Curator of Visual Resources
M.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 1995
B.A., Northwestern University, 1991

Betha Whitlow has directed the Visual Resources Collection since 1995, and is the primary contact for all university faculty and students who wish to enhance their teaching and research through the use of images. Her position emphasizes the development and use of technology in the classroom, and includes forwarding digital image initiatives and instructing in the use of a variety of software and other technologies. Ms. Whitlow has participated in several university initiatives charged with developing efficient, effective, and lasting support mechanisms for digital images, including chairing the committee that eventually brought Luna Insight to campus. In 2002, she co-chaired the first joint national conference of the Art Librarians Society and the Visual Resources Association. She has served as the VRA Vice President for Conference Program, and is currently the chair of the VRA Education Committee and co-chair of the VRA Strategic Plan Task Force. Ms. Whitlow was an inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Staff Member in Arts and Sciences Award. Her recent talks include "The Shock of the New: Using Youth and Inexperience as Tools for Professional Success," and “ Transitional Space: Space Planning for Visual Resources Collections” at the Visual Resources Association Conference, and "Digital Imaging and Metadata Standards for University Collections," at the Association of Photographic Educators conference. In the coming year, she will co-instruct a workshop in marketing visual resources and co-implement a conference session on emerging web 2.0 technologies. In her spare time, she enjoys her role as food critic for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, cooking, writing, visiting farmer's markets, traveling, reading, trail running, riding her bicycle around St. Louis, trying and failing to finish knitting projects and spending time with her family, friends, and her city dog Jocko, the spineless—but not toothless—pitbull.

(314) 935-5256
bwhitlow@artsci.wustl.edu