Sheryl Frisch, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo presentation at VRA 26 San Diego.

1. Session 7: Throwing the Cat among the Pigeons: Keeping
Visual Resources Viable through the Digital Transition
“Moving the Cats” – A Response
By Sheryl Frisch
California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo
In continuing our theme of, “cats and pigeons,” I heard a report on National
Public Radio the other day1. Feral cats were hunting endangered birds at a seaside resort
in Cape May, New Jersey. You may have heard about it. There were protests on the sides
of both cat and bird lovers. 2 The cat lovers chanted, “Feral cats won’t go away, revise the
plan and let them stay.”3 To save the birds and the cats, the City council decided to
simply “move the cats” to protect the birds.4 “Move the cats”… became my mantra for
this session. “Move the cats”… was a means to reframe the roles of the various groups
whose goal it is to provide visual resources for education. It became a way to consider
the viability of visual resources through the digital transition.
This response re-examines these roles and focuses on keeping visual resources
viable. It proposes that using images in education has a hidden value that needs to be
measured. It also shows what is needed for visual resources to be practicable to the
institution in general, and the professional, in particular. Most importantly it suggests
that, just as we have adapted our skills to the digital environment, we also need to adapt
our thinking.
Not yet through the digital transition, we are adapting to new roles. As noted in
the “Damned if You Do, and Damned if You Don’t” session (VRA Conference,
Baltimore 2006), we are increasingly involved in administrative tasks such as strategic
1

2. planning, developing policy, budgeting, staffing, facilities management, etc.5 Here, our
panelists show how we continue to adapt new skill sets and find our way to specialized
areas of visual resources management. Dustin Wees oversees the development of data
that is ultimately searched on and displayed in the ARTstor database. Robb Detlefs’
experience with database design and end user interfaces shapes the EmbARK product
line for Gallery Systems. Sheila Pressley’s talk on Collection Icons shows us how we can
take our skill set to another level. Through technology we can create new tools to help
students learn about art objects in greater depth and go beyond the boundaries of
PowerPoint or Web site presentations.
Nonetheless, the title of our session suggests a level of anxiety that may exist
among the various groups. As a self-identified “pigeon” working solo in a visual
resources collection at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), I am
grateful that our university subscribes to ARTstor. I admit to having some trepidation
about ARTstor early on in the digitization process. I was convinced that if it came to
campus, it would just be a matter of time before my position would be eliminated.
Nevertheless, I lobbied for ARTstor asking my department and college to contribute
towards its funding. They did. It came and well, we’re both still here. ARTstor has
proven to be yet another resource, in the kaleidoscope of many others (the slide
collection, the Web, image vendors, museums, books, periodicals, etc., ) for faculty to
find images. Its availability to the entire campus frees up time and allows me to provide
greater assistance to our faculty.
Gallery Systems is another partner in the effort to provide images for teaching and
research. Our Visual Resources Collection uses Embark and the Web Kiosk, to manage
2

3. and access its image collections. Gallery Systems assists with data management, and
provides technical support that is otherwise not available. Working alone in the Slide
Collection is no longer viable. We must collaborate to coordinate and leverage the use of
highly specialized tools. Getting back to my mantra –“Move the Cats”– what in the
beginning may have been thought of as an “EITHER/OR” situation has turned out to be
“AND”. Resources developed for the field do not replace us. On the contrary, we
orchestrate their use. It’s similar to outsourcing and it is our job to bring these resources
together. We are all partners in the enormous task of providing images for education.
This landscape of collaboration can raise questions about the viability of both visual
resources in general and visual resources professionals in particular, to the university
campus. Malka Helfman’s presentation gave us a snap shot of the current practices in the
California State University (CSU) system.6 The results of the recent survey of visual
resources professionals in the CSU demonstrate the disparity of resources between the 12
campuses that have positions. One example is that annual budgets range from $1000 to
over $9000. This year one campus eliminated its visual resources professional through
lay off, while a recent recruitment used a classification with a higher salary range to
attract qualified candidates.7 Why are some positions more vulnerable than others? Why
are some professionals able to develop their positions, by obtaining the necessary
equipment, budgets, professional development, student assistants, etc.? Why are some
positions more viable than others? Defining “viable” as “able to be done or worth doing”
and “financially sustainable” is useful in considering the status of visual resources8.
When considering viability, we need to ask two questions:
3

4. 1) Are visual resources viable to institutions of higher education?
2) If so, then how does the institution make visual resources positions viable to the
professional?
Regarding the first question, we know that visual resources are expensive, but have
we ever considered the added value of this investment? Specifically how do visual
resources advance the university’s mission of education? Our slide library practices
taught us to quantify our success. We counted the number of slides produced, cataloged
and filed, per week, per month, per year. We counted how many users came through the
door. We recorded how many slides each one checked out, broke, or lost. We quantified
all of our services around a single object, the slide. Our collections grew and we
produced finding aids so that our patrons could be self-sufficient in our slide libraries.
We knew we did a good job when our faculty came in, pulled their slides, and left. All we
heard was a “Thank you,” or “hello” and “goodbye”.
Now, our trained, self-sufficient faculty works with digital images. It has been
documented that they find what we do to be valuable, or worth the time9. We know that
support for visual resources, including staffing and facilities, are appealing to potential
job candidates who must obtain tenure once hired. We also know that visual resources are
evaluated during the accreditation process signifying their importance to accrediting
agencies. Yet we are concerned that no one is coming through the door. Measuring our
success by using old methods is no longer applicable, and definitely not viable. We need
to adapt new ways to determine our value. At this very moment, we have no way of
knowing how many users are benefiting from our services. They could be reviewing
4

5. lecture material on course Web sites, searching for images in an online database, or
importing files into a PowerPoint presentation to name a few.
We also don’t know the extent that users are inspired either to conduct new research
or create new works of art, by the images we make accessible. For example, how does
viewing art produced by other cultures add value to our students’ education? At Cal Poly
for example, we don’t have a major in Art History, but it is an essential part of the Art
and Design curriculum. Shortly after an art historian specializing in Asian Art was
brought to the program, the elements that characterize the art of Japan and China began to
appear in student work. The students readily applied these new concepts to their design
and fine art work.
Additionally, we teach our new skill sets to others. For those of you who work with
graduate students, you are preparing future scholars, giving them the skills they will need
to be successful in their profession. In the CSU, MLIS interns working in visual resources
collections are introduced to the profession and given field experience required for their
degree. When our student assistants leave, they are more technically skilled than when
they were working with slides. This translates to higher incomes for them when they
enter the job market. One of my student assistants is a computer science major – our first.
In his first year of employment he created scripts to help us process images with Adobe
Bridge and Photoshop CS2 and CS3. This experience helped him obtain a summer
internship with Adobe’s Bridge team. This summer he will be serving his second
internship with Adobe’s Photoshop team.
How can we measure the true value of visual resources? The services we provide are
directly tied to the education of our students. Can the value added by visual resources be
5

6. measured in terms of the success of a program, the intellectual contributions of the
faculty to their field, or the creative activities and professional pursuits of students and
alumni? How about the ability of visual resources collections to attract potential faculty?
Alternatively, is the success of a program jeopardized when visual resources are not
supported, or available?
We must discover and communicate the hidden value of images to education and
articulate it to our administrators. It is the same as measuring and conveying the value of
education. Institutions of higher education have been struggling with this for some time
through the process of assessment. Funding for education continues to decrease. In the
1960s when the state of California’s, two university systems were established, there was
no need to explain to the public why education was worth investing in. It was understood.
This is not the case today, and as budgets get tight once again (at this writing the CSU is
facing a $386 million decrease in funding for next year), universities must advocate for
funding education, explaining why it is important – important to the economy of our
state, important to our future and so on. In turn, we must also show how visual resources
are an investment, and not an expense. How they are an integral to the learning process,
and how our image collections are assets to our institutions. We must think in these
terms. Through VRA, our profession has successfully advocated for copyright, data
standards, and professional status. We must also advocate for education, to which our
viability is linked.
In the CSU we find that visual resources are most viable on campuses where:
I They are strongly supported by faculty and administrators. There is a shared
vision and understanding of the role that images play in education.
6

7. Services are user centered. They primarily focus on the teaching and research
needs of the faculty, and then on the needs of the collection. Disparate
resources are aggregated for the goal of education.
r There is support in the form of budgets, equipment, and technical assistance.
It can be obtained creatively outside the traditional channels by charging
student fees in courses requiring a high number of images, or exchanging
tasks with other employees.
t The visual resources professional collaborates positively with other entities on
and off campus, and cultivates good relationships with administrators.
Once the first question is answered, the second one comes into play. How does the
institution make visual resources positions viable to the professional? The acquisition of
new skills creates new opportunities for us. They make us more valuable and marketable.
They allow us to move into related occupations, or specialized areas, as demonstrated by
our panelists.
Once the institution understands the valuable role images play in education, it is
incumbent upon them to support the visual resources professional. To effectively perform
their duties visual resources professionals must have the appropriate status – preferably
the same as librarians - meaningful budget lines, equipment, technical assistance, and
professional development opportunities. Otherwise, institutions may find it difficult to
recruit and retain employees. In the CSU system visual resources professionals have left
for higher paying positions, one had over 10 years of experience. Without someone to
champion visual resources, institutions may not have access to some image collections.
For example, collections in the CSU system have a local copy of the full sized images
7

8. found in the WorldImages database10. Not all of the over 65,000 images in the database
can be accessed via the Web, and those that can be, are not full size. Further, potential
faculty can also be lost to the institution. Support for visual resources is weighed against
high teaching loads and research demands during the interview process. The lack of
resources can turn faculty away as they consider how much time they have to develop
collections while pursuing tenure.
To keep visual resources viable through the digital transition we must adapt our
thinking, or “Move the Cats”, just as we have adapted our skills. We need to view
collaborators such as ARTstor, as partners rather than replacements. We need to think of
visual resources as an investment instead of an expense. Finally, we need to know that
our positions are viable and their viability lies in:
o Collaborating with partners and orchestrating the various tools and resources at
hand.
h Discovering the hidden value of images in education AND articulating it to
administrators and the public.
a Advocating visual resources when and wherever we can.
A Developing our current positions so that they are competitive with the market.
We are all partners in the endeavor of making images accessible for education. Both cats
AND pigeons are necessary to accomplish our common goals.
8

9. 1 National Public Radio, “A Win for the Birds in New Jersey,” Diversion, 27 sec., March 5, 2008.
National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87912682 (accessed June
12, 2008.)
2 Wayne Parry, “Stray cats can’t strut on Jersey beach,” The Boston Globe, March 4, 2008,
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/04/stray_cats_cant_strut_on_jersey_beac
h/ (accessed March 5, 2008).
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Jackie Spafford, Moderator Seminar 6, “Damned If You Do, Damned if you Don’t: The Changing
Roles of the Visual Resources Curator”, VRA Bulletin, 33, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 41.
6 Malka Helfman is the Visual Resource Specialist at CSU East Bay, formerly CSU Hayward. Malka
volunteered at the last moment to give her presentation. She stood in for Lilla Sweat of San Diego State
University who could not participate due to illness. We are very grateful for Malka’s participation.
7 San Jose State University, Career Opportunity, Working Title: Visual Resource Curator, Position
Classification: Information Technology Consultant – Career, August 2, 2007, http://www.sjsu.edu/hr.
The salary range for this position was advertised to be $4,170-$8,536 per month. The ranges for the
Visual Resources Specialist I and II, at 12 months, are $3,014 to $4,524 and $3,443 to $5,165
respectively. California State University, CSU salary schedule, California State University,
http://www.calstate.edu/HRAdm/SalarySchedule/salary.aspx. Four campuses, Calstate Los Angeles,
CSU Northridge, CSU Sacramento and most recently CSU Humboldt have lost visual resources
professionals either through attrition or lay off.
8 Encarta English Dictionary, s.v. “Viable,” http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/viable.html [accessed
March 9, 2008], and Merriam-Websters’Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., s.v. “Viable.”
9 Roger C. Shonfeld, “The Visual Resources Environment at Liberal Arts Colleges”, Transformations,
April 3, 2006, http://nitle.org/transformations.html (accessed March 5, 2008), p. 12.
10 WorldImages, http://worldimages.sjsu.edu WorldImages is supported by the CSU IMAGE project.