Wednesday, August 30, 2006
On this list I have twice asked what, if anything, RDA will do about
vernacular (i.e., nonroman) access points which catalogers using RLIN or OCLC
have assigned for several years. I have had no answer. I conclude this has not
been decided and may appear in the pending draft for authority control.
A while ago (March 7, 2001) in response to an earlier proposal for such
access points the British Library representative to JSC, Sally Strutt, wrote
(4JSC/ALA32/BL response): "We agree with the Library of Congress in
proposing that nonroman access should be provided by means of authority
records,
where alternative forms can be held for display or as cross references. However
we note that AACR2 does not make provision for adding nonroman cross-refe
rences, as it does for other forms of names. Since authority control is an
integral part of the cataloguing process then extensions in practice in that
area
should be governed by the rules. We would therefore support a revised proposal
to add an optional provision for adding nonroman names as a category under
26.2A2. In order to avoid confusion, ALA may wish to consider whether this
option needs repeating or modifying at all the specific rules which govern the
establishment of romanised forms: 22.3C1, 22.3C2, footnote 4; 23.2A1; 24.1B,
footnote 4; 24.3A1; 24.3B1; 24.3C2; 24.3D1; 24.20B; 25.3C3; 25.4B1; 25.4C1;
24.12B; 25.18; 25.19; 25.21; 25.23A, 25.29; 25.30."
So far as I know, no revised proposal was prepared. Rule 26.2A2
mentioned above deals with different forms of the name from which references
should
be made. Among the categories is, "Different language form" with examples
such as "Jeanne d'Arc, Saint, see Joan, of Arc, Saint". Before the draft RDA for
authority control appears I would like to suggest that a simple solution
would be to change this category to "Different language form, or, when
feasible,
different script name" and add some examples of references from names in
nonroman scripts. These references could be from the original script versions
of the names at rule 22.3C such as the Greek script versions of Homer, the
Cyrillic script version of Empress Catherine II, the Arabic script version of
Omar Khayyam, The Hebrew script versions of Mimonides and Confucius in Chinese
characters. Other examples could be from Nobel laureates such as Tagore in
Bengali script, Naguib Mafouz in Arabic script, Gao Xingian in Chinese
characters, Samuel Agon in Hebrew script, Giorgos Seferis in Greek script,
Alexandr
Solzhenitsyn in Cyrillic script, the Dali Lama in Tibetan script, Andrei
Sakharov in Cyrillic script, Kim Dae Jung in Korean, Anwar Sadat in Arabic
script
and Menachem Begin in Hebrew script.
Instead of "see" these references might use an arrow as some reference
books do: "[Tagore in Bengali script] --> Tagore, Rabindranath" and. starting
at the right margin: "Moses (Biblical
character) <-- [Moses in Hebrew script]".
Rule 26.1F governs the form of names to be used in references: "In
making a reference give the name of a person, place, or corporate body from
which
reference is made in the same structure as it would have as a heading." This
may or may not be entirely adequate for names in nonroman scripts; for
example name a beginning with an article may be looked for under the article,
reading from the right:
[Sadat, Anwar <-- Arabic script for al-Sadat, Anwar]
Modifications to the rules mentioned in the BL response, the arrow in lieu
of "see" and any changes to 26.1F I leave to others.
Thank you for your attention.
Regards,
Jim Agenbroad ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
)
