Education Committee (EdComm)
Maureen
Burns and Jodie Walz, Co-Chairs
March 2, 2007
VRA Annual Report
Current Charge
To engage in research, build accessible resources, and share information about educational and professional development opportunities for VRA membership by remaining in contact with appropriate members of related professional organizations and educational institutions. To regularly solicit information from the VRA membership about interests and educational concerns in order to develop supportive programming at the annual conference and as other opportunities arise.
Accomplishments
The VRA Education Committee (EdComm) successfully followed up on or are continuing to pursue on many of the goals it set for itself at the 2006 Meeting in Baltimore, which included: sponsoring workshops at the annual conference that are of the utmost interest to VRA members; promoting stipends for these workshops to regional VRA Chapter leadership, communicating with the VRA membership about professional development opportunities; considering ways to promote and support visual resources internships, and, developing better communication with Chapters, associated committees, and organizations.
The EdComm planned, organized, and sponsored two workshops for the Kansas City conference based on the interests and feedback from the VRA membership. They are “Educating the Educators: Teaching Faculty to Teach with Digital Images” organized by Jenni Rodda and “The Religions of Asia: Toward an Asian Authority organized by Wendy Holden. We anticipate that both workshops will fill to capacity.
The Chapter stipend program for the 2007 conference was promoted as usual by EdComm. Each of the Chapter Chairs were contacted (by e-mail and by post) in January and the EdComm Chapter liaisons are presently trying to insure that each region has ample opportunity to take advantage of the stipend. The 2007 stipend recipients so far, and the workshops they will attend, include, in alphabetical order by Chapter:
Great Lakes: Lorrie Macallister, XML, VRA Core, and Image Collections;
Greater New York: Johanna Bauman, XML, VRA Core, and Image Collections;
Greater Philadelphia: TBD;
Mid-Atlantic: TDB;
Midwest: Gretchen Tuchel, Cataloging Asian Art;
New England: Marci Hahn, Assessing Copyright Risk;
Northern California: Julie Tashima, Getting Past No: Assessing Copyright Risk;
Pacific Rim: Karen Whalen, Metadata Crash Course;
Southern California: Jackie Spafford, Cataloging Asian Art;
Southeast Chapter: Emy Nelson Decker, XML, VRA Core, and Image Collections;
Texas: Bobby Anderson, Educating the Educators;
Upstate New York: Jeannine Keefer, Educating the Educators.
Much positive feedback has been received about this program and it has been informally reported that stipend recipients are sharing what they learn with local Chapter members.
The Chapter liaison tradition, which assigns a member of EdComm to communicate with regional Chapters regarding their programming interests, continues to develop. Our liaisons are asked to communicate quarterly with Chapter Chairs, and report any relevant comments to the EdComm via the listserv. This contact has been helpful in developing workshop programming ideas for conferences and for finalizing the workshop stipends.
The EdComm is considering a short survey of the VRA membership regarding their opinions about distance learning since there were many suggestions on this front in the VRA Strategic Plan. The following questions were suggested in Baltimore:
These questions will be discussed and honed in Kansas City after learning more about the results of the professional status survey and a plan of action considered.
Maureen Burns served on the ARLIS/NA internship selection committee this year to obtain a better understanding of what is involved in organizing an internship program and to get a feel for how it is progressing. Over 60 applications were received for one internship funded at $2,500 and several of the applicants mentioned their desire to obtain experience with visual materials. The EdComm is presently discussing how VRA might partner with ARLIS or develop its own internship program to meet what is clearly a need for library students to obtain experience in visual resources collections.
The EdComm continues to consider ways to better communicate with associated VRA committees, such as Membership and SEI, as well as like-minded organizations. Regional Chapters are encouraged by liaisons to include such local branches of ARLIS, MCN, etc., in local programming.
Leah Theis continues to efficiently manage and develop the EdComm Web site, and is making quarterly contact with VRA members, via the listserve, to initiate feedback on EdComm issues. She is poised to collaborate on the VRA Web site redesign. We are very appreciative that Leah continues to fill this important role for EdComm, and by extension, for our organization.
Jeanette Mills, although no longer on the EdComm, continues to support the EdComm listserv at the University of Washington for which we are most grateful.
Work continues on a timeline and guide to standardize EdComm work flow and a draft will be reviewed and discussed in Kansas City. This is the start of the development of more documentation to guide EdComm business.
Goals
Continue to solicit ideas from the membership and determine VRA educational needs resulting in ideas, recommendations, and preparations for 2008 national conference workshop proposals.
Continue the existing process for providing stipends to Regional Chapter leaders for workshops at the annual VRA conferences and work towards continuing to improve communication with Chapter Chairs about the stipend program and other educational opportunities. Fine tune the process of obtaining responses about who will be attending which workshops every year.
EdComm continues to consider ways to expand outreach and communication with regional Chapters by enhancing liaison responsibilities.
Consider the best strategy for surveying the VRA membership about distance learning and implement it, if appropriate.
Draft a recommendation for a VRA internship award.
Enhance the EdComm Web site in line with the VRA Web improvements.
Update timeline/calendar and start manual to standardize workflow for current and future committee leadership.