Multilingual Libraries: Realities and Challenges

David Hirsch

Charles E. Young Research Library

UCLA

Challenges

a) Acquire literature in languages that you don’t know b) Cataloguing and classifying literature in languages you don’t

know c) Organize a multilingual collection using one classification

system d) Including original script in records.. How much info in

original script? e) In addition to or instead of Romanization? f) other problems.. What is a language and what is a “dialect”

Assyrian, Syriac, East Syrian? Should Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian all be on the same shelf or look upon them as three different collections? What about Sorani/Kurmanci Kurdish?

Information in the library

How do we work with shelf signs and other information? How much information do you need in other languages? On the shelf signs we try to include information in the same language as the collection and of course in the right script. The name of the language but also “fiction”, the main subject headings, books for adult, for children … Translation of library rules, opening hours, information about the collections, fees, how to use the free wifi … Who should do the translation? Professional translators or library staff?

SOME EXAMPLES OF MULTILINGUAL LIBRARIES

The Multilingual Library in Oslo, Norway

National Library of Israel-Arabic Site

International Library in Sweden

Foreign Language Staff at the International Library in Stockholm

• http://interbib.se/sv/om-oss/vi-som-jobbar-pa-ib

• Area specialists dealing with over 20 languages.

• Not all are represented on the webpage.

Queens Public Library in Queens New York

Has interfaces in Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish and English

Brooklyn Public Library International Languages

Los Angeles Public Library

Major languages in the Los Angeles Public Library Collection

UCLA Research Library-no foreign language interface but EXTREMELY rich foreign language holdings

There are a total of ten Area and International studies librarians, six in the Collection Reference and Instructional Service (CRIS) (specializing in Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies, Central Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Slavic and Eastern European Studies, African Studies and four in the East Asian Library (EAL) working with Chinese, Japanese and Korean materials. UCLA Library holds materials in 471 languages from around the world.

Foreign language staffing

ROMANIZATION/TRANSLITERATION

Cutter’s Principles of a Library Catalog

• To enable a person to find a book of which either the author, the title, the subject is known

• To show what the library has by a given author, on a given subject, in a given literature

• To assist in the choice of a book

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2

• AACR2 1.0E1 suggested

to include the language and script where practicable (AACR2, 2002)

RDA (AACR3) :

Recommends:

• catalogue in the languages and scripts of the source

• and designates transliteration as an alternative for when original scripts cannot be used

• or in addition to the original script (RDA, 1.4, 2010-5)

The Program for Cooperative Cataloguing (PCC)

• The Program for Cooperative Cataloguing (PCC) Guidelines recommends including the non-Latin script as ‘strictly optional’ (PCC Guidelines, 2010).

• The PCC guidelines further recommend those cataloguers who choose to include the original script to

“consider the future use, international implications of their records, and to include as much of the non-Latin script data as necessary to facilitate the identification and location” (PCC).

Study on the need for transliteration in today’s global cataloging environment

• By Waseem Farooq of

Aga Khan University with campuses in Pakistan and the UK

Purpose of study

The purpose of the study was to:

• Gauge the trends of cataloguing in non-Latin scripts

• Identify the reasons why original scripts are not being included or why transliteration has not been discarded

• To identify issues, apprehensions for one option or the other.

Variations in transliterations

The word بحث can be transliterated in the following ways according to ALA-LOC:

Arabic: Persian: Urdu:

baḥth baḥs baḥas

Comparison of transliteration schemes

Searching for “معجم”, one would need to be aware of the following variations :

• ALA-LOC = “Muʻjam”

• Bibliotheque Nationale de France = “Muʿdjam”

• Deutschen Nationalbibliothek =“Muʿǧam”

Summary of respondents by mailing lists

Source Respondents

MELCom Int. 1

MidEastCat 8

MELCom UK 5

MELA 9

AuteursArabes 5

IFLA 1

Email 2

Colleague 1

No response 1

Total 33

Distribution of transliteration schemes

88%

13%

ALA-LOC ISO

End users

• 58% of the respondents indicated that they were aware that their end users were not comfortable using transliteration schemes

• “Most of them are unfamiliar with the LC classification scheme.”

• “No transliteration scheme is really intuitive and logical, neither for the native speakers nor for non-native speakers.”

Further confusion

One respondent added:

After training on the use of LC transliteration scheme, the users are further confused after seeing various other transliteration schemes that are being used by various scholarly journals and encyclopedias such as Encyclopaedia of Islam.

Most respondents used both scripts

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Both original script andtransliteration

Only original script

Only transliteration

Should transliteration be discarded?

Is Transliteration/Romanization helpful?

Who benefits from transliteration/romanization?

• Researchers – Native researchers – Non-native researchers

• Non-Area Studies Librarians

• Cataloguers

Aga Khan University Library’s decision

The major reasons were:

• Transliteration/Romanization was confusing for users, rather than facilitating searches. For example: According to ALA table ‘is transliterated as ‘Lahaur ’. But the users ’الہور go for ‘Lahore’ as a search term.

• Transliteration is much more time consuming for cataloguers, as they need to apply special characters.

• A virtual keyboard is provided on the OPAC for the convenience of users.

Aga Khan University Library OPAC

Aga Khan University Library OPAC

Other catalogues that use original scripts

• Arab Union Catalogue

• National Library of Israel

– Due to inconsistent pronunciations

– Use original scripts for Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic works

If one did discard transliteration…

• Cataloguers can transcribe the details on the title page as it is displayed, without worrying about which transliteration scheme to use

• So if the title is in Arabic, Persian, or Urdu, there will be no confusion about transliteration schemes

• Cataloguing time would be reduced

• Researchers could search without worrying about which transliteration scheme to use

To Conclude

• The future of transliteration in catalogues should be reconsidered

• Future developments should work on improving any issues that result in original script cataloguing

• Discarding transliteration will be of more benefit to both cataloguers and users