Colleagues--
I am re-posting this query since I would like to respond to LC. I
apologize if I confused the issue by suggesting a complete change to the
table-obviously this is a huge issue and will require much discussion
and planning. Please just think about and respond my query from LC--its
consideration to drop rule no. 3--the transliteration of the "h" for
rough breathing (daseia) for modern Greek. I am pasting below Barbara
Tillett's response to the library community which strongly objected to
the proposed transliteration changes in 2004. She offered approximate
numbers relating to the "h" in access points that would need to be
changed. Obviously, the 2008 numbers are going to be higher, but it does
not appear to be a daunting project.
Greek colleagues, please let us know your thoughts if possible!
All best,
Rhea
Barbara Tillett's letter:
December 16, 2004
Dear Librarians:
Thank you for your reactions to the proposed revision of the
ALA/LC romanization table for Greek. The comments the Library received
obviously indicate that the Anglo-American library community in the
United States is not yet ready to adopt a totally revised table that
reflects an internationally approved system. The Library of Congress has
therefore decided not to make any changes to the Greek table at this
time. However, we look forward to such time as the Library can prepare
bibliographic records with the Greek characters included, using Unicode,
and can provide the romanization of those characters through computer
program.
At that time we would propose to make the single change of
eliminating note 3 (regarding the rough breathing sign) from the current
romanization table, so the table would then reflect the orthographic
changes made by the Greek government to the language in 1982. We are
woefully out of date in the United States with changes made elsewhere in
the world. As you are probably aware, this change was not incorporated
into the romanization table when the orthographic changes took effect
because of political differences within the U.S. with the Greek
presidential decree that promulgated the changes.
Although the elimination of note 3 in the current table will
have an impact on headings existing in the file at that time, guidelines
for how to deal with orthographic reform may be found in Library of
Congress Rule Interpretations (cf. Index under Orthographic reforms).
The Library has done a quick analysis of the access points in its
current modern Greek bibliographic records and found 23,440 records that
contain an access point romanized with the letter "h" as the first
letter of a word, indicating a rough breathing sign. Collecting the
access points and deduping them resulted in around 15,000 access points
divided approximately as follows:
MARC tag Potential no. of access points to
change
100 345
110 210
111 47
245 11,964
410 5
440 822
600 255
610 204
611 1
630 17
651 28
700 305
710 502
711 13
730 8
800 46
810 100
830 271
These figures are on the high side, as they include some
headings that would not be changed but would continue to be established
in a conventional English-language form, e.g., Homer. They also include
some non-Greek headings that were retrieved under the parameters used in
the analysis. The Library did not limit its analysis to post-1982
modern Greek works. Thus, there may be some headings that would not
undergo change as they have not been used on works published after
orthographic reform. This is probably most apparent in personal name
headings.
When romanization tables are created or revised, we publish the
table in the Cataloging Service Bulletin and provide a 3-month deadline
for the library community to respond. This was done for the Greek table
revision proposals. It appeared in CSB, no. 105, summer 2004, which was
distributed in early August with a deadline of October 31, 2004. We
regret we were not able also to scan the table revision proposal to post
it on our CPSO Web site, as we would normally do, but after several
attempts, technical problems prevented displaying the information
properly.
Sincerely,
Barbara B. Tillett, Chief, Cataloging Policy and Support Office
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Cohsl-list] Query from LC
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 13:11:40 -0400
From: Rhea Karabelas Lesage <karabel(a)fas.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: karabel(a)fas.harvard.edu, listserv for the Consortium of
Hellenic Studies Librarians <cohsl-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu>
Organization: HCL
To: listserv for the Consortium of Hellenic Studies Librarians
<cohsl-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu>
CC: Lavinia Griffiths <lavinia.griffiths(a)kcl.ac.uk>
Dear Colleagues,
Bob Hiatt, Senior Cataloging Policy Specialist from the Cataloging Policy and Support
Office(CPSO)of the Library of Congress,
at Barbara Tillett's (Chief, CPSO) request, has been in touch with me about
revisiting the transliteration issue,
specifically,the rough breathing mark. I told him that I would bring the discussion to the
list, since it does continue to
be a problem. Modern Greek has been a monotonic language since the government decree in
1982. We are now well past its 25
year anniversaryand as time passes there are new generations of native-speaking Greeks who
have no idea whether a word had
a daseia in the days of polytonic Greek. I can certainly understand LC's desire to
eliminate this anachronistic rule.
Please note that the above query comes from LC. Below I am proposing that we think about
the whole issue of transliteration
as a group, especially if there is going to be a change on the rough breathing mark issue.
Such a change will require
retrospective conversion projects so perhaps we should take the time now to look at the
bigger picture. Transliteration of
modern Greek in library catalogs is a problem since the ALA/LC table does not match the
rest of the international community.
As libraries are looking at new discovery platforms in order to facilitate users'
access to the catalog while giving them
"Google-like" searching, it might be appropriate for us to consider using
internationally accepted standards. Now that many
of us have begun cataloging in the vernacular using parallel fields, I've seen some
records in OCLC in which the
transliterations are so far off that I can't recognize what scheme they have used.
Some contributors appear to have already
eliminated the "h" for the rough breathing. As more international libraries are
loading records into OCLC I expect that
this problem will continue to grow.
I would like to propose that we come together as a group and decide how we want modern
Greek to be transliterated going forward. Since the rough breathing mark issue needs to be
dealt with,
1.Should we then consider a proposal to radically change the table to the International
Standards Organization (ISO843,1997 version) which has a letter for letter
transliteration? (With *no* exceptions, as the previous LC change proposed) This
would enable us to download bibliographic information from publishers and libraries in
Greece thus helping us in the speedy cataloging of these materials.
2.To our Greek colleagues, what scheme would you like to see libraries outside of Greece
adhering to? Would this be helpful to you and your work?
3.What will this mean in terms retrospective conversion projects?
4.Finally, think about the pros and cons of:
a. elimination of the rough breathing mark rule
b. full adoption of the ISO843 scheme
and PLEASE communicate them to this list!
For a review of various transliteration schemes, I refer you to Thomas T. Pedersen's
very helpful table and web site:
http://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Greek.pdf
http://transliteration.eki.ee/
I would like to encourage discussion on this list first before posting this to any other
list. Please do forward this
message to people that you think will add to this discussion and encourage them to join
our list serv:
http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/cohsl-list
Many thanks!
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
_______________________________________________
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--
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