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<DIV>This may be of interest to list members. I'm sorry, I should have thought to forward it earlier. The deadline for comments was yesterday, Dec. 8, but I suspect that it won't really be all that strict. </DIV>
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<DIV>I think omitting romanization makes non-Roman materials more exotic and therefore likely to be left out of account when people are doing research. I also think it makes the records and the books easier to deal with both for the librarian and for the researcher. Not just author and title, but place, publisher, and series should be romanized, to make it easier to order a copy from the publisher if one can't get one from the library system.</DIV>
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<DIV>Allen</DIV>
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<DIV>Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.<BR>Senior Reference Librarian<BR>Team Coordinator<BR>South Asia Team, Asian Division<BR>Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150<BR>101 Independence Ave., S.E.<BR>Washington, DC 20540-4810<BR>tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; <A href="mailto:athr@loc.gov">athr@loc.gov</A><BR>The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.<BR><BR>>>> "Patton,Glenn" <pattong@OCLC.ORG> 11/25/2009 9:58:25 AM >>><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="COLOR: #000000">Forwarded on behalf of the ALCTS Non-English Access Working Group on<BR>Romanization, with apologies for multiple postings ...<BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Robert Rendall [<A href="mailto:rr2205@columbia.edu]">mailto:rr2205@columbia.edu]</A> <BR>Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:24 PM<BR>To: nonenglishaccess@ala.org<BR>Subject: [nonenglishaccess] Romanization in bibliographic records: draft<BR>report<BR><BR>Colleagues,<BR><BR>Please forgive duplication and forward this announcement as appropriate.<BR><BR>The ALCTS Non-English Access Working Group on Romanization invites <BR>comment on its draft report, posted at:<BR><BR><A href="http://connect.ala.org/node/88651">http://connect.ala.org/node/88651</A><BR><BR>The Working Group was established by the ALCTS Non-English Access <BR>Steering Committee to examine the current use of romanized data in <BR>bibliographic and authority records and to recommend whether <BR>romanization is still needed in bibliographic records. This draft <BR>report was developed by the Working Group in collaboration with the <BR>members of its open discussion forum on ALA Connect.<BR><BR>The Working Group will submit its final report to the Steering Committee<BR><BR>on Dec. 15, 2009. Comments are requested by Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 and <BR>may be sent to rr2205@columbia.edu.<BR><BR>Thank you,<BR><BR>Robert Rendall<BR>Chair, ALCTS Non-English Access Working Group on Romanization<BR><BR>-- <BR>Robert Rendall<BR>Principal Serials Cataloger<BR>Original and Special Materials Cataloging, Columbia University Libraries<BR>102 Butler Library, 535 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10027<BR>tel.: 212 851 2449 fax: 212 854 5167<BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>