Katherine Haskins, the Director of the Arts Library and the Head of the Visual Resources Collection (ALVR), gave a presentation on changes in metadata and cataloging for the Visual Resources Collection. She provided background information on their decision to migrate to Luna's Insight product and to adopt the Yale Element Set. Then she described their evolving cataloging practice, including a description of their cataloging manual and a demonstration of their customized Insight interface.

ALVR provides images to faculty for classroom instruction. The images are provided as slides and, increasingly, as digital reproductions. After a May 2005 meeting with faculty in the History of Art department to discuss speeding up their workflow, ALVR decided to migrate their software from FileMakerPro to Insight and to migrate their metadata from a VRA Core based schema to YES. Since faculty are increasingly using digital reproductions in classroom instruction, retaining the FMP database to produce slide labels is no longer a priority. The fact that Tracy Bergstrom, the Visual Resources Support Specialist, was involved in YES development favored early adoption of YES.

The VRA Core based metadata schema ALVR had been using was too complex to apply consistently, led to irregular workflows, and was inappropriate for the purpose of the collection. By adopting YES and by creating a cataloging manual based upon the YES guidelines and, for content standards, on Cataloging Cultural Objects, ALVR was able to improve its workflow significantly. The 44 elements of the VRA Core based schema were mapped to the 18 elements in YES. Joan Swanekamp asked about how the mapping was performed. Haskins replied that some distinctions had to be collapsed, e.g., using a single element for subject terms. Subject assignment has been further simplified through the use of term lists derived from the FMP database.

Haskins demonstrated the cataloger's interface and the end user's interface. Insight permits global changes. There are currently separate workflows for metadata creation and digitization, and matching metadata records to digitized images can be difficult. Edward Kairiss asked about the content of the object type field.

Productivity has increased 400% as a result of simplified metadata, the cataloging manual, and the change in software. Insight has a very user-friendly interface that permits on-the-fly changes. Haskins meets regularly with her staff on workflow related issues. The cataloging manual is updated to reflect any changes. Haskins commented that the YES guidelines may be difficult for noncatalogers to interpret. Staff members have participated in creating specialized guidelines for the materials they catalog.

Haskins ended her presentation with a demonstration of the personalization features provided by Insight.

Karen Reardon will give a presentation on the University Art Gallery's migration from TMS to Insight.

Rebekah Irwin will provide an update on metadata standards for audiovisual material.