It offers a forum for preservation of and access to digital and analog images of visual culture; cataloging and classification standards and practices; integration of technology-based instruction and research; intellectual property policy; and other topics of interest to the field.
The membership includes: information specialists; digital image specialists; art, architecture, film and video librarians; museum curators; slide, photograph, microfilm, and digital archivists; architectural firms; galleries; publishers; image system vendors; rights and reproductions officials; photographers; art historians; artists; and scientists.
There are thirteen local chapters, including Canada Great Lakes Greater New York International Mid-Atlantic Midwest New England Northern California Pacific Rim Southeast Southern California Texas Upstate New York The VRA Board consists of seven officers.
In 1972, this group began to meet independently, creating workshops and sessions on various aspects of visual resources maintenance.
These kits included information on slide room management, standards, and other practical aspects of the profession.
This newsletter was supported by CAA and later by MACAA and eventually became known as the International Bulletin for Photographic Documentation of the Visual Arts.
In the 1990s, the explosion of the Internet and the consequent expansion of the visual resources field to include digital media expanded the role of the association.
The annual conferences began attracting non-members, while vraweb.org evolved into a source of information for students, professionals, free-lance photographers, even IPR rights managers.
To replace the earlier widely varying practices, the association created a common standard, the VRA Core Categories.
Core 4 is the only metadata standard designed specifically for the description of images and the cultural objects they represent.