Cataloging Section

Who We Are

Our Mission

News

• Attribution Qualifiers for Artists' Names [PDF file]
  
  Qualifiers such as "School of," "Pupil of," and "After" are commonly used by art historians to associate a work by an unknown artist with the name of a known artist whose oeuvre is stylistically similar or otherwise related to the work at hand. The terms in this list are intended to provide a controlled vocabulary for conveying attribution information about art works. The list was developed by the Cataloging Advisory Committee of the Art Libraries Society of North American (ARLIS/NA) in collaboration with the Data Standards Committee of the Visual Resources Association (VRA). Comments on the list or additional terms are most welcome.
  
  Send comments to the current chair of the ARLIS/NA Cataloging Advisory Committee



• READ the MARBI discussion paper "Subject Access to Images" prepared by Elizabeth O'Keefe with input from Sherman Clarke and sponsored by ARLIS/NA and VRA.

Conferences

Summary of cataloging-related sessions at past conferences:

• 2011: Minneapolis
  
  • Reconciling Vocabularies on the Semantic Web
  • More Than Meets the Eye? Retrieving Art Images by Subject
  • Cataloging Section business meeting
• 2010: Boston
  
  • Cataloging Problems Special Interest Group meeting
• 2009: Indianapolis
  
  • Discovery on This Side of the Virtual Wall: Evolving Authority Control Resources & Techniques in the Digital Age
  • Where Libraries & Archives Converge: Artists Files
  • Integrating Resources Through Collaborative Convergence
  • Workshop: They Never Covered This in Library School: Cataloging Artists Books
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee business meeting
  • Cataloging Section business meeting
• 2008: Denver
  
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
• 2005: Houston
  
  • Session III: Providing Visual Information in the New "Smart" University: The Cross-Campus Development of Digital Image Libraries
  • Session V: Visual Access to Visual Materials
  • Session VIII: Outside the Box, Beyond the Cubicle: Developing Versatile Catalogers
  • Session XVII: Cataloging Cultural Objects: Implications for the Field
  • Session XIX: "When Couture Costs Less Than Ready-to-Wear:" Non-Commercial Content Creation and Resource Sharing
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group minutes
• 2004: New York City
  
  • Session 6: Integrating Intellectual Access to Library, Museum, and Archival Materials
  • Session 13: Preparing for Shared Cataloging: An Overview of Needs, Benefits, and Efforts
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting (minutes not available)
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group minutes
• 2003: Baltimore
  
  • Session 1: The Invisible Web and More with Laura Gordon-Murnane (abstract not available)
  • Session 11: The Next Generation of Catalogers: Issues in Education and Training
  • Session 17: Betwixt and Between: Integrated MARC Data with Museum Object Records
  • Workshop 5: Descriptive and Subject Cataloguing for Art Materials
  • Cataloging Section business meeting (minutes not available)
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting (minutes not available)
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group abstract
• 2002: Joint ARLIS/NA-VRA Annual Conference in Saint Louis
  
  • Session 2: Common Ground: Standards for Cataloging Images and Objects
  • Session 10: Stretching the Mold: Standard Cataloging and Special Materials
  • Seminar 3: Cataloging Outside the Canon: Cataloging African Art
  • Seminar 6: Common Ground: Standards for Cataloging Images and Objects
  • Workshop 6: Building Relational Databases (summary not available)
  • Workshop 8: Common Ground: Implementing the VRA Core in an Image Collection Management System (summary not available)
  • Cataloging Section business meeting
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee business meeting (summary not available)
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group minutes
• 2001: Los Angeles
  
  • Session 3: "Too Much of a Good Thing?" Selection, Collection Development, and Cataloging of Art/Design Web Sites
  • Session 4: Through Time and Space: Documenting Museum Collecting and Exhibition History on the Web (abstract not available)
  • Session 7: Encoded Archival Description: Protocol and Practice
  • Ask ARLIS 4: Never the Twain Shall Meet? Museum Systems and Library Systems
  • AskARLIS 5: Renewing the Profession: Recruiting and Mentoring Art Catalogers
  • Workshop 2: Applying Added Value: Accessing Visual Information through the Use of Structured Vocabularies (summary not available)
  • Workshop 6: Subject Cataloging First Aid for Art Librarians
  • Poster session: The IRIS Cooperative: First Steps Toward Shared Cataloging of Visual Resources
  • Poster session: New Strategies to Support Access to VCU?s Art Exhibition Catalog Collection by Visual Arts Faculty and Students
  • Cataloging Section business meeting
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting (minutes not available)
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group (rough notes)
• 2000: Pittsburgh
  
  • Session 3: CORE Foundations for the Vision of the Future: The History of Subject Indexing of Visual Materials
  • Session 7: The Construct of Indexing: Thought Processes in Subject Analysis
  • Session 12: Still Codeless After All These Years: The History and Possible Future of Subject Cataloging in the Field of Art
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting (minutes not available)
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group minutes
• 1999: Vancouver
  
  • Session 1: Subject Access to Visual Images: The Online Horizon from Where We Stand
  • Session 3: The Future of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
  • Session 4: Paving the Cow Path?: How the Past Affects the Present in the Cataloging and Indexing of Bibliographic Materials (abstract not available)
  • Session 10: Finding Aids: When Collection Level Records Are Not Enough (abstract not available)
  • Session 15: Auction Catalogues and SCIPIO Recon (abstract not available)
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting (minutes not available)
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group
• 1998: Philadelphia
  
  • Collection Level Records: Archivists and Librarians Share Solutions (abstract not available)
  • Session 9: Intellectual Access to Information Using Expert Systems as the Filter in User Interfaces
  • AskARLIS 1: Cataloging and Indexing in an Ideal World
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group (minutes not available)
• 1997: San Antonio
  
  • Session 9: False Economies?: Balancing Quality and the Bottom Line in Providing Access to Our Collections
  • AskARLIS 4: What can Art/Architecture Librarians and Visual Resources Curators Learn from Each Other?
  • Cataloging Section business meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Advisory Committee meeting minutes
  • Cataloging Problems Discussion Group minutes

Publications

• NH Photography Classification Schedule (2004 revision) [PDF file]
  
  The 2004 revision of the NH Photography Classification Schedule is now available for use. NH is an alternative classification schedule originally published in 1974 by ARLIS/NA for art libraries who do not wish to use the Library of Congress TR schedule for artistic photography. The revised version contains many new terms, an updated materials, supplies, etc. section, and a greatly expanded cinematography section.


• ARLIS/UK & Ireland offers these cataloging publications for purchase:
  
  • Trade Literature: Cataloguing and Classification Guidelines (CD-ROM) (2004)
    http://www.arlis.org.uk/publ/tradelitorder.html
  
  
  • Art Exhibition Documentation in Libraries: Cataloguing Guidelines (2000)
    http://www.arlis.org.uk/publ/artexorder.html

Resources

• First stops:
  
  • Art Cataloging homepage
    Useful links, important topics, and vital information for art catalogers (from Sherman Clarke)
  • Subject Headings for Art
    A quick list of relevant documents for assigning Library of Congress subject headings for art, summaries of 2001 and 2004 changes, and links
  • Cataloguer's Toolbox at Memorial University of Newfoundland
    A well-organized page devoted to cataloging resources, including a glossary of bibliographic information in major European languages
• Quick tables:
  
  • ALA-LC romanization tables from LC's Cataloging Policy and Support Office (PDF document: requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
  • LC Cutter chart
• Major libraries and bibliographic utilities:
  
  • Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate
  • Library and Archives Canada English main page (also available in French)
  • Research Libraries Group main page
  • OCLC main page
  • The European Library, searching the content of European national libraries
  • LibWeb, library web servers from around the world (including links to many OPACs)
• NACO:
  
  • Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) main page (includes core standards)
  • ArtNACO Home Page
• Research resources for authority work:
  
  • Getty Research Institute vocabulary databases Including the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN), the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), and the Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
  • Dictionary of Art Historians is a biographical dictionary of historians, museum directors and scholars of art
  • Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
    Search the catalogs of the Smithsonian libraries; the Freer Gallery of Art library catalog; the archival, manuscripts and photographic collections catalog; the Smithsonian American Art Museum research databases, and more
  • AXIS contains curricula vitae and artwork examples of over 3,000 contemporary artists in the United Kingdom
  • GEONet Names Server from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)
  • Geographic Names Information System of the U.S. Geological Survey
  • National Register of Historic Places (from the United States National Park Service) A database that contains information on nearly 76,000 districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture
• Special materials cataloging:
  
  • Cataloging Cultural Objects
    Latest draft of guidelines being developed by the Visual Resources Association, which welcomes comments on it
  • Visual Resources Association Data Standards Committee (includes link to the VRA Core elements)
  • Categories for the Description of Works of Art (from the Getty Research Institute)
  • RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee Resources for the Rare Materials Cataloger
    has lots of good links for any cataloger who works with rare or older materials, including links to manuscript information and Greek and Latin reference works.
• Cataloging software for small libraries
  One of these software packages may be appropriate for cataloging small private libraries. Links, prices and information are current as of April 2012.
  • LibraryThing: Free for the first 200 books, then $10.00/year or $25 for life.
  • ResourceMate: About $200 for software and $70 per year for support and ISBN searching.
  • Koha: An open source ILS.
  • BookCat: It costs $40 and allows users to download information from the Internet.
  • Inmagic: Library management system.
  • M3 by Mandarin Library Automation Solutions: An ILS that can be downloaded at no cost with support that can be paid for.
  • PastPerfect: Collection management software.
  • There is always the option of creating custom databases in Filemaker or Microsoft Access.
• General:
  
  • Introduction to Metadata