We have composed the following petition to be posted online at
www.petitiononline.com.
Before posting online and spreading the word though, I would appreciate any comments or
feedback from our brilliant COHSL community. Please let me know your comments by the end
of the day Friday (3/26) so we can move forward with posting online and getting the word
out over the weekend.
Please understand that this petition is intended not to undermine the efforts of Tony
Oddo/David Jenkins/Robert Rendell task-force (aka the CC:DA Task Force for the Review of
the Proposed Romanization Tables (2009) for Ancient and Modern Greek) but to halt the
forward progress of the LC mandate and buy time for further considerations.
Thanks!
Deb Brown Stewart
Librarian, Byzantine Studies
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library
We, the undersigned, protest the new Modern Greek transliteration table mandated by the
Library of Congress (
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/greekm.pdf) and insist
that the changes to transliteration practices be tabled indefinitely. The changes involve
removing or omitting the romanized ��h�� (that represented the rough breathing in pre-1982
publications) in bibliographic records for all monotonic Greek publications published
after 1982 as well as authorities. Thereby, the LC mandate splits Modern Greek
publications into monotonic and polytonic subsets and has serious consequences for library
professionals and researchers, such as:
�� The LC mandate will necessitate the retrospective cleanup of tens of thousands
of bibliographic records for Greek publications dating between 1982 and 2010 as well as
changes to an even larger number of existing authority files.
�� Retrospective cleanup will require technical services staff to review each
physical item and bibliographic record manually and/or complex machine conversions to
distinguish monotonic Greek from polytonic Greek and from other languages (for ex.
parallel titles in English) in bibliographic records.
�� Non-filing indicators in the Marc 245 field will need to be changed for every
title that begins with the definite articles ��, ��, �Ϧ�, and ���� for monotonic Greek
publications but left as-is for post-1982 polytonic Greek publications.
�� Serials records for Greek publications will need to be split to reflect those
publications that switched from polytonic orthography to monotonic orthography between
1982 and the present.
�� The recommendation of LC��s Policy and Standards Division is that ��[authority]
headings would be revised as necessary on the first occurrence of cataloging a resource in
monotonic Greek. As is the policy (AACR2, 24.2C and LCRI 24.2C), headings romanized from
languages having undergone orthographic reform are revised to reflect the new orthography
with reference from the form in the old orthography.�� Delays will compromise the
integrity of existing authority files and their value to researchers.
�� In addition, LC��s standards for revised authority files are unclear: For
example, the new geographic name authority is Erakleion (Greece), in place of the older
authority Herakleion (Greece) and selected over the more appropriate modern Greek spelling
Erakleio.
�� The LC mandate assumes that technical services staff, public services staff,
and researchers are aware whether modern Greek publications with which they are
working/searching are monotonic or polytonic Greek. The LC transliteration table offers
the following guidelines for identification:
��Katharevousa, an archaizing form of modern Greek, is written in polytonic orthography.
Demotic, the colloquial form, can be written in either polytonic or monotonic. In 1976,
demotic became the official language of Greece; in 1982, monotonic became the official
orthography.
��If it is not evident whether the text to be romanized is in polytonic or monotonic
orthography, examine the rest of the item. If that provides no information, consider an
item issued before 1982 to be in polytonic, and an item issued in 1982 or later to be in
monotonic.��
�� The LC mandate will force researchers to search Greek words beginning with
vowels in two different ways: with and without the rough breathing. For example: Hetaireia
Hell��nikou Logotechnikou kai Historikou Archeiou and Etaireia Ellenikou Logotechnikou kai
Istorikou Archeiou. The mandate fails to consider whether researchers will know if a
publication for which they are searching used monotonic or polytonic Greek and/or if the
catalog record for a post-1982 item has undergone retrospective conversion.
While many agree that the current system of adding the "h" for the rough
breathing mark that is no longer there may be an out-dated practice, it is a convention
that librarians and scholars have learned to work with and are comfortable using. There is
a finite group of words that require the rough breathing:
http://www.polytoniko.org/kano.php#dasunomenes
<http://www.polytoniko.org/kano.php#dasunomenes> . One solution that would be easier
to implement is that a similar list could be included as an addendum to the existing table
to help new catalogers and users determine when the ��h�� should be added.
In a time when library professionals and resources are stretched thin and when researchers
struggle to navigate an already complex digital world, the LC mandate is imprudent. Not
only was there no communication with the community of Hellenic studies librarians and
scholars before the change was posted, but the change is disruptive, confusing, and
expensive to implement, with no added value to researchers. As those most affected by the
LC mandate, we strongly recommend that LC��s new transliteration standards for modern
Greek publications be tabled indefinitely, at least until such a time that there are
funding and resources to properly plan and implement a national retrospective conversion
project.
From: cohsl-list-bounces(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu
[mailto:cohsl-list-bounces@lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Stewart, Deb
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 4:13 PM
To: listserv for the Consortium of Hellenic Studies Librarians
Cc: Clark, Kim
Subject: Re: [Cohsl-list] Princeton's response to the Greek romanizationissue
Dear Gisela, Jeff, Yang, Dave, and other COHSL colleagues,
I am excited that everyone is having conversations about this! Rhea, Kim Clark (our head
cataloger at Dumbarton Oaks), and I have also been discussing the ramifications of the
proposed changes and possible solutions.
In response to the suggestions put forth by our Princeton colleagues and others, Rhea and
I agree that 1453/54 should not be used as the division between polytonic
(ancient/Byzantine) and monotonic orthography. As a researcher myself (with the range of
classical Greek through modern Greek publications), a public services employee (who works
closely with Byzantine Greek philologists), and a bibliographer (responsible for our
collection of early Greek books), I find this very disturbing! Indeed, to me, it seems
arbitrary and fails to reflect accurately the items in question (which lies at the heart
of the whole post-1982 orthography discussion, does it not?). Although Constantinople fell
to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and the Byzantine capital ceased to exist at that date (yet
Byzantine Greeks persisted in other parts of the crumbling empire), the 1453 date is
significant for geopolitical, not philological reasons, i.e. Byzantine Greek language did
not abruptly change to ��modern Greek�� at this time. In fact (and I confirmed this with
our late Byzantine philologists in residence), vernacular and learned Greek continued
unchanged (polytonic!) for a long time after 1453.
Furthermore, the type used in early Greek printing was very closely modeled on Byzantine
script (ligatures, variant letter forms, diacritics, and all!). Greek typography did not
simplify until the middle of the 18th century - some griping about complex Greek fonts in
the 17th century but upright fonts with few ligatures and the elimination of most variant
letter forms did not become standard until the late 18thc. If you look at Greek
publications throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, you will see that polytonic (with
rough breathing!) was common up until 1982. After 1982, well, that becomes more
complicated.
Therefore, I would argue that, if we want to select a date for our discussion of monotonic
orthography, 1982 should be it. Which I guess raises the question that, rather than split
Modern Greek table into polytonic (pre-1982) and monotonic (post-1982) subsets, perhaps we
should also reconsider the split between Ancient/Byzantine Greek and Modern Greek at 1453
into 3? Ancient/Byz, Modern Greek 1453-1982, Modern Greek post-1982? Oy!
Moving beyond the 1453-problem: Although we (Rhea, Kim, and I) understand concerns about
respecting post-1982 orthography (the bibliographers in us demand it), we have serious
concerns about the impact on our users, present and future, Greek philologists and
non-experts. In addition to the US-based Byzantine scholars with whom I discussed it (who
regularly use modern Greek publications and who universally hated the idea but who,
admittedly, mostly came to Byzantine and modern Greek from Classics), I also talked about
it with a tech-savvy, native-Greek, under-30 scholar who works in the field of Greek
philology (and who studies at a German university); he immediately saw the difficulties
that we have all identified and stated unequivocally that he found the whole idea of
dropping the rough breathing absurd, especially from the researcher��s perspective.
Many of our users find that the rough breathing is easily learned (even expected) by those
who regularly search for Greek publications in US library catalogs (I find this with US
and international scholars alike) and would prefer it to searching two different ways for
Greek words. For technical services and public services staff, perhaps it would be
advisable for cataloging policy handbooks to include a finite list of Greek terms which
regularly use the romanized ��h�� (Rhea��s team already has a list).
Considering the complications of retrospective conversion of bibliographic records and
authorities (and I don��t think we can give serious consideration to just going with
monotonic for 2010 on and neglecting 1982-2009) and the chaos it will create for larger
collections (that must fund the changes), smaller collections (that are unlikely to be
able to do retrospective conversion), and our users (present and the forthcoming
generation), I favor the status quo. Rhea, Kim, and I also had serious concerns about
machine conversion of all post-1982 publications and believe that human intervention will
be necessary.
Today, Rhea, Kim Clark, and I have been working on the text for an online petition to halt
the LC mandate �C at least pending further discussions by the wider library and scholarly
communities. We will post a draft of the petition for comment by the COHSL participants
shortly and hope to post online in short order. Once online, we hope that the word will
quickly spread through the library and scholarly communities and that tech services
librarians, public services staff, and scholars will all make their voices heard against
the LC mandate.
Thanks for listening!
Deb
Deb Brown Stewart
Librarian, Byzantine Studies
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library
1703 32nd St., NW
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 339-6957
From: cohsl-list-bounces(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu
[mailto:cohsl-list-bounces@lists.fas.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Jeffrey R. Luttrell
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:02 AM
To: listserv for the Consortium of Hellenic Studies Librarians
Subject: [Cohsl-list] Princeton's response to the Greek romanization issue
Esteemed colleagues:
On Friday, March 19, the Princeton Greek cataloging team (Gisela Kam, Jeff
Luttrell and Yang Wang) met with the Director of Cataloging and Metadata Services, Joyce
Bell, and the Librarian for Classics, Hellenic Studies and Linguistics, Dave Jenkins, in
order to discuss LC��s proposal for Greek romanization. The outcome of this meeting is as
follows:
First and foremost, there was unanimous strong, in some cases vehement, opposition to
splitting Modern Greek into monotonic and polytonic subsets with the resulting chaos in
searching the catalog.
Second, three general approaches were discussed (in descending order of slightly lesser
preference):
1) Keep the status quo but remove the rough breathing from all post-1453 Modern Greek
records. Our catalogers agreed that a machine conversion of our catalog would be
possible��in which bibliographic records in Modern Greek would have the letter ��h��
stripped from words where it preceded a vowel��and that the new practice would be
relatively simple to implement and result in better searching for users, many of whom are
unfamiliar with the whole issue of rough breathing signs. However, such an approach would
no longer reflect the fact that the rough breathing does appear in polytonic texts, which
are still being published in spite of the official adoption of monotonic orthography in
1982.
2) Keep the status quo but, instead of removing the rough breathing from post-1453 Modern
Greek records, replace it with a new diacritic. In other words, for polytonic works in
Modern Greek, the appearance of the rough breathing would be indicated in transliteration
by a diacritic, not a character, which would insure the same search results as those from
monotonic texts. This approach was also considered simple to implement. However, it was
understood that (in addition to a perhaps problematic innovation) the retrospective
replacement of the transliterated ��h�� with this diacritic would result, at least
initially, in a subset of monotonic texts that now appear as polytonic.
3) Keep the status quo with no exceptions. The continuity of previous Greek cataloging
means something, as do the expectations that it has created. Nevertheless, we understand
that this status quo is becoming increasingly untenable with a new generation of users.
We welcome comments! Submitted on behalf of the group by Jeff Luttrell.