VRA Bulletin CFP: Cataloging Today: Enlarging the Sphere

Call for Papers: “Cataloging Today: Enlarging the Sphere”Special Themed Issue of the Visual Resources Association BulletinGuest Editor: Susan Jane Williams, Independent Cataloging and Consulting Co.Expected Date of Publication: December 2018 or January 2019 (Vol. 45, issue 2)This special themed issue of the VRA Bulletin on the state of cataloging today seeks to explore our cataloging practices in light of the global semantic web. (Using "cataloging" as a verb, the act of attaching textual values to an object or digital asset, whether that involves encoding or not.) There is a body of literature outlining automations in creating (i.e. extracting) catalog records in text-based collections to the point that human-created records are referred to as "manual." Should we assume that cataloging images and cultural heritage objects will remain a "manual" (or "supplemented manual") pursuit? What inroads have been made to match and extract information from images?Further, cataloging has frequently had a tie with larger economic pressures and been subject to periodic cost-cutting measures. How do administrators actually assess cataloging for value and for efficacy? Have digital humanities projects and "big data" changed that value (and for whom)? Has crowd sourcing and tagging by the public been effective in adding value? Has linked open data changed the assessment of professional cataloging value (and for whom)? Will linked open data and the global semantic web finally conquer the silo, and what are the implications for our profession? Will the utility of linked "big data" on the web supersede the more traditional concept of shared data? This issue is meant to explore the creation of catalog records, but articles about data analysis and data migration are also welcome.For the first round of article submissions, please send a one-page abstract to Susan Jane Williams at williams.susanjane@gmail.com by October 15, 2018.Thank You!