"Museum International": Call for Papers on Museums in a Digital World

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is preparing an issue of its journal Museum International on the theme "Museums in a Digital World", exploring and assessing how museums have adapted their institutions to a 21st century that is increasingly being played out in a digital world. Museums face a twofold challenge in this digital context: making collections more accessible online, while competing with a crowded online offer. New technologies have forced museums to be responsive and forward-looking. But over the past decade or so, how well have museums handled this ‘disruptive technology’? Digital strategies have brought about the following trends:

• shifting cultural expectations;
• digital departments with increased resources allocated to digital innovation;
• immersive and innovative experiences essential to ensuring audience growth and loyalty;
• technology shaping the museum’s physical spaces and the audience’s experience

The aim of this issue is to bring together contributions that will examine the extent to which museums have embraced and benefited from digital technology. Are museums capitalising on unprecedented opportunities to reach and engage with new and diverse audiences? How are they meeting the challenge of new cognitive behaviours brought about by advances in technology? Are they continuing to cater for visitors looking to disconnect from the virtual world by innovating beyond the digital sphere?

Museum International is an academic journal that promotes the exchange of information about museums and cultural heritage on an international level. The journal aims to foster knowledge-sharing through interdisciplinary research and best practices for the protection of cultural heritage in a fast-changing world.

Published by UNESCO since 1948 and with Wiley-Blackwell since 1992, publishing rights for the journal were transferred from UNESCO to ICOM in 2013. In collaboration with its co-publisher Wiley-Blackwell, ICOM now holds exclusive responsibility for the editorial policy and content of the journal. An editorial board, composed of a selection of members within the ICOM network, is charged with discussing and choosing themes, authors and guest editors for each issue.

Authors are invited to submit abstracts of between 250 and 300 words in English, French or Spanish, addressing the theme "Museums in a Digital World". The deadline for doing so is 29 January 2018, and the issue is expected to be published in the autumn of 2018. The call for papers is available at http://icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/publications/171110_CFP_MI_PP_ENG.pdf. For further information about Museum International, please visit http://icom.museum/media/museum-international/