Visual resources people from Big 12 architecture schools met in Boulder, CO, May 24th -26th, to plan to create a shared online database of architectural images. Visual resources curators from different schools demonstrated the digital image databases they had created for their schools: Lynn Lickteig of the University of Colorado, Susan Moshman of the University of Nebraska, Michael Millar and Susan Poague of Iowa State University, and Jeff Head of Kansas State University all demonstrated their respective databases.

The next morning began with a video conference with Georgia Harper of the University of Texas at Austin, a specialist on copy issues. Several lawyers and University of Colorado faculty members also attended the session. In the afternoon, attendees met with Charly Bauer of OhioLINK, who discussed the image database that OhioLINK had created for the use of the 70 colleges and universities in Ohio, covering the intended usage, copyright issues, the technical aspects, and security concerns, among other topics.

The next session was a meeting with Kurt Wiedenhoeft of Saskia, Ltd., the slide vendor who supplied the digital images used by OhioLINK. He discussed their concerns with security and copyright, ending with a discussion by the attendees of the day's events. A mission statement was developed, and several committees created to develop different aspects of the consortium.

Mission Statement:

The Great Plains Image Bank Consortium is an alliance of universities seeking to share their architectural and allied arts image collections and cataloging information in a digital environment for the common purpose of enhanced education and research. Our goal is to provide a higher level educational visual resource for all of our institutions than any one member of the consortium could offer alone.

Through each member institution's contribution towards the resources needed to build and maintain the Great Plains Image Consortium, we will:

• ... establish and implement the technology standards needed to manage our individual and collective visual collections
• ... agree to use the VRA Core Categories for consistency of vocabulary in our database fields
• ... agree to adhere to copyright laws concerning visual media in classroom instruction and distance learning
• ... agree to adopt uniform copyright policies for all member institutions

Committees:

1. Copyright and Fair Use: Jeff Head (Chair), Wes Phillips, Susan Poague, Elizabeth Schaub, Mike Miller.
2. Technology: Wes Phillips (Chair), Sara Moshman, Mike Miller, Mike Gerzo, Jeff Head, Carole Cardon.
3. New VRA Chapter, ByLaws, Consortium Issues: Lynn Lickteig (Chair,) Elaine Paul, Carole Cardon, Stephanie Folse, Karen DeWitt.
4. Standards and Cataloguing: Susan Poague and Kay Logan Petes (Co-Chairs), Stephanie Folse, Lynn Lickteig.
5. Grants and Funding: Kay Logan Peters (Chair), Sara Moshman, Elizabeth Schaub, and Karen DeWitt.
6. Acquisitions/Image Bank Development: (Review of Images, working with Vendors) Sara Moshman and Carole Cardon (co-chairs), Lynn Lickteig, Wes Phillips, Elaine Paul.