What does it mean to truly look closely? This year’s VRA annual conference, Zooming In, invites visual resources professionals to shift from the wide view and settle into the details, the workflows, tools, discoveries, and community conversations that define our day-to-day practice.
Delivered fully online, VRA 2026 brings together a rich program drawn from 40+ proposals spanning panels, lightning talks, virtual tours, and more. Whether you’re navigating new roles in your institution, exploring how AI is reshaping cataloging and metadata work, grappling with collection development decisions, or finding new ways to activate and engage communities through visual collections, there’s a session built for where you are right now.
This year’s program reflects both the breadth and the depth of our field: from digitizing ancient scrolls to first-time service management, from reparative description to classroom pedagogy, and interactive digital maps. It’s a conference for asking: what happens when we look more carefully?
Join us to learn, connect, and zoom in.
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Get an inside look at digitization labs from all over VRA. From single scanners to advanced imaging setups, VRA members have contributed short, pre-recorded tours of their digitization labs. For newbies and longtime digitization specialists alike, this session opens the floor to a round-table discussion with tour guides, covering equipment, staffing, budgets, and techniques. Find out how colleagues navigate the real-life conditions of digitization.
Moderated by Ann McShane and Noah Thompson.
Tours included:
Smith College by Nora Davies Texas State University, April Martins and more.
