1. Introduction
	2. Management and Staffing
	3. Collections Development
	4. Information and Training
	5. Partnerships and Projects
	6. Systems
	7. Statistics

A very eventful period for VADS in all areas: numerous staffing changes; significant collections developments, including the on-line delivery of three new collections and large data volumes in accession; the development of a new collaborative 'Image Metadata Workshop' at the centre of an expanding training and outreach program; enhancements to systems infrastructure, including procurement of a new server; and a redesigned web-site at the heart of our on-line services.

VADS Advisory Group Executive Committee met 3 times during this period:
Kings College London, 19/11/99
FEFC Offices, London, 25/02/00
BUFVC 07/07/00, London
For current membership of the Executive committee and wider group, see: http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/aboutvads/vads_ag.html.

VADS contributed to AHDS Strategic Planning, Service Provider Fora / Steering Committee meetings, Guides to Good Practice Editorial Board and Training Workshop and Information Group (TWIG) activities.

Staffing has undergone several transitions throughout the year, due to expansion and restructuring. Firstly, as a result of AHRB and Surrey Institute funding, the posts of Data Management and Resources Officer were introduced in October 1999 and February 2000, respectively. Consequently, VADS Officer post became Collections and User Services Co-ordinator, (CUSC).
VADS part-time Admin Assistant left in December 1999 and in March 2000 the new post of PICTIVA Project Co-ordinator/User Services Officer was filled, following the successful PICTIVA Project bid to pre JISC 5/99 Learning and Teaching call.
Subsequently, VADS Project Manager position was reduced to a part-time basis in March 2000 and vacated in May 2000. The Project Manager was replaced by the CUSC, initially acting on a temporary part-time basis and then as Manager from June 2000, with the following restructuring as of July 2000.

Director: Marion Willks, Head of Academic Services, Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College
Manager: Phill Purdy
Data Management Officer: Polly Christie (0.5)
Resources Officer: Lara Whitelaw
PICTIVA Co-ordinator/User Services Officer: Debbie Kent
Information Officer (vacant)

VADS staff undertook training to increase service provision and expertise in areas such as systems development, rights management and personal, professional and management skills.

A very positive period for VADS collections development including new collections delivered on-line and new accessions in process or scheduled. These have been achieved through: the successful bid to be delivery agent for 10 visual arts collections created under JISC Image Digitisation Initiative, (JIDI); individual deposit negotiations; and collaboration in funding bids to act as delivery / archival agents. Expansion of collections is set to continue as the AHRB strategic relationship bears fruit and VADS collections policies and delivery and archiving systems mature.

VADS collections are relevant to broad subject areas of the visual arts and beyond, are temporally and geographically diverse in their subject-content and are executed in a diverse range of digital medias suitable for re-use in learning, teaching and research.

Since the re-launch of the website, VADS have received increased email enquiries through info@vads.ahds.ac.uk. Enquiries cover issues such as funding sources for digitisation projects, image sourcing for digitisation projects, image-digitisation, on-line image delivery and rights management.

Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) applicants As part of the strategic 'Computing and I.T' relationship between the AHDS and AHRB, VADS contributed to the Technical Review Panel and undertook Technical Assessment and an advisory role for AHRB Major Grant Scheme, Nov 1999, Resource Enhancement Scheme, May 2000 and Creative and Performing Arts schemes. For further details on all AHRB schemes and the AHDS/AHRB joint C&IT Policy, please see: http://www.ahrb.ac.uk

Dedicated data creation and management advice has also been offered to projects such as: Exeter Cathedral Keystones and Carvings (ECKC); National Irish Visual Arts Library, The National Centre for Art and Design, (NCAD), Ireland; Crafts Study Centre, Surrey Institute of Art and Design.

Publicising of the Service has been achieved through outreach events, (outlined below), VADS web-presence, VADS email lists and print media. The latter includes: an article in JISC News Issue 6, articles in AHDS newsletters and contribution to the AHDS advertisement in the Times Higher Education Special Digital Research in the Humanities Issue, 23/06/00. VADS have also contributed to AHDS Case Studies and the Arts and Humanities Resource Awareness Guide.

A review of VADS print publicity materials was undertaken in May 2000 and redesign and printing is scheduled for August/September 2000

Creating Digital Resources for the Visual Arts: Standards and Good Practice http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/guides/creating_guide/contents.html

This our first guide, co-authored with The Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI http://www.tasi.ac.uk), was web-published in January 2000 and is due for print publication September 2000

Using Digital Information in Teaching and Learning in the Visual Arts

Commissioned through CTI Art and Design the Guide will be available in a shorter-format on the web in September 2000

Creating and Using Virtual Reality: A Guide to the Arts and Humanities

A consultant will be co-ordinating completion of the guide in the next reporting year.

	September 1999 VADS paper as part of the AHDS/MDA 'Going Digital Day for Museums' VADS lead a breakout group at the AHRB/AHDS funding workshop at Digital Resources in the Humanities, Kings College London and presented a paper and panel session on 'creating, using and delivering new digital collections in the visual arts'
	November 1999 VADS seminar paper on digitisation, The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
	December 1999 VADS paper (pt1) to MA Exhibition Design: Real and Virtual' at UNL School of Architecture and Interior Design
	February 2000 Copyright workshop to Central School of Speech and Drama VADS paper (pt2) to MA Exhibition Design: Real and Virtual' at UNL School of Architecture and Interior Design
	April 2000 'Rights Management Workshop' to Surrey Institute of Art & Design Library
	May 2000 Presentation to Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, UCE, Research Seminar Introduction to Still and Moving Image Metadata for the Visual and Performing Arts one-day workshop: with PADS/TASI, London
	June 2000 Introduction to Still and Moving Image Metadata for the Visual and Performing Arts one-day workshop: with PADS/TASI, Glasgow
	July 2000 Paper to ARCLIB 2000 (Architecture Librarians) VADS/EDINA Collections-Use Workshop, Guildhall University

	September 1999 VADS presence, with AHDS, at AHRB colloquium, Manchester VADS presentation and demonstration, Computing for the History of Art conference, University of Glasgow Presentation to ARLIS Libraries and Archives committee
	October 1999 Attendance at 'Allure of the Digital in Art and Design' Conference, Tate Gallery
	December 1999 Meeting with Hillcroft College, Surbiton, re proposed Access course for 'Visual Arts and IT'
	January 2000 Attendance at 'JISC ASSIST Workshop: Electronic Collections - Local, regional, national', The British Library, London
	March 2000 Attendance at press launch of the Performing Arts Data Service Collections
	April 2000 Visit from Portsmouth University Library staff
	May 2000 Attendance at the Conference for Image Retrieval 2000, Brighton
	June 2000 Meeting with 'The Womens Art Library' Visit from representatives of Sabanci University Library, Istanbul

Collaboration is at the heart of VADS services and partnerships have been developed with fellow AHDS services and 'sister' services such as TASI and EDINA, which have resulted in fruitful joint ventures, such as our Guide to Good Practice and workshops outlined above. Such collaboration is primed to continue within the newly emerging framework of the JISC Distributed Image Service (JDIS). As part of AHDS, VADS met with the JDIS Co-ordinator to discuss role of AHDS/VADS within JDIS and have submitted a unilateral positioning statement and contributed to a service wide AHDS/JDIS positioning statement.

VADS also continue to enjoy close relationships with depositing institutions and take a direct role in several digitisation projects through membership of 'steering groups'. These include projects such as: Corpus Vitrearum, Courtauld Institute of Art and Design; University of Derby, Colour and Imaging Institute Stained Glass, (AHRB); Book-had (Book History, Art and Design), London College of Printing (RSLP); and Manchester Metropolitan University Design Council Slide Archive, (RSLP)

PICTIVA: 'Promoting the use of On-lineImage Collections in Learning and Teaching in Visual Arts':

This project was successfully funded under the October 99 call to Enhance JISC Activities for Learning and Teaching. It is a two-year project, in collaboration with The Institute for Image Data Retrieval UNN, (http://www.unn.ac.uk/iidr/). The project will develop: generic tools to support interaction with VADS on-line image collections; materials to integrate the use of specific collections within learning and teaching; and provide evaluation and case studies. It will result in the production of on-line tutorials on how to use VADS image collections, contextual materials for VADS collections, interface enhancements and investigation of Content Based Image Retrieval tools. The project began March 2000 with the appointment of Debbie Kent as PICTIVA Co-ordinator, followed by a successful launch meeting. The project has established a contacts database, mailbase list, standard response documents, focus group, interview and user-survey materials and a dedicated area of the VADS web-site.

For further information on PICTIVA please contact Debbie Kent directly, (debbie@vads.ahds.ac.uk), or join the PICTIVA mailbase list at http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/vads-pictiva

POSSE (Preserve Our Student Shows for Eternity)

This is VADS initiative to establish an archive of student degree show websites and other records on a national basis. An initial database has been set-up, detailing URLs and subject area coverage etc and VADS will be delivering three POSSE collections in September 2000, (see collections development above). We hope this will 'kick-start' POSSE on a wider level and enhance its prospects of dedicated funding, potentially through collaboration with other organisations with an interest in the promotion of student work.

To accommodate collection growth VADS are transferring to a new server, which will provide a robust long-term infrastructure. The new server is being installed at Bath University Computing Services, who are to host and support it. All VADS on-line services will run from the current 'Eden' server, at UNN, until the new server is fully operational, (scheduled for August 2000). The move to a new system environment will coincide with development work on the VADS catalogue from Systems Simulations Ltd.

VADS launched its re-designed site in January 2000, and has received excellent feedback, including citations in the Internet Scout Report http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sr/2000/scout-000128.html#4. The site has attracted increased number of links and hits. As well as a graphically more pleasing design and improved navigation, the site conforms to W3C Level 1 accessibility criteria and carries enhanced content and metadata.

VADS have upgraded in-house hardware and software.

Not available

AHDS Visual Arts is part of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). Copyright 2003.