Visual Resources Collection
School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, B7500
Austin TX, 78712-0222
Phone: 512.471.0143
Web site
Physical Location:
Sutton Hall, Room 3.128
The Visual Resources Collection (VRC) is a unit within the School of Architecture (SOA). The VRC’s primary function is to provide a sustainable and searchable collection of visual images to support current classroom teaching with an emphasis on the SOA’s curriculum as well as reflecting the specializations of the VRC’s patrons. The image collection is comprised of over 240,000 35mm slides, a burgeoning collection of digital images currently numbering over 60,000, video tapes, CDROMs and DVDs. In addition to visual material, the VRC maintains and circulates 35mm slide projectors and slide carousels.
The VRC administers the SOA’s Photo Union in order to encourage documentation of student work and investigation into the photographic medium as it relates to the SOA curriculum. The Photo Union is a student organization; membership is open to any currently enrolled SOA student. Members have access to a fully equipped black and white darkroom and may borrow Photo Union 35mm camera equipment from the VRC.
The VRC curates two exhibits a year, one highlighting recent image acquisitions and the other focusing on student photographic work produced by Photo Union members. The exhibits may be viewed during the VRC’s normal business hours. Past exhibits are archived and may be viewed on the VRC’s Web site.
The VRC began as a special Resources Center for the SOA faculty and students with a small collection of slides taken care of by graduate assistants. In the mid-1960s a core group of architectural historians, including Professor Emeritus D. Blake Alexander, met with Molly Chesney, curator of the Architectural Drawings Collection—now the Alexander Architectural Archive—beginning in 1998. They decided that 7,000 glass lantern slides housed in the archive would be made available to the SOA faculty as a teaching collection. The Slide Collection grew to include 35mm slides through faculty donations and in-house copy work.
In 1973, a full time Slide Librarian position was established, held by Susan Hoover from 1973-1980, to maintain and promote the collection of 20,000 slides. By 1977, the Slide Collection had grown to include 60,000 slides and other collections of reference and technical materials were acquired. At this point, the Slide Librarian position was changed to a Social Science/Humanities Research Associate III. From 1977-1984, the resources and activities of the Center increased dramatically. The Slide Collection grew to 100,000 slides, all audio-visual equipment for the SOA was acquired and circulated through the Resources Center, staff was added to handle additional services and special projects were assigned to the Resources Center (such as responsibility for exhibitions and special research) all while the number of users increased. In addition, photographic services were planned, scheduled, executed and supervised through the Center.
The Resources Center eventually came to be known as the Audio Visual Resources Collection and was managed by Pamela Leighton-Burwell from 1980-1994 and by James O’Donnell from 1994-1998. Elizabeth Schaub was hired in 1997 and currently directs the facility’s activities; the position was reclassified to a Professional Librarian position in 2000. In fall 2004, the facility was renamed the Visual Resources Collection (VRC). The name change reflects a shift in focus emphasizing the image collection since most of the equipment inventory formally maintained and circulated by the VRC was transferred to the SOA’s Computer Lab.
The VRC has one FTE professional librarian (director) with plans to hire another FTE staff member who will be the metadata librarian. Both undergraduate and graduate employees comprise an additional 2.9 FTE positions.
The VRC has recently adopted VireoCat as its local cataloging utility enabling VRA Core 4.0 compliant XML file import into the campus’s Digital Archive Services, also known as DASe. DASe, developed by the Liberal Arts ITS, enables the entire campus community to browse across contributed collections. VRC legacy hybrid records, that are an aggregate of work and image metadata, will reside in DASe as flat records. New records created in VireoCat will be flattened for display in DASe but the associated XML file created in VireoCat will allow for the expression of hierarchical relationships between and among data via a DASe module.
The collection grows through donations from faculty and students, copy work, and licensing images from vendors.
The campus licenses ARTstor.
Submitted by:
Elizabeth Schaub, Director
Visual Resources Collection