Please excuse any cross-posting on various lists... A reposting of the call for papers, the deadline of May 1st has been extended to May 24th, Friday, but please try to get your ideas to me as soon as you can. Pat Keats, VRA VP and Conference Chair Call for Papers Fifteenth Annual VRA Conference February 11-15, 1997, New York The fifteenth annual Visual Resources Association conference will take place Tuesday, February 11 through Saturday, February 15 in New York City. Once again, the VRA conference will be concurrent with the College Art Assoication's annual meeting. This coming year we hope to have reciprocal sessions at each conference, and the hotels are near enough to one another to allow for easy access from one conference to the other. The local New York City VRA members have already formed a local arrangements committee, headed by Margaret Richardson of the Pratt Institute, the local chapter president. Some activities are already being planned as is the Luraine Tansey dinner and some visits to local slide and photograph collections. Proposals and moderators for VRA sessions are what is need now from you, the membership. Topics have been suggested from the evaluations received so far from conference attendees, but we are open to any suggestions you feel are needed. Examples of some possible topics are as follows: shared image databases, digital imaging, intellectual property rights, copyright, new ways to use digitized images- research, teaching, etc., automation of collections, the WEB, budget problems and how to cope, use of interns, impact of digital imaging on the profession, setting up a database, subject cataloging, image collections in disciplines other than art - i.e. architecture, how we can improve our image instead of focusing on how bad it is, security issues, MESL, and selecting vendors. Roundtable discussion leaders are also needed, suggested topics include: organizing and teaching in the digital environment, meetings of special collections ( i.e. architecture) curators, regional chapter meetings, and VRMS meetings. Workshop leaders are also needed, and the suggestions so far have included: use of AAT and ULAN, intro to lexicons such as AAT, Iconclass and ULAN, Embark workshop, setting up a home page and HTML, scanning, how to automate a slide library, cataloging, and basics of digital imaging. Formal session and rountable proposals should be made in the form of short w ritten statements of no more than one page by those interested in acting as session moderators or roundtable moderators. Workshop proposals should also be made in the form of a short written statement, and should include any necessary requirements. All proposals should include any A-V and/or computer equipment needed, and an estimated cost of what this may run. Please send proposals to: Patricia Keats, Vice-President, VRA, 2415 Lake Street, San Francisco, CA 94121. EMAIL: [log in to unmask]; FAX: (415)357-1848, PHONE: (4115) 357-1848, ext. 19. Proposals must be received in San Francisco no later than May 1st to ensure proper consideration. More specific information about the conference and a call for papers will be included in upcoming issues of the Bulletin. If you attended this year's conference in San Antonio, and have not yet returned your conference questionnaire, please do so. Your comments and suggestions are welcome and will most definitely be considered in planning the 1997 conference in Boston. Many of the suggestions above are directly from the questionnaires. Patricia Keats VRA, Vice-President Director of the Library California Historical Society