Join us — June 29 from 2-3:30pm Eastern / 11am-12:30pm Pacific — for the Visual Materials Section Annual Meeting!
The meeting will take place on Zoom. Please register here. The agenda for the meeting follows:
Section Business
Year in Review
Section updates:
Views
Visual Materials Bibliography
Born Digital Visual Materials Working Group
SAA Council updates
Presentations
Reparative Description
Lilliane Keaney, Harrison D. Horblit Photograph Librarian, Houghton Library, Harvard
How do we describe visually problematic items?
In an effort to diversify the holdings at Houghton Library, the Library has acquired a number of collections with visual material documenting the lives of people of color. One of these collections included photographs with racist imagery and language. It quickly became apparent that the collection would require special consideration when describing so as not to continue harm, but also provide the means of discovery for researchers.
This presentation will review the planning, processing, and describing workflow from acquisition to a published finding aid with item level metadata of a problematic image collection. It will outline the decisions made and the resources used to apply thoughtful description practices.
Lilli Keaney is the Harrison D. Horblit Photograph Librarian at Houghton Library. There her work focuses on description and digitization of photographs. Prior to Houghton she worked with photograph collections at Schlesinger Library and JFK Library. She holds a MSLIS from Simmons University and a BA in Art History from UC Davis.
Sara Pezzoni, Photograph Collections Coordinator, Special Collections department at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
Stephanie Luke, Assistant Professor-Metadata Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Repairing the Narrative at UTA Libraries
Overview of work undertaken by UTA Libraries staff regarding reparative description for visual materials within UTA Special Collections’ holdings. Discussion of policies, procedures, and workflows created for the review and revision of legacy description as well as the future description of all materials and collections.
Stephanie Luke is Assistant Professor-Metadata Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She formerly held the position of Metadata Librarian for Special Collections at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries where she served as Chair of the DEI Committee for Metadata and Digitization.
Sara Pezzoni is the Photograph Collections Coordinator in the Special Collections department at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries where she manages reference and reproduction requests for photographic material and coordinates digitization projects. She currently serves on the UTA Libraries DEI Committee for Metadata and Digitization and has participated in advancing its goals since its founding in 2020.
Lightning Talks
Joan Beadoin, Associate Professor, Wayne State University School of Information Sciences
The Detroit Mural Project: Image Management Processes
The Detroit Mural Project has resulted in the creation of a large number of digital images. This presentation provides an overview of the steps taken in the visual documentation of the walls and the management of the resulting digital images. Included in the overview will be a discussion of the photography, image selection, post digital image capture changes and digital preservation procedures.
Joan E. Beaudoin is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at Wayne State University. She teaches and conducts research on metadata, information organization, digital libraries, digital preservation, museum informatics, and the access to and use of visual information. Prior to her appointment at Wayne State University she performed archaeological fieldwork, taught art history, and had a lengthy career in academic visual resources collections. Her research has been published in scholarly journals, including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Journal of Documentation, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Knowledge Organization, and Art Documentation, and she has presented her research at regional, national, and international conferences. In addition to a Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies at Drexel University, she holds a Master of Science in Library and Information Science degree in the management of digital information from Drexel University, a Master of Arts in art history from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in art history from Massachusetts College of Art.
Paige Adair, Senior Archivist, Fine Arts Specialist, The Portman Archives
El Gran Muro, Care and Asset Relocation for Monumental Fiber Arts
In 2021 the Portman Archives team was tasked with many deaccession initiatives, one unique example of this effort was to find a new home for a large-scale set of fabric weaving, titled, ‘El Gran Muro’ by Colombian artist Olga De Amaral. The artwork was commissioned by John Portman to hang in the central atrium of Atlanta’s Westin Peachtree Plaza. This presentation will explore the journey of this artwork as part of an archival collection, along with how we strategized and worked collaboratively to ensure the historical legacy of this monumental artwork is preserved for a new audience.
Paige Adair is the Senior Archivist, Fine Arts Specialist at The Portman Archives, preserving the architectural and artistic legacy of John C. Portman, Jr. She is an active member of SAA, currently serving as the Web Liaison for the Design Records Section. Paige received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and BFA from Georgia State University with focus on Painting and Time Based Media. She began her career in archives through the work study program at the Penn Museum Archives. Paige is an alumni of the Georgia Archives Institute and holds accreditation with the Academy of Certified Archivists. Prior to her time at Portman, she held a position at the Atlanta History Center working with photographs, maps, and other visual media.