Wonder not – just head to the Visual Resource Center (VRC). It’s located below the main floor of the Reed Library, in Room 42. Not the IMC or the Language Lab, but an inconspicuous door right next to the seminar room. There you’ll find our team working behind the scenes, scanning and scouring museum collections for the highest-quality images.
You’ve most likely seen these images projected in class or referenced as part of an assigned reading, and we’re the ones responsible for providing them to your professors! Images are regularly added to the Reed Digital Collection (RDC) to support instruction in the art department. And as a student, you can search the collection for images to use when completing your assignments. We can also help you find the best images for presentations, publications, and theses, along with navigating the difficult realm of image citations.
Aside from academic support, we have specialized equipment for assisting with image-based projects. We have the largest scanner on campus (18″ x 24″), a transparency scanner, a photography room for documenting large 2D works, and a computer workstation with the Adobe Creative Cloud applications.
If you’ve asked yourself any of the questions below, then email us today to book an appointment:
- How can I scan and digitize my film or artwork into a high-resolution image?
- As a ceramist, can I make high-quality images of my ceramic works for a portfolio?
- As a film enthusiast, can I convert my beautiful photographs into digital facsimiles?
- Can I use the large scanner and Photoshop to complete a mixed-media work?
- Where can I get some free Cheez-Its? That’s right. You read that correctly.
And, if you’re still not sold on the utility of the VRC, you should remember that the VRC is located in Room 42, and, you should also remember that the number 42 is significant in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now, we aren’t claiming that the VRC has the answer to “the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything,” but we do have a fair number of useful resources that remain available to the Reed community when needing to answer a few, very specific questions that relate to life as a Reedie – the significance of that coincidence is left for you to decide.
Check out the VRC’s history and find a complete list of services and equipment at Reed.edu/VRC.
This blog post was co-written by Visual Resources Assistant and Art History major Andee Gude ’26.