Rhea,
Karen Van Dyck, here at Columbia, asked me once if Modern Greek scholars
should learn to adapt their transliteration schemes to LC, so that we all
knew what we were looking for coherently. But if LC's scheme is the
minority, it might make sense to look at it again.
I think, though, that it would behoove us to talk to our various heads of
Tech Services, who might better calculate the cost in money and man-hours
for the sort of recon that a changeover would entail. Whatever we decide
won't be worth much if we can't get our administrative heads to go along
with us!
Karen
--
Karen Green
Ancient & Medieval History and Religion Librarian
Graphic Novels Librarian
Columbia University
New York NY 10027
212-854-3031
klg19(a)columbia.edu
On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 12:00 PM, <cohsl-list-request(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu>
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Today's Topics:
1. Query from LC (Rhea Karabelas Lesage)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 13:11:40 -0400
From: Rhea Karabelas Lesage <karabel(a)fas.harvard.edu>
Subject: [Cohsl-list] Query from LC
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>
Message-ID: <4829CBCC.1010704(a)fas.harvard.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
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 anniversary and 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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