[Heb-NACO] Use of email form of name?

[Kuperman, Aaron]

This question came up a few years ago and I asked PSD (David Reser) as to how to proceed when an author’s preferred Romanization (i.e. the one the author uses in “real life” and that one likely to appear in future works) is available online, even though the book in hand has only the name in Hebrew characters.  His opinion is that we should use the author’s preferred Romanization, rather than using a systematic one that does not reflect how the author is known to the world.

I believe this reflects the RDA principle that cataloging should reflect what appears in resources rather than data made up by catalogers and used by no one else (which is what systematic Romanization involves), and also that since we are focused on resources rather than printed books, the online resources we consult in doing authority work are just as legitimate a basis  for determining the form of name as the book that is being cataloged.  Under AACR2 the focus was on the book in hand, and we often created systematically Romanized headings that did not resemble the choice and form that author’s actually use in their daily lives.

When doing authority work for a Hebrew script author whose name does not appear in Romanized form in the work being cataloged, I always check the name online (“Google”) and usually find the author’s preferred Romanization, which (surprise, surprise) rarely is the same as the catalogers’ systematic Romanization.  In some cases where they give the name in Hebrew, but give an address and phone number in English (not rare among “rabbinical” literature published in America) by checking those online I often can find the Romanized form the author is using in his daily life - which typically reflects how Hebrew is romanized among Orthodox Jews in America.  For author’s with university backgrounds in Israel, it is rare that they don’t have an online web presence reflecting the author’s preferred Romanization.

Aaron

Aaron Kuperman, LC Law Cataloging Section.
This is not an official communication from my employer


From: Heb-naco [mailto:heb-naco-bounces+akup=loc.gov at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Rachel Simon
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2016 10:02 AM
To: Hebrew Name Authority Funnel
Subject: [Heb-NACO] Use of email form of name?

I have a Hebrew book by Dr Eliyahu Lanyado (  ד"ר אליהו לניאדו). There is no explicit Romanized form of his name, but he uses “elilaniado” in his email. Can I establish his name from his email? I couldn’t find him in Facebook, LinkedIn [there is another guy with the same name], etc.

Thanks,

Rachel
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