The Art Libraries Society (ARLIS) Visual Resources Committee and Cataloguing and Classification Committee jointly present a study day aimed at both library cataloguers of print and electronic publications, who need or wish to find out about how to adapt their skills to visual resources, and at ‘ACADIans’, visual resources curators and anyone responsible for the management and discovery of digital images, whether in HE, art colleges, museums, galleries or art collections.

It will explore approaches to the business of cataloguing images, looking at different metadata schemas, data standards and controlled vocabularies and how these have been applied to real life resources including digital image collections, the moving image, art websites, material in digital repositories, and even primary art objects. Speakers include representatives from the museums world, Higher Education, JISC Digital Media, and VADS.

Venue: The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 16 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JA
Date: Wednesday 9 September 2009
Booking and programme: http://www.arlis.org.uk
or contact Clare Hemmings at: C.Hemmings@soton.ac.uk

Images from VADS have been used in a series of events marking the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Procession along Princes Street in Edinburgh.  The culmination of this celebration will be a re-enactment of the march through the streets of the city on 10th October 2009.

Photographic Postcard Of Women With Edinburgh Banner from Mary Lowndes Album, 1908 © Public domain. Right of reproduction held by London Metropolitan University

The Gude Cause Project has used images of suffrage banners on VADS in an exhibition at the launch of the project, which was held at the Scottish Parliament in October 2008.  The images have also been used at various events in different parts of Edinburgh and Glasgow where members of the Gude Cause committee have spoken to local community groups about the project.

North Berwick Banner Design, 1907-1922 © Public domain. Right of reproduction held by London Metropolitan University

The suffrage banner collection available on VADS is from the Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University. The Library houses an important collection of early twentieth century suffrage banners, many designed and created by the artist based suffrage organisations the Artist’s Suffrage League and the Suffrage Atelier. The Library’s entire collection of suffrage banners, along with associated artwork, has been digitised and is available for research on VADS’ searchable database.

The Gude Cause project is being organised by the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre. For more information, see: http://www.gudecause.org.uk

Members of the VADS team attended the Art Libraries Society Conference in Cambridge last week and presented a workshop on the ‘Enhancing VADS’ project at the project showcase event on 16 July.  The conference was held at Clare College in Cambridge and took as its theme ‘Tradition & Transformation: roles in a changing world’.

A set of posters and postcards are now available which showcase the thousands of digital images that are available online and free for educational use.

The new publicity material showcases the richness and breadth of the VADS image collections – from a brightly coloured quilt created by the Cuna tribe of the San Blas Islands in Panama, to the famous ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ poster of the Second World War, which was intended for display only in times of crisis or invasion.

The publicity material is available freely to universities, colleges, schools and libraries across the UK. Contact us on info@vads.ac.uk or 01252 892723 to request copies.

You can also download the poster directly from the VADS website, at: vads.ac.uk/publicity

VADS Director Leigh Garrett led a workshop about the Visual Arts Data Service at this week’s Creative Practice Learning and Teaching day, organised by the Higher Education Academy’s Art, Design and Media Subject Centre. The workshop posed the question “why do we do it?” and looked at the case for digitisation in the arts and how we effectively engage and promote the use of digital images within learning, teaching and research.

The conference held at Southampton Solent University on 9 July, covered a broad spectrum of issues and concerns across the art, design and media sector with innovation and creativity as the overarching theme.

Illustrations from the Woolmark Company Archive on VADS will be featured in a forthcoming book Sharp Suits by fashion journalist Eric Musgrave, which examines the fascinating history of the evolution of the modern suit from the days of 19th century bespoke to the mass industrialisation of the early part of the 20th century.

Two suits by Hector Powe, 1964 © London College of Fashion/The Woolmark Company

The International Wool Secretariat, now The Woolmark Company, was established in 1937 to undertake research and the global promotion of wool. To that end, they built up a large library of promotional photographs and accompanying press releases which they generously donated to the London College of Fashion. The two thousand or so black and white photographs date from the 1940′s through to the early 1980′s and capture both the fashion of the time and the style of photography.

Cricketeer creates for the man about town a single breasted suit of blue merino wool, 1970 © London College of Fashion/The Woolmark Company

Man-on -the-move wears crisp credentials, suit by Hart Schaffner & Marx, 1964 © London College of Fashion/The Woolmark Company

Images from the Woolmark Company Archive and the London College of Fashion College Archive will be used this year in a number of publications, including Developing a Collection written by Elinor and Colin Renfrew, and a publication by James Sherwood on bespoke tailoring, to be published by Thames and Hudson.

The process of digitisation is fraught with difficulties and obstacles, including: funding, licensing, commercial considerations, quality, decisions regarding what to digitise and about metadata, presentation of digital assets, preservation, and usability.

Librarians, Academic Staff Developers, Researchers, Academic staff, Collection Holders, Academic Managers, and Learning Technologists are invited to consider the case for digitisation in the arts.

Venue: London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes Street, London W1G 0BJ
Date: Tuesday 22 September 2009
Booking and programme: http://vads.ac.uk/digitalimagery/

Funded by: JISC ITT: Workshops & Seminars: Achievements & Challenges in Digitisation & e-Content

Tom Eckersley is one of the foremost British poster designers and graphic communicators of the twentieth century.  From the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ campaign to advertisements for Gillette and Guinness, VADS is pleased to announce that a further 100 images from the designer’s archives have now been made publically available online.

Keep Britain Tidy Campaign poster by Tom Eckersley, 1963 © Ministry of Housing and Local Government

Eckersley used bold simple designs, coupled with memorable slogans, for iconic brands such as Guinness; General Post Office; British Railways; London Transport; and Gillette.  Eckersley was also a teacher of poster arts and established the first graphic design course in Britain at the London School/College of Printing (now College of Communication, part of University of the Arts London).

Gillette advert for razor blades by Tom Eckersley © Gillette

‘Lovely day for a GUINNESS’ by Tom Eckersley © Diagio

This latest addition also includes a number of Eckersley’s artworks as well as other printed items.  His artworks allow us to see how he created his images and developed his style from realistic portraits to paper collages. His 1930s and 1940s work is reflected in these early drawings, with light colouring that appears sprayed on as opposed to his later artworks that are so reminiscent of his designs from the 1950s onwards which use block colours.

Pen drawing of Mary [Eckersley's wife] by Tom Eckersley © Eckersley Estate

The non-poster printed items show his versatility as a designer, being as he is primarily known for his poster art. Featured are such diverse items as newspaper illustrations in the expressionist style to light-hearted party invites featuring multi-coloured animals and motifs. These items include works created in partnership with Eric Lombers, Eckersley’s design partner before World War Two.

The collection was formed by Eckersley and is held at the University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre.

Tiger card by Tom Eckersley, 1982-3 © University of the Arts London

The archive has been digitised by the University of the Arts London and made available online through the ‘Enhancing VADS’ project, funded as part of the Enriching Digital Resources programme from JISC.

For more information and to search and browse the collection, please see the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) website at: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/TEC