Overview

The Visual Resources Center (VRC) in the Department of Art & Design at Texas State University in San Marcos consists of both visual materials collections and the Student-Learning Lab. Both are intended for use in teaching and learning by department faculty and students. The collections were initially established for undergraduate instruction in art history using 35mm slides. Presently, the VRC houses a small donated book collection, film and audio-CD collection, 35mm slides, a digital image archive, and several pieces of loanable projection equipment.
Collection content almost exclusively reflects fine art, cinema, or contemporary commercial art. Emphasis upon particular art styles, art periods, art media, or individual creators reflects the teaching interests of department faculty.

Staff

VRC staffing was increased to one-full time equivalent (FTE) beginning in January 2007. This position is responsible for all duties pertaining to collections development, storage, cataloguing, materials purchase requests, and daily operations of the VRC. In addition, this staff person serves as point contact to campus-wide Instructional Technology Services (ITS), regarding operation of equipment in art history “smart" classrooms, and is responsible for supporting department faculty in the preparation of university-wide Alkek Library development request forms. Since the licensing of ARTstor by the Alkek Library during the summer of 2006, this position also serves to assist with training for use of ARTstor or Offline Image Viewer (OIV) by department faculty and students.
Part-time undergraduate student workers contribute 70-80 hours per week during the long semesters, and 20-40 hours/ week during the summer terms. The reception area and the computer/learning lab activities are overseen by student workers during operating hours.

Acquisitions & Data Environment

The content and rate of VRC acquisitions vary annually, in response to faculty needs and voluntary donations. During 2006-2007, most of the collections development occurred in visual and sound recordings (DVD, VHS, and audio CD), particularly recordings that support teaching of the “History of Cinema” and the “Visual Music” courses. The departmental digital image archive, begun in 2002, has been catalogued in Filemaker Pro 5.5 using VRA Core 2, at a rate of approximately 1,600 images per year. In summer 2008, we will convert to Filemaker Pro 9 and the Vireocat collection management system, which employs VRA Core 4. This catalog will later upload to MDID2 for Web access via university email ID & password; MDID2 software will be hosted on a central Instructional Technology Services (ITS) server. Visual Resources Center collection development is funded by the Art History Area, using student fees.
Art History Area Coordinator Dr. James Housefield requested that development of the slide collection be terminated in 2003; however, a few Studio Art faculty still request slide production for their classroom presentations. When needed, slide labels are produced using a 4-D database file.
The VRC copystand was converted to digital photography in 2007. To supplement digital image purchases, digital images are either photographed or scanned with either the Epson Expression 1640 XL (flatbed) or the Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 (slide) scanners. Images are manipulated in Adobe Photoshop. Digital images are stored as tiff files on gold CDs inside a fire-safe media cabinet, presently with a backup on a LaCie external drive. ITS has offered to house the departmental tiff collection on their server in the future, providing needed off-site storage. All digital image work is done within the Macintosh platform, and the Learning Lab includes only Macintosh equipment, consistent with departmental technologies.

Digital Instruction

Many classrooms within the Art & Design Department are equipped with digital teaching equipment. Both Art History classrooms are “smart” classrooms, equipped and maintained by ITS. At present, only two faculty members, both art historians, are using ARTstor and OIV for instruction. One faculty member is teaching with iView Media Pro, and all others are presenting images via digital projection use Microsoft PowerPoint. Only one adjunct art historian is teaching with 35mm slides.

Contact Details

Visual Resources Center
Department of Art & Design
601 University Drive
Texas State University
San Marcos, Texas
tel: 512-245-8470
fax: 512-245-7969

Coordinator
Julia Z. Deal, M.A.
512-245-1787
jd35@txstate.edu
VRC Web site:
http://www.finearts.txstate.edu/Art/resources/vrc.html
VRC slide show:
http://www.finearts.txstate.edu/Art/resources/vrc/slideshow.html