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Call for Proposals, VRA Toronto 2009

The Visual Resources Association's 27th Annual Conference will be held in Toronto, Canada, Wednesday March 18th through noon Sunday March 22nd, 2009 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto http://starwood.webcanada.com/sct/.

Don't wait to apply for or renew your passport http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html.

We are now soliciting proposals for the 2009 program sessions, workshops, papers and special interest groups. As a reminder;

A Session is a 90 minute moderated session with 3 or 4 speakers at 20 minutes each followed by a facilitated brief question and answer period.

A Special Interest Group is a 60 to 90-minute informal facilitated group discussion on topics related to a specific community within VRA.

A Workshop is a 3 to 4 hour workshop to develop skills and experience in the field of Visual Resources.

General areas of interest include, but are not limited to: digital photography; digital imaging and presentation technologies (including still, moving and audio); strategic planning; the electronic classroom;  cataloging and metadata (including non-western, non-art, and special topics cataloging); trend forecasting for the visual resources profession and the expanding role of visual resources curatorship; navigating the workplace and professional status; utilizing technology in pedagogy; working with faculty and students in the digital age; copyright and fair use, including international, academic, library and museum-related copyright issues; visual resources in museums and academic institutions; and introductory and mid-career topics to benefit the range of our professionals. We are always looking for ways to round out our programming and make it fresh and unique for our attendees, so we also encourage submissions in VR-related areas not listed above.

In our post-conference survey we found that our members are particularly interested in the following topics.

* Integrating art and non-art visual collections in an academic and/or museum setting.

* Integrating still images with other information formats (such as audio and video files); especially as VR collections are brought under the administration of libraries.

* Health and Safety Issues for the VR Professional:  Practical Ergonomics.

* Intellectual property Rights and Documentation in legacy visual collections.

Look for the proposal link to appear on the VRA site very soon.

Please note that the quality of our conferences depends upon your ideas and contributions. The Board is looking for complete, concise and articulate submissions with a full list of presenters and a budget request, if needed. Be very specific about your audio-visual needs, including whether your proposed session will require internet connectivity.

If there is an area of concern or interest that you feel has not been addressed in previous programs, please consider submitting a proposal. If you have questions about the process, I hope that you will feel comfortable contacting me so that I can give you more information to complete your proposal, or provide clarification regarding the various presentation formats included within our program.

The proposal deadline is July 2, 2008. I look forward to receiving your submissions.