Hello Robert:
I am a member of the CoHSL list. I examined the record your sent in your message in OCLC
and brought the record into our Voyager system. The record came in with no problems and
the diacritics are all in the places where they should be.
While I share Rhea's concern that the appropriate diacritics should be included in
cataloging records, I am very concerned with the fact that given our limited cataloging
resources and staff declines, I cannot devote the time required to perform the adding of
diacritics to records. I am the person who would be doing this work and I have other
duties assigned to me.
I would be more than willing to discuss this issue in detail with other members of the
CoHSL list and I encourage them to contact me.
Thank you for your attention,
Tony Oddo
-----Original Message-----
From: cohsl-list-bounces(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu
[mailto:cohsl-list-bounces@lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Rhea Karabelas Lesage
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 3:56 PM
To: listserv for the Consortium of Hellenic Studies Librarians
Cc: David W Reser; Peter Fletcher; Robert Maxwell; Polyxeni Georgiadi
Subject: Re: [Cohsl-list] Greek script diacritics in OCLC records
Dear Robert,
I want to thank you for getting in touch with the members of this list.
I would like to encourage CoHSL members who are not catalogers to
forward Robert's query to the appropriate people who are entering (or
will enter) the Greek script in catalogs.
The OCLC record that you gave as an example looks fine in OCLC but when
I looked at the record in our local system (HOLLIS) the diacritics are
in the wrong places: this is how it appears in our OPAC: Σηβ́ηρου
Σοφιστο͂υ ̓Αλεξ́ανδρου Διηγ́ηματα -- Σηβ́ηρου Σοφιστο͂υ ̓Αλεξ́ανδρου ̓Ηθοποίιαι.
(The diacritics are over the previous letter to where they should be.) I
am not sure if this problem is just with our system (ALEPH). If the
decision is made to use diactritics in the Greek records, this may pose
a problem with local databases so some testing should be done.
I spent a little time searching the OPACS of the Gennadius Library and
University of Crete, and found that they are following the post-1982
orthography, even for records prior to 1982, and also for classical
Greek entries. I believe that both these libraries use ALEPH as their
OPAC and their diacritics look fine It would be very helpful if our
Greek colleagues belonging to this list can offer input to their use of
diacritics, and to their thoughts on not using them at all, as has been
the case so far in OCLC.
Including the diacritics will require more knowledge of the language
since often times titles appear in all capital letters and the stress
marks are not included. The cataloger will have to know where the stress
belongs. Personally, I would like to see the diacritics included, but
only for the post-1982 orthography, as they do in Greece. But I am not
sure whether this is realistic given our limited cataloging resources
and the likelihood that the person cataloging a Greek book may not have
in-depth knowledge of the language.
CoHSL colleagues, please share your thoughts with the group!
Kind regards,
Rhea
Rhea K. Lesage
Head and Bibliographer for Modern Greek
Modern Greek Section
Collection Development Department
Widener Library
Harvard College Library
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617)495-3632
FAX (617)496-8704
Robert Rendall wrote:
Colleagues -
I am serving on the PCC Task Force on Non-Latin Script Cataloging
Documentation. This group has been charged with producing
"authoritative and comprehensive documentation on providing equivalent
fields in non-Latin scripts that provides for consistent application
across available scripts."
We are aware that in most records with Greek script currently in OCLC,
the diacritics that normally appear in Greek text are omitted. We have
also been told that is it technically possible to enter Greek script
with appropriate diacritics in OCLC by using the same MARC-8 combining
diacritics used by catalogers in OCLC for Latin script (see for example
the contents notes in OCLC record #428012280 for Progymnasmata quae
exstant omnia, with Greek script added by Brigham Young University; this
record passes OCLC validation).
The two diacritics needed for contemporary, post-1982 modern Greek
orthography can be entered reasonably easily in OCLC using the "Enter
Diacritics and Special Characters" menu. All the other diacritics
needed for pre-1982 and classical Greek can also be entered, but some
are not available from this menu in OCLC, and special keystroke
combinations need to be set up to produce them. Entering valid
combining diacritics in local systems before uploading records to OCLC
might present further complications.
All of this is quite different from the way Greek is usually entered and
encoded in other contexts on the Web, I think, and text with diacritics
produced by other methods cannot be copied into OCLC records.
The CoHSL list is the only place where I have found any discussion of
Greek diacritics in OCLC records (in a few messages from 2007). My
group will be recommending standards to be followed by the Library of
Congress and other participants in the Program for Cooperative
Cataloging. I would welcome any comments on whether we should recommend
that entering Greek diacritics should be encouraged or required for
items in post- and/or pre-1982 orthography, given that they would have
to be input as described above.
I would particularly like to hear from any catalogers in other libraries
currently entering Greek script in bibliographic records. Please
forward this message as appropriate.
Thank you,
Robert Rendall
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