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Dear Colleagues, The discussion about the synergy between ARLIS/NA and VRA is very exciting. I was President of ARLIS/NA in 1978 so I have an appreciation of the history behind the formation of the Visual Resources Association, and a deep respect for the contributions of its members. From my perspective in my current position, I would enthusiastically support an effort to explore opportunities to build on the strengths of the two organizations. When I came to work in the Fine Arts Library there were very separate departments for Book Collections and Visual Collections. Yet our users mingled texts and images in their research and teaching, so, I asked, how can we make it easier for them to access and use our wonderful collections without having to deal with so many challenges of our traditional functional organization (collection development of printed material, collection development of images, book cataloging, image cataloging, book public services, image public services, etc). Last year we reorganized. Now we are format blind in collection development and public services, and using authority control as the intersection of the cataloging systems for images, printed material, and manuscripts/archival collections. Many good ideas about what could be gained by more intersection between VRA and ARLIS/NA have been floated in ARLIS-L, and I just want to lend my support to the continuation of the brainstorming. I respect the fact that a merger of the two organizations may be daunting to some or many of the members. Some have raised the question, would non-art VR professionals lose a home if VRA and ARLIS/NA merged? At Harvard, we have wrestled with how to incorporate records for non-art visual collections (images of botanical specimens, stars, minerals, etc) into VIA, Harvard's database designed for images of art and architecture, so I appreciate the question. Perhaps it would be easier to consider a merger if we discussed commonalities between the two organization, which I believe are images and the texts about images. Wolfgang Freitag once told me that when he was a student at Simmons getting his library science degree, he went on a field trip to the Fogg Art Library and was given a tour by E. Louise Lucas, perhaps the mother of our profession. Miss Lucas, as she was known, told the Simmons students that the Fogg Art Library was a library of images with a smaller supporting collection of books. I continue to play with that idea as I think about this library and its users and their expectations, habits, and current practices. IMHO, I would like to suggest that if our two organizations do merge, we consider a new name for the organization that would encompass both missions, and would like to offer the name "Visual Culture Association of North America" as a possibility. I have been reading /The Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture Reader/, edited by Vanessa R. Schwartz & Jeannene M. Przyblyski (Routledge, 2004), which "foregrounds objects consumed for their image-value and the institutions that facilitated such looking...and...aspires to advance not just knowledge of the varieties of visual experiences...but the very consciousness of vision and visuality." Thanks for listening. Kathy Martinez -- Katharine Martinez, Ph.D. Herman and Joan Suit Librarian Fine Arts Library Harvard University 32 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone: (617) 496-1504 FAX: (617) 496-4889 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Website: http://hcl.harvard.edu/finearts/ __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]