Cataloging & Classification Quarterly

Government Information

This special issue of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly will focus on how cataloging units and organizations approach the cataloging of government information, with attention to how metadata practices are evolving in workflows, services, digital collections, and preservation efforts. Cataloging and classification practices continue to shift in response to rapid changes in government depositories, repositories, and their standards. Shared preservation initiatives have sparked new partnerships and changing workflows. Emerging technologies – including linked data services and applications of artificial intelligence – are inspiring innovation in metadata creation. Budget constraints have driven cataloging agencies, institutions, and government bodies to adopt new practices and technologies in metadata creation. At the same time, when access to online government information, databases, or collections is removed, catalogers are developing creative methods to identify, preserve, and create metadata for both born-digital materials and digital reproductions of print, media, and other formats.

The guest editors invite submissions from cataloging and metadata professionals and from researchers and practitioners in related areas. Contributions from authors outside North America and from all types of libraries (academic, public, government, special) are encouraged. Submissions addressing cataloging of government information at any level, including federal, tribal, state, local, intergovernmental, are welcome, including work from depositories, repositories, metadata services, and collaborative partnerships.

TOPICS

Case studies, historical examinations, and research studies are all appropriate. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Cataloging and classification:

• Cataloging and metadata workflows, including emerging uses of artificial intelligence
• Quality of cataloging and metadata, including best practices and evolving vocabularies
• Cataloging and metadata projects and partnerships
• Cataloging and metadata standards: adoption of new and changing standards, ontologies, linked data, and local adaptations to evolving terminology.

Other areas of interest

• National libraries’ metadata, cataloging and classification policies, practices, partnerships, innovations, and historical developments
• Impact of cataloging and metadata work on organizations or on society
• Vendor- or utility-provided cataloging and metadata services, including benefits and limitations
• International efforts to address changing needs and improve cataloging and metadata
• History of cataloging and classification of government information, including case studies of print and non-print collections
• Metrics for assessing government information metadata, including measures of user access and satisfaction
• Use of statistics in cataloging and metadata assessment.