Adopted by the ARLIS/NA Executive Board and the VRA
Boards of Directors
August & June, 1995; revised in October 2002
Original (1995) version: English | French | Spanish
The Art Libraries Society of
North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Visual Resources Association (VRA) adopt the
following standards respecting visual resources professionals.
This document is available on the websites of ARLIS/NA, VRA, and the College Art Association (CAA).
Context
Visual resources collections
exist in diverse administrative structures including but not limited to
academic institutions, research collections, museums, historical
societies, archives, public libraries,
governmental agencies, and corporations.
The creation, development, and
management of these collections that traditionally consisted of slides and
photographs now involves the acquisition, cataloging, and maintenance of a wide
range of visual materials in many different formats.
As established analog formats are augmented and transformed by electronic
imaging and global networking, and as information is managed
electronically, the barriers between media are rapidly dissolving. As emphasis shifts from the carrier or container of
information--the books, the images--to the information itself, the importance of
access to its content is accentuated. The form
that information takes, the way in which it is classified and described, and its
physical location are becoming increasingly fluid and complex.
Because visual resources
collections now serve an ever growing clientele
representing numerous disciplines, the primary
focus of many collections has shifted from traditional art
and architectural forms and media to include
all aspects of visual culture as well as visually perceived social
practices. These
new areas demand new knowledge bases and approaches
to descriptive classification, the use of controlled vocabularies from a variety
of discipline-specific thesauri, as well as new
methods of delivery and presentation.
This shift in emphasis from
form to content is also reflected in the changing role in the stewardship
of objects--whether artifacts, manuscripts, books, photographs, slides,
or electronic media--from a traditional curatorial function to one that
incorporates the creation, the management, and
the dissemination of information. Intellectual access to information, regardless of its format
is a critical measure of effective collection
development and management. Providing intellectual access requires in-depth subject
knowledge and research skills, administrative experience, teaching abilities,
and expertise in current technologies. All professionals entrusted with the
creation and management of access to
information, whether librarians, archivists, museum curators, or visual
resources curators, must acquire specialized education and expertise, and all
should be accorded equivalent institutional rank, status, salary, and benefits.
Qualifications
The administration of visual
resources collections is a service-directed profession that provides resources
as well as access to information of a specialized
nature. Those seeking professional status must be prepared to acquire skills in
the development, organization, and management of
visual information as well as appropriate
subject area specialization. To date there is no single degree program aimed
specifically at providing such a combination of skills and expertise. Therefore,
the ARLIS/NA and VRA Joint Taskforce on Visual Resources Professional Issues
makes the following recommendations:
Degree Requirements: An
M.L.S., an M.A., or an M.S. is considered the minimal degree requirement for a
professional position. The M.A. or
M.S. must be in a subject area appropriate to the visual resources collection.
Supplementary Course Work:
Strongly recommended with an M.L.S. is additional
graduate-level course work in an appropriate subject discipline such as art
history, and for an M.A. or M.S., additional
courses in information management such as those offered in
library or information science programs.
Work Experience: At
least three years supervised experience in a visual resources collection for an
entry level position and five years for positions that begin at the associate
level or higher
Status
The visual resources
professional should be granted rank and status equal to those of other
professionals with equivalent educational credentials and responsibilities
within the institution. This includes equivalent salary levels; eligibility for
promotion and tenure (where appropriate); participation in college or university
governance; retirement; and other benefits. If academic status for visual
resources professionals does not exist within the university or college, every
effort should be made to reach parity with the academic librarians and/or
faculty.
Appropriate professional
ranks for visual resources professionals should parallel faculty and
library models: Assistant Visual Resources Curator/Librarian, Associate Visual
Resources Curator/Librarian, and Visual Resources Curator/Librarian.
Intermediate ranks may be established. The initial appointment will
most frequently be made at the assistant level; however, when the
professional already has experience and expertise, appointments
at a higher rank are appropriate. Working
titles such as director, head, and cataloger are often used to describe
functional job assignments.
The assignment of rank
should be independent both of job assignments and the number of visual resources
professionals on the staff. Typically promotion to the associate level should
occur after two three-year terms at the assistant level and should either
constitute a tenure decision or carry the equivalent weight. Review for
promotion from the associate to curator/librarian level should normally occur
after the candidate has been an associate for five years. Promotion at this
stage should be neither automatic nor intended solely as recognition of long
service; it should not be requisite for continuing employment. Term renewals
when relevant at the associate level and above should be made at appropriate
intervals such as every five years and should be automatic unless it is
demonstrated that the visual resources professional is not performing his or her
duties effectively.
Advancement
Institutions should provide
an accurate job description for the visual resources position and should make
all matters of reporting structures, renewal, retention, promotion, and
eligibility for tenure (where appropriate) as clear as possible and in writing.
At the time of the original appointment, a tentative date should be set for
consideration for promotion based on a performance review which allows at least
one year in the initial rank before promotion. Conferences between the
appropriate administrators and the candidate (for review, promotion, tenure,
etc.) should be held regularly.
The evaluation criteria for
visual resources professionals shall be equivalent to those of other similar
professional positions in the institution. At a minimum they should take into
consideration sound performance in the job, evidence of significant development,
and the potential for growth. Evidence of appropriate professional activities
within the institution, regionally, and nationally should also be included in
the evaluation. The accomplishments of the candidate for promotion or tenure
should undergo both an internal and an external peer review in addition to the
departmental evaluation.
Should the institution's
standards change with respect to the visual resources position, the incumbent
should either be allowed to continue under the initial employment standards or
be given an opportunity to comply with the new
standards.
Professional Development
It is essential that visual
resources professionals attend and actively participate in the activities of
relevant local, regional, and national professional organizations such as the
Visual Resources Association (VRA), the Art Libraries Society (ARLIS/NA), the
College Art Association (CAA), the Society for Architectural Historians (SAH),
the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), the Museum Computer Network (MCN),
the American Library Association (ALA), and the Special Library Association (SLA).
They should be encouraged to attend conferences and relevant workshops, to
engage in research, to travel, and to enroll in appropriate courses. Where the
possibilities of teaching, writing, and publishing exist, the visual resources
professional should be encouraged to do so. Institutional support for these
activities is essential and should be equivalent to that which is available for
other similar professionals in the same institution.
Staffing
The visual resources
collection must be adequately staffed in order to serve its users, to develop
and maintain the collection, and to modify and improve services as new
technologies develop and are adopted. The size of the staff will depend on the
size, content, and composition of the collection; on the size and makeup of its
clientele; and the services that are
provided. In contrast to the librarian, archivist, or curator, who is often a
specialist within a larger unit, visual information professionals are frequently
involved with the entire range of intellectual, administrative, and technical
responsibilities associated with their collections. The scope and complexity of
these responsibilities should be considered when determining staffing levels for
the visual resources collection. ARLIS/NA and the VRA encourage institutions to
comply with the ARLIS/NA Staffing
Standards for Art Libraries and Fine Arts Slide Collections (Art
Documentation (Winter, 1995), pp. 27-32).
Accreditation and Review
Visual resources collections
should be included in program, library or departmental reviews. Reviews should
be based upon a standard set of criteria including those published in the Guidelines
for the Visual Resources Profession, ed. Kim Kopatz (Art Libraries Society
of North America and the Visual Resources Association, 2000) (ISBN
0-942740-18-1). Such criteria may be used for either external reviews conducted
by accrediting agencies or internal reviews conducted by the program, library or
department for the purpose of self-evaluation. In either case, it is recommended
that a self-evaluation of the collection, undertaken by the professional who
manages it, precede the actual review. The visual resources professional should
be the chief contact person for all collection reviews.
Hiring a Visual Resources
Professional
Listings
for visual resources positions are often placed in the following publications: CAA
Careers, the Visual Resources Association Bulletin, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. They are also frequently posted on
two electronic discussion lists--ARLIS/L and VRA/L--as well as in the JobNet on
the ARLIS/NA website and on the current job opportunities page on the VRA
website.
Detailed information that
expands upon the position listing concerning position responsibilities
and institutional policies should be supplied to
any job candidate requesting such material. This information should include:
During the interview for a
professional visual resources position, the candidate should be invited to visit
the institution and the visual resources collection. The interviewing process
should provide the candidate with an opportunity to evaluate the collection, to
meet the staff, to talk with the faculty and other relevant professionals in the
institution with whom the visual resources professional would frequently
interact, to review the benefits package, and to meet with administrators
concerning the direction and future of the department and collection. The
interview may also include a presentation by the candidate on a mutually agreed
upon and appropriate topic.
Joint ARLIS/NA and VRA
Taskforce on Visual Resources Professional Issues:
Margaret Webster, Chair,
Cornell University (1995, 2002)
Linda Bien, Concordia University (1995, 2002)
Norine Duncan, Brown University (2002)
Rebecca Hoort, University of Michigan (1995)
Ben Kessler, Princeton University/University of Chicago (1995, 2002)
Kim Kopatz, University of Rochester (1995, 2002)
Linda McRae, University of South Florida (1995, 2002)
Martha Mahard, Harvard University (1995, 2002)
D. Jo Schaffer, SUNY-Cortland (1995)
Christine Sundt, University of Oregon (1995, 2002)
Mary Wassermann, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2002)