Lost and Found in Transliteration

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

If you can’t read it, can you find it? Library practices for bibliographic description of collection materials in native scripts, including Cyrillic, have changed over time. In card catalogs, non-Latin materials were described in their native scripts, with some data also represented by transliteration into the Latin alphabet. During the 1960s, the transition to online library catalogs introduced a significant change in the cataloging of non-Latin resources. Early online library systems could only handle Latin scripts, and the display of other native scripts was initially impossible. The development of the Unicode standard and Web-based library catalog displays in the 1990s allowed libraries to begin including data in other native scripts, parallel to the Latin script. However, not all library catalog systems are created equal, and some have been better at allowing various native scripts than others. How is the library online landscape changing in the way we handle native scripts? What are the implications for research support and learning? Join us as we discuss how the library community is overcoming transliteration hurdles.

Sub Unit

• Library/Information Sciences

Chair

• Patricia K. Thurston, Yale U

Roundtable Members

• Thomas Francis Keenan, Princeton U

• Patricia K. Thurston, Yale U

• Larisa Walsh, U of Chicago

Session Manager

• Alicia Baca, Ohio State U