Whether you are preparing to teach or writing your thesis, the VRC offers a variety of services that support pedagogy, research and publication including image research, image capture, copyright analysis and image licensing, and digital art history tools.

Image Management and Access

Institutional Collections
The VRC maintains a number of digital image collections, multiple databases of institutional image collections, and the searchable online collection, ImageCloud. Images in the VRC’s Core Teaching Collection, a growing portion of the Legacy Collection, and the complete ImageCloud Online Collection include descriptive data embedded in both archival master and access files ensuring current and future usability.

Private Faculty Collections
The VRC maintains a private online gallery for each faculty member of the department of the History of Art.  These online galleries offer the faculty a secure online repository for images, documents, and video related to their research, publications and teaching.

Online Course Galleries
The VRC prepares and maintains online galleries of specific course offerings within the Department of the History of Art. These online galleries provide students of art history on-demand, responsive access to study images.  Galleries may be organized around individual lecture materials, required materials, an entire course offering, or all of the aforementioned. Course galleries may be browsed or searched, and because all images are embedded with metadata, students benefit from the display of descriptive information.

If you are currently enrolled in an Art History course and require access to an online gallery, please contact your professor.

If you were formerly enrolled in an Art History course and would like access to its online gallery, limited access may be provided. Contact visualresources@ucr.edu

Image Capture and Image Production

Digitization Services
The VRC provides on-demand digitization services that support teaching, research and publication. We provide exceptional quality digital capture that meets or exceeds FADGI standards while maintaining a keen eye on color-correctness. Our digitization services are no hassle – having eliminated all previously required paperwork – just bring us what you need. Turnaround times are lightning fast often providing same day deliverables.

Image Production
The VRC can help produce original illustrations to accompany presentation materials or be included in your publications. From simple retouching to more complex manipulation, VRC staff are available to assist in creating unique illustrations and visualizations that support faculty scholarship.

Image Research

Classroom Materials
Whether you are prepping a new class or teaching a standing offering, the VRC can provide a comprehensive audit of the visual materials you plan to cover in your course. Through careful and thorough selection, the VRC can update and replace older teaching visuals with exceptional quality, up-to-date imagery often culled directly from the collections of cultural heritage institutions. Past audits have resulted in upwards of 300 new, high-resolution, color-correct images being replaced for a single course offering.

Research and Publication Materials
The VRC can help advance your scholarship by conducting in-depth research of broad subject matter or search for highly detailed specific views. Regardless of whether the required research is literature or internet based, the VRC can provide you with multiple options for illustrating a particular object or concept.

Support for Publication: Copyright Analysis and Image Licensing

Copyright Analysis
The VRC can help you establish the status of the intellectual property rights associated with images you intend to publish. Using a framework analysis that considers the original work, surrogate image, country of publication, and United States copyright law, the VRC can provide you with a determination of potential rights holders and any outstanding issues requiring address prior to publication.

When images intended for publication are found to be in copyright, the VRC can research alternate images where clearance, or payment of fees, is not required.

When applicable, the VRC will prepare statements outlining specific steps taken when arriving at a fair use, or orphaned work, determination.

Image Licensing and Payment of Fees
The VRC provides support for faculty publication through image licensing. The VRC works directly with artists, licensing agencies, and institutions around the globe to negotiate reproduction fees and secure permission to reproduce images.  When payments are required, the VRC is authorized to handle payment transactions.

Upon completion of a project, the VRC will provide the author and/or publishing house with a complete packet detailing permissions, licenses, high-resolution artwork and copies of all correspondence related to images that have been cleared for publication.

Commission of New Photography
Need a new view of a medieval folio, Chinese silk, or some other work of art that has yet to be digitized? VRC works directly with cultural heritage institutions to commission and license new photography.