with a new job, learning how much I really didn’t know! It was an incredibly steep learning curve and I remember my one and only VRA conference being incredibly helpful in enabling me to feel like part of a community, especially since I frequently felt at work that I was betwixt and between–neither quite an art historian or a fully empowered part of the Galleries, and certainly not a librarian. I’m not sure that I ever found the right balance while I was in that position but it’s taught me to listen, to grab tightly to every opportunity that I could to learn more about working as part of a team, to be a wiser manager of people, to be certain that the jobs I apply for commit to professional development, and to manage my own expectations about what I can and can’t accomplish given the available time, budget, and support.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Time management and people management skills are paramount in just about everything that I do and it’s not something that’s explicitly taught. Syracuse offered a management for libraries course but it ended up being very focused, at that time, on general business management rather than on concepts that were necessarily valuable to non-profits and libraries. It can be very hard, as a new information professional, to know your limits and know when to ask for help and when to trust your instincts–at least it was in my case!

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of completely rebuilding the image database at WPU from scratch, managing the lost/abandoned property process in the Galleries, and learning how to use their database in a powerful and effective way, when it had been extremely ad hoc before. I started with nothing and managed to bring order to chaos and really transform what had been a really stagnant position, and one that the art faculty, in particular, weren’t taking advantage of, into something that was vibrant and providing great customer service.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
I would love to see more shared image resources that are low- or no-cost, when possible. My VRC at WPU had a budget so tiny that I couldn’t afford even one image set per year, and while the library subscribed to ARTstor, two of my four art history faculty specialized in areas that had little to no representation in that resource (Latin American and Asian art, specifically art from the Silk Road regions). That meant that when I say I started from scratch, I really started from scratch. I had to digitize and catalog every single entry in our image database and there has to be a better, more streamlined way to make that happen, although I have no answers to how to do so! Given the increasing focus on OER, perhaps we need to start developing some OER textbooks in art, design, and art history, as a profession.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources?
I love art and images. I know that’s trite and basic but there’s nothing quite like knowing that I go to work every day and work with image resources. It gives me the opportunity to learn more about art while, at the same time, making it more accessible to others.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
I tend to look for webinars and online courses that are specific to the work I’m doing at the moment. I took an asynchronous online introductory course on archives offered by a consultant archivist. I’ve also done a number of workshops through my employers’ HR departments as and when possible.

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
At the moment I don’t have the budget for additional memberships but would like to rejoin ARLIS/NA and join the DLF, for networking and resources.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
If you can, be willing to move. Trying to find a job in the exact discipline you want in the exact location you want is a challenge. If you can, make sure you have a broad range of skills–don’t just focus on images, think about working on digital repositories/digital humanities projects and get as many skills as you can. And don’t forget that you work with people. You will encounter friendly people and challenging people in every position you take, so building relationships are going to be a key part of doing your job successfully. And remember, you should love your work. Maybe not every aspect, but certainly the parts you do most frequently. If you don’t, you’re doing the wrong thing. Ask for help and support when you need it and always, always overestimate the amount of time you’ll need for a project!

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
I enjoy gardening, needlework, reading, and playing lots of board games with my husband and son.

Reach out to Heidi at 📧 hrempel@gmail.com

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Looking for a job or just want to learn more about what jobs are available in the Visual Resources Field? Subscribe to the VRA Jobs Digest (VRA membership NOT required to subscribe) and don’t forget to connect with other VREPS on Slack!

 

VREPS Interview with Susan Jane Williams

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Susan Jane Williams

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?

I can’t say I particularly planned for this career. I earned a BFA and spent some years as an artist and later a commercial illustrator. I earned an MA in Art History and rather fell into visual resources work at that point. (Back in the day an Art History MA was totally sufficient; this has changed). I worked for RIT and Yale; that phase was 14 years total. I had the opportunity to begin working freelance, consulting and cataloging, and have done that now for 14 years, so half my working career.

What is your favorite part of your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
In the earlier years of freelancing, I did a good bit of consulting and travel. Now my business is almost completely cataloging, or data cleanup and remediation on a project basis. I have worked on a few historic special collections, artist archives, and faculty collections; I have worked for all the major image vendors (directly or indirectly).

What does a typical work day look like for you?
My schedule in my “electronic cottage” is completely flexible, which is both good and bad. I have found that rather than be always available, it is good to try to keep to a M-F, 9 to 5 model. That said, I frequently get customer support requests on Sundays, which tells me that is when my customers find time to email (!) so I try to respond to those. Scheduling on a project basis can be a “feast or famine” proposition; I even that out with steady part-time but on-going work for Archivision.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
I first started in VR in 1990; we printed slide labels via a mainframe computer! The stroke of luck is that this system at RIT was one of the computer installations done by Luraine Tansey herself, and she was a joy to meet and to know. I did begin to tinker with creating databases for the first time at RIT (ditching the mainframe), and I did work with relatively early digital imaging, multimedia projects on CDs, running a creative lab, campus photo system etc. I did in many ways create my own job (which was very broad and unusual), and the path to doing that at RIT was to pick up tech skills–fortunately this was something I found I enjoyed and for which I had an aptitude. This is what later made me attractive to Yale, when they looked for someone with digital experience.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
As Mark Twain said, don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education. I like being a jack-of-all-trades, a generalist and a widget maker. That is not necessarily a recipe for traditional success; so many career ladders crest with administrative positions. Personally, I don’t feel an interest in, nor a talent for, administration, although I functioned well enough as a supervisor/department head. I knew this would ultimately limit me in academe, but looking back I would not change it. My schooling gave me the ability to be an adjunct instructor in Art History (which I did at RIT) but other than that…..

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I won the DeLaurier Award in 2007 for developing the database VCat. VCat was, as far as I know, the first database capable of VRA Core 4 XML export. Because of that, I was able to help support other tool developers by giving out testbed Core 4 XML data, and I began work with the DSC and Core 4 support committees (now CaMS). I might note that VCat (first released in 2005) also properly supported vocabs and refids out of the gate.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
Thirty years ago, in the analog age, the raison d’etre of VRA was clear, and we were all doing similar things in our jobs. That is no longer the case–there is a much broader array of job settings, descriptions, and skills. That can be an opportunity, but a new “center of gravity” needs to be defined for VRA. In general, I think we need to be discovering and developing (and publishing) primary, not secondary, visual materials.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources?
The development of the semantic web and the use of RDF, LOD, and IIIF. I had been somewhat skeptical about that coming to fruition but recently became aware that (d’oh!) those things have huge commercial applications too, so I do think that will become part of our workaday world.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
As I have one foot in retirement, I am no longer doing this, although I will say that if I were younger, I would take programming classes.

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
In the past, I have been part of (or attended) CAA, MCN, and ARLIS (both NA and UK and Ireland). I think the choice of these will align with someone’s specific job or desired career path. I would recommend, if possible, trying to attend at least one conference in a foreign country to get some really new perspectives.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
Approach any job with energy and creativity; you may be able to craft that job in surprising and fulfilling ways. That latitude or flexibility is not always found at the larger schools, companies or museums, so consider that trade-off: happiness matters.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
Gardening (native plants), making art (botanical illustration), vacuuming cubic feet of Corgi hair (but they are worth it).

Reach out to Susan at 📧williams.susanjane@gmail.com or 👋 meet her at VRA 2019 in Los Angeles!

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Feeling a bit overwhelmed or suffering from imposter syndrome in the Visual Resources field? Sign up to be a mentee in the VRA’s Year-round Mentorship Program! Learn more: http://vraweb.org/opportunities/mentorship/ or connect with other VREPS on Slack!

 

VREPS Interview with Dr. Jeannine Keefer

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Dr. Jeannine Keefer

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?

I am currently the Visual Resources Librarian and Art Liaison in Boatwright Memorial Library at the University of Richmond. I am an art and architectural historian by training (MA in Architectural History (UVA), PhD in Art History (Binghamton) and currently research in the field. My first introduction to the field of visual resources was as a work study student in undergrad. I was trained to shoot, mount, and label slides for art history classes. While pursuing my Master’s I worked in the Visual Resources Center in the McIntire School of Art at the University of Virginia. There we were digitizing and creating metadata. The images were used on websites we built for art history courses and the metadata had two uses – first to create side labels and second to catalogue the digital image as thoroughly as possible for some possible future online display of the catalogue. My first professional positions were in the Art Department at the University of Mississippi and then The University of the Arts. I then decided to pursue my PhD in art history and at the same time started a positional Assistant Director of the Knight Visual Resources Center in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University. And ten years ago I started my current position at the University of Richmond. I did not plan to enter visual resources, it happened organically, I feel into it as a happy combination of my love of research, analytical thinking, technology, and general thirst for knowledge.

What is your favorite part about your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
Research is my favourite part of my work. I like being able to research a variety of topics and objects, but not having to produce a book on it. It is a great help on trivia night. A current project is digitizing a faculty collection of images from Yemen and the Middle East in the late 1970s. They document the modernization of the Yemeni landscape – building roads, adding power lines, and building new kinds of structures. As an architectural historian and scholar I am personally excited about the images and the potential they have for furthering scholarship in the area.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
I really don’t think I have one. Because I deal with faculty in all disciplines with visual content and I wear many hats on campus, no two days are exactly the same. Some days I am editing images and creating metadata. Other days I am meeting with faculty to discuss images they want for a publication. Or I might be helping a faculty member or student with a digital humanities project. In addition to library instruction, I teach in the first year seminar program and, on occasion, art history courses. I enjoy the teaching as much as the research I do in my position.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
I would say one of the challenges I encountered when I entered the profession in 1998 was the transition from analog to digital. Funding was usually via a grant as budgets were still centered on the production of film slides. I, and my colleagues, had to learn to advocate for the transition not only with administrators who governed the budgets, but also faculty who were reluctant to embrace a newer, and lower quality at the time, technology. I will be honest here, I still miss my projector and slide carousel.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Since I never went to school for library work specifically, I actually learned most all of what I do in the context of work study in graduate school for other disciplines. Not only did I learn how to do my job, but also research skills and content knowledge. Obviously new technologies will be a contents on the “need to learn” list, but my schooling taught me how to learn or how to find the answer to something I do not know.

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I am proud of the written work I have produced. I am also glad I got involved in leadership roles in VRA. I have been able to transfer skills acquired there to my professional positions.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
A clear definition of what it actually is anymore. Long ago it was easy to define as there were real, physical objects to associate with it. Now it has expanded in content but contracted in terms of how practitioners self-identify. Many individuals in a library setting might practice the work of visual resources, but identify as something else. This poses a problem for those who work to advocate for visual resources work.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources.
I see visual resources as the center of a Venn diagram, the work of the field touches on a wide range of content types and sources. The field, for me, is about process and workflow. The type of content whether it be art, archives, commercial items, etc. and where that content comes from are irrelevant to some extent. This said, there are a great number of practitioners without the title of Visual Resources Curator/Librarian who should know that there even is a field where they can find support for what they do.

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
Digital humanities conferences, local meetings, VLACRL and a number of others.

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
Visual Resources Association, Alliance of Digital Humanities Organization, Association for Computes in the Humanities

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
Be open to new ways of doing your work and participate in your professional organizations – they are only as strong as their membership.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
Knitting, disc golf, and photography are a few

Reach out to Dr. Jeannine Keefer at 📧jkeefer@richmond.edu or call 📞 804-289-8275 or 👋 meet her at VRA 2019 in Los Angeles!

VREPS Interview with Holly Sabiston

You’re all out there doing such interesting work, and the VR community is a small one, so let’s get to know each other better! If you’d be willing to spend 30-45 minutes talking to me via Gchat or Skype (video or non-video), or if you’d like to fill out a Member Profile Questionnaire, please get in touch with me at knw2@williams.edu

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Holly Sabiston

@holfishart

Can you tell us a little bit about your background, your current position and how you got into the field of visual resources?

I started working in Smith College’s Hillyer Art Library while I was an undergraduate student. I was taking studio art classes and art history courses in addition to majoring in East Asian Studies and Japanese. I didn’t work with the visual resource materials then – but I became familiar with them via proximity and osmosis. After college, I had a summer job as a creative intern at an advertising agency, after which I completed my final undergraduate semester in the Kansas City Art Institute’s painting department, graduating in January.

I stayed in Kansas City because – while at KCAI – I started working as a cataloging assistant in the library across the street – at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I added artist monographs published in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean to a MARC records database using a (now totally outdated) CJK character keyboard for a couple of years, and by then was addicted to art books and visual resource materials. I also realized that my voracity for art and art-related books and media would always be unsustainable on an artist’s income – unless I worked in art museums and/or visual resource libraries! So, a few years later when I moved to Austin, Texas, I did freelance artwork painting murals, drawing portraits, and digitally painting over video for animated shorts and feature films (a process called rotoscoping) by day, and supervised students at the University of Texas at Austin’s Fine Arts Library on nights and weekends.

After nearly a decade at UT, I was invited to create (research, implement, and populate) an image DAMS for an architecture and engineering firm. There, I became the solo visual resource curator for a 500-person company with a 100+ year image history. They had 80,000+ images on slides, film, and CDs and had never had an image database, nor any cataloging or retention standards. I worked there for eight years. When I left, all 500 employees had access to the images they needed for everything from their own photos and presentations to 3-D collaborative-project files, and the image database had its own dedicated server with 24/7 access via VPN from anywhere in the world.

What is your favorite part about your work? Can you describe any project(s) you’re currently working on?
My favorite part of my work is being able to look at pictures of the made-and-built environment (architects talk about the “built environment” a lot, but I would include anything handmade or person-made: art, design, and architecture) and to be able to provide access to that image information – so that it may inspire or instruct the people who are making and/or working with those files.

Right now, I am not working with images for work. I am doing part-time freelance consulting for an attorney, organizing email and documents until I can find a new role in visual resources. I currently only work with images on my own, in my art studio. Even though I am not currently doing what I love most, everything I have learned about metadata tagging, file formats, and database management still applies. And because I am so visual (and pretty ADHD, too), it does help my brain to think of the court filings, meeting notes, and email files as bricks that are needed to make a sculpture or a building – like pieces of some other kind of made-and-build environment.

What does a typical work day look like for you?
Freelance/Consulting life is not my ideal, and my schedule depends on the day of the week, but usually my time is structured around three constants: class at the gym in the mornings (4x per week), evenings with my family (really just my husband and cat), and the community college courses I take on the weekends (2x per week – currently a Japanese refresher course). I do my consulting work in the afternoons in 3-4 hour stretches when the attorney is available. Mornings at the beginning of the week I am likely to be searching job search websites for work, and later in the week, I am applying for the jobs I found on Monday or Tuesday. Some days, I just draw or paint, but usually when I get started that extends into the evenings, several days in a row – and it lessens when I am worried about money.

What were some challenges you came across when you first started out in the field of visual resources?
My early choice to pursue studio art rather than an MIS or MLIS has limited the type of positions to which I can apply. Without an advanced library degree, promotions within the university library – or even adequate cost-of-living pay increases – were nonexistent.

Moving from academic and art-museum work to a role at an architecture firm was one way I was able to circumvent a master’s degree. However, I discovered that thinking like a marketer, graphic/UX designer, or “brand ambassador” is infinitely more compelling to my bosses than adhering to academic standards of information management – at least in corporate settings. I missed the rationale, rigor, and plain good sense of academic libraries.

What skills do you use for your job that you didn’t learn while in school?
Nearly all of my job skills were learned at work. I did take a Photoshop class early-on in college, but aside from my Japanese language skills (only used briefly while I worked as a cataloging assistant), everything has been learned outside of the classroom. I learned LC Classification in my college work-study job, the basics of photography in order to document my own artwork, and I created and managed graphics and small databases in the UT Fine Arts Library. Working on animated films allowed me to be comfortable processing large numbers of digital image files, and how to prepare for data loss and disaster recovery, lol (i.e. “autosave”).

Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’m proud of the DAMS I chose and implemented for the architecture firm, and all of the updates I made to it over the course of several years. In various iterations, I was able to add or port-over several new image collections quickly, all while making sure the software was seamlessly compatible with other commonly used software applications. I worked with the DAMS developers and local I.T. staff to tailor it to the needs of users with disparate and ever-changing needs pretty successfully. I even made the architectural engineering teams happy – and the engineers were notoriously difficult to please. please. And I’m proud that I have been able to remain close to the things that inspire me – art, books, pictures – and still (mostly) make a living.

What is one thing in the visual resources field that you think is lacking or missing?
A clearer career path for individuals who do not work in academia, and don’t have advanced degrees.

What is something that most excites you about the field of visual resources.
Visual resources as a field has a LOT of potential. There is a high demand for VR professionals – and I only see it increasing – so, it is time we learn how to promote ourselves and each other better! 

Where else do you seek professional development opportunities other than VRA?
Indeed, LinkedIn, LinkedIn user groups related to specific DAMS software, digital asset management, knowledge management, Twitter, at least one Facebook group, and Jasmine Burns’ VRA Job Digest emails!

What other professional organizations are you a part of?
I think this question is probably satisfied mostly by the answer above. There is one independent group I belong to, but I don’t know if it is national, regional, or just local. It’s a list serve called “Breaking Library Silos”, and it’s a bunch of professional librarians and archivists who have let me eavesdrop on their strategizing get-togethers.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom for emerging professionals and students in this field?
Being a renaissance-person will someday be back in vogue – but for now, it isn’t. Get your masters’ degree.

What are some of your favorite things outside of work? What are some of your hobbies?
I love going to art galleries and museums, and painting portraits and landscapes. I love doing this weird form of exercise called Kettlebell Sport. It is a kind of endurance weightlifting that was made popular by Russian strong-men in the 1980s and after. Now women – especially women in North America and Europe – have kind of taken it over and have made it popular here. But not popular enough to be an Olympic sport; I don’t think it will ever be popular enough to be an Olympic sport (which is fine with me, because I’ll never be great at it. It’s just fun and makes me feel strong and healthy).

Reach out to Holly at 📧holly.sabiston@gmail.com

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