[Heb-NACO] Romanization of Names in Hebrew Script

[Biella, Joan]

Heb-NACO readers may be interested in the following, a proposed Library of Congress Policy Statement (the RDA equivalent of an AACR2 Rule Interpretation) for instruction 9.2.2.5.3.  This draft was prepared in September by the Israel/Judaica Section at LC and the AJL Cataloging Committee, and is now under consideration for adoption.  --Joan Biella
 
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Hebraic Alphabet: Follow this order of preference for persons with Hebrew and Yiddish surnames:

1.  If the name is found prominently in a romanized form on the person’s works in Hebrew or any other language written in the Hebrew script, use this form.

2.  If the name is found as the heading for an article about the person in The Encyclopaedia Judaica or The Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, use this form. If the form varies in these two sources, use the form found in The Encyclopaedia Judaica.

3.  If the name is found in a romanized form in a widely-known and easily-consulted free online source, use this form, especially where a person who writes or is written about primarily in the Hebrew script provides a preferred romanized form of the name in the reference source (e.g., Facebook, Linkedin) or, failing such a source, a general source (e.g., Wikipedia).

4.  Otherwise, use the systematically romanized form of the name.

5.  However,
            a)  If the authorized access point for an author reflects the systematically romanized form and a subsequently received work of the author in Hebrew or Yiddish shows a non-systematically romanized name (i.e., a “found romanization”), generally do not change the heading. This means that only in exceptional cases will systematically romanized names be candidates for change.
            b)  If the heading for a Hebrew or Yiddish author reflects a non-systematically romanized form and a subsequently received work of the author in Hebrew or Yiddish shows a different non-systematically romanized form (i.e., a different “found romanization”), do not change the heading until the different form clearly predominates.
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________________________________________
From: heb-naco-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [heb-naco-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Aaron Kuperman [akup at loc.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 2:31 PM
To: Hebrew Name Authority Funnel
Cc: hasafran at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu; AUTOCAT
Subject: Re: [Heb-NACO] Romanization of non-Hebrew proper nouns

We are dealing with a situation whereby an Israel author uses that
Italian/English name "Mario" as a forename in writing in Hebrew.

Based on a search in the Google data base, it appears that no Hebrew
speaker use any romanization other than "Mario".  If the rules as
currently applied by LC result in an absurdity that impairs useabilty of
our cataloging metadata, it is apparent that the rule is clearly wrong and
should be changed. The guiding principle is that a catalog should provide
access to works by the name that the author is known by, and that means
know by the users in the real world. By this standard, the current
AACR2/LCRI is a failure. Systematic romanization means apply a mechanical
and artificial standard that benefits no users and merely makes cataloging
more expensive and less useful.

I suggest the first rule in romanization of an author whose name is only
in Hebrew characters in the book, is to "google" him and check what form
he/she/it uses, or institutions associated with him/her (such as
universities, publishers, professional groups, etc.) use. At this point in
time, it should be easy to find the individual's preferred romanized from
of name (at least for non-Hareidi authors, which pose other issues).

Aaron

Obviously not the opinion of LC. However I respectfully submit that in
this matter I am right and LC practice is clearly wrong.



On Mon, 28 Nov 2011, ...  wrote:


> In order to preserve the natural and expected pronunciation of the word Mario I would romanize îøéå or îàøéå
as Maryo rather than Mariyo.   This is my bias and does not reflect official LC practice.
                                             Benjamin