Dear Jasmine, I do not know how you will export records from OCLC into your local system and whether or not your local system currently supports non-roman scripts.
I can only share with you Stanford's experiences and decisions in this matter from the standpoint of an RLIN library. Stanford was one of the first libraries to take advantage of the Hebrew script offered by RLIN. Our local does not yet support Hebrew or other non-roman scripts but we have always made our cataloging decisions based on the premise that one day our local system would do so. We made our decisions on utilizing RLIN's non-roman script after examining the implications of cost vs. access. At Stanford we provide Hebrew script for originaly cataloging for the core fields that were defined by RLIN (245, 250, 260 and 440). We also provide Hebrew script as much as possible for 1xx and 7xx fields. The Hebrew script is stripped out when the records are exported to our local system with the thought that these records will be overlayed with the RLIN records containing the non-roman fields at such time as our local system will support non-roman scirpts. For those records that have copy available but that lack Hebrew script fields, our copy cataloger supplies the title proper (subfield "a" of the 245 field) and a main entry in readily identifiable. Copy with Hebrew script is accepted as is. You and your administrators will have to decide whether the added costs of providing Hebrew script to your catalog records sufficiently benefit your library's patrons, whether or not you will retroactivlely recatalog your roman-script only catalog records, and also think about the future impact of shared cataloging with Israeli libraries that may provide Hebrew-script only records to the utilities. Heidi ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jasmin Nof" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <heb-naco@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu> Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 11:17 AM Subject: adding Hebrew to bib records > Hello fellow catalogers, > > Here at Maryland we've just migrated to Connexion 1.4. Now having the > ability to input Hebrew, I'm faced with the decision of whether to add > Hebrew to all records that lack the vernacular, or only to original > records I contribute. What are you other catalogers doing? > > If you're an RLIN user, when Hebrew became available, did your library > start adding Hebrew to all records, or only to new records you were > submitting? > > Thank you for your time and help, Jasmin > > -- > Jasmin Nof > Judaica and Hebraica Cataloger > 2200 McKeldin Library > University of Maryland > College Park, MD 20742 > 301-405-9330 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
