AJL RAS 2019 Cataloging Committee Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 17, 2019, 10:30am-12:00pm Warner Marriott (Salon GH), Woodland Hills, CA

Old Business

1. Welcome and introductions, approve 2018 minutes (Heidi, 10 minutes):

Minutes from the 2018 meeting were approved, which included the following decisions:
     a.   Deṭ is correct Romanization for דייט.
     b.   Braslav is now the correct romanizaton for unvocalized ברסלב.
     c.   YHṾH* is the correct Romanization for the vocalized Tetragrammaton (This is a statement of best practices, not a rule. This practice should be followed in the OCLC master record, but each cataloger has the option to make a different choice in their library’s local catalog based on what would be best for their library and their library users.)

2. Hebrew grammar guide for Hebraica catalogers (Haim, 5 minutes):

Haim Gottschalk reiterated his interest in leading the development of a Hebrew grammar resource tailored to the needs of catalogers, which was endorsed by the Committee in 2018. Haim is gathering suggested resources from colleagues. The resource would be posted on the Cataloging Committee wiki and linked to the Hebraica Cataloging RDA (HCR).

3. Update on plans to edit HCR to reflect major RDA changes (Heidi, 5 minutes):

Plans are on hold until official rollout, which will include policy statements

New Business

It was noted that new Committee member Gabe Angulo, Metadata Librarian for Hebrew at Brandeis, brings valuable experience with rare books and manuscripts. Also, Haim Gottschalk will remain on the Committee for another year.

1. An update to the committee on the UCLA project to add non-Latin scripts to Russian records in OCLC (Sharon, 5 minutes):

UCLA sought to address the problem of non-Latin records lacking script. OCLC was approached, but declined to take on the project. UCLA initiated the project itself with Russian materials, using a transliterator program. UCLA had identified 61,000 records coded as Russian, but lacking script. Efforts are under way to refine the specifications for the project. An initial batch of records are to be released soon. A 588 “disclaimer” note indicates the source of the script. Future plans may include updating records for materials not held by UCLA.

2. A potential OCLC project: an informal funnel-like group to merge duplicate OCLC records (Sharon, 5 minutes):

OCLC is continuing to seek those willing to be trained to identify and merge duplicate records. Neil Frau-Cortes, along with other catalogers at UMd, received training via OCLC to become independent in the process, i.e., identifying the elements to verify when merging records, and activating the merge in Connexion. The Cataloging Committee may organize a “funnel”-type collaborative team to merge duplicate Hebrew records, under Neil’s guidance and review. Participants only need to be NACO-trained (BIBCO authorization is not required). Interested institutions may contact Neil directly.

3. NACO Hebraica project to clean up and evaluate non-Latin script references in the model of NACO CJK Funnel? (Heidi, 5 minutes):

Heidi Lerner proposed the formulation of a project to evaluate and clean-up erroneous Hebraic script references in NARs. It was noted, however, that LC has still not yet issued finalized guidelines on the application of non-Latin references. Jasmin indicated that additional information is needed about the requirements of such a project, and Nancy Sack noted that she could consult the head of the Korean script project at the University of Hawaii. Ahava Cohen suggested that NLI could help, especially with research on authors. The project would also check for records not coded as RDA, and is anticipated to take approximately two years.

4. Non-Latin Script Affinity Group – part of PCC LD4P (Heidi and Jasmin, 5 minutes):

Heidi and Jasmin provided an update on the Linked Data for Production (https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/LD4P) collaborative project [Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, University of Iowa, LC, and the PCC] to shift to linked data for the creation and manipulation of metadata. Heidi noted Stanford’s use of the Sinopia open-source linked-data “editor.” Additional libraries are now being trained. Heidi and Jasmin participate in the Affinity Group on Non-Latin Script, which is addressing such issues as the application of diacritics, automatic transliteration tools, and the handling of non-filing characters. It was noted that the Casalini catalogue has been converted to linked data.

5. Other business?

a. Vendor records: Caroline Miller raised the subject of shelf-ready vendor records, mentioning Harrassowitz, GOBI, and Backstage Library Works (which is providing cataloging in non-roman scripts cataloged by LC overseas offices). She noted that there are varying definitions of “shelf-ready”--at UCLA, it includes spine labels and security strips, and records undergo quality control. It was noted that Harvard is getting shelf-ready Hebrew records from Weinberg, including edge-stamping, barcoding, and call numbers according to Harvard’s scheme. Heidi’s review of such records, which appear to be chiefly repurposed NLI records, presented deficiencies, e.g., lacking necessary Latin script fields, call numbers, copyright dates, ISBNs and other elements.

b. RDA: Ahava (who serves as Chair, European RDA Interest Group) provided an update on RDA developments, including a forthcoming Arabic translation of RDA, and an effort to further address American/Western/Christian biases in the code. Ahava invites Committee members to bring such issues to her attention. She indicated that the changes will include a new practice to assign headings for books of the Bible according to local profiles and practices, and that sub-application profiles to be proposed for religious works will need to be reviewed by the Cataloging Committee.

c. National Library of Israel: Ahava also mentioned some NLI developments, including its ceasing the use of brackets in NARs to suppress ה' הידיעה, a project to change the names of bodies from כתיב חסר to כתיב מלא, and the transition to LC romanization. In addition, NLI is moving from Aleph and Alma, which provides support for NLI’s authority records. Records are exported to VIAF, and are reconciled with LC authority files. Bar Ilan recently joined the name authorities program, and also intends to contribute subjects.

In attendance:

Heidi Lerner, Stanford, lerner@stanford.edu (Chair)
Gabe Angulo, Brandeis, gangulo@brandeis.edu
Lenore Bell, USHMM, lbell@ushmm.org
Ahava Cohen, NLI, ahava.cohen@nli.edu.il (Member)
Popy Datta, AJU, pdatta@aju.edu
Sharon Benamou, UCLA, benamou@library.ucla.edu
Neil M. Frau-Cortes, UMd, nfrau@umd.edu (Member)
Yossi Galron, Ohio State, galron1@osu.edu
Haim Gottschalk, LC, hgot@loc.gov (Member)
Eli Lieberman, HUC-JIR-NY, elieberman@huc.edu
Caroline Miller, UCLA, crmiller@library.ucla.edu
Tarina Rosen, Emory, libtr@emory.edu
Nancy Sack, U. of Hawaii, sack@hawaii.edu
Marlene Schiffman, Yeshiva, schiffma@yu.edu (Member)
Jasmin Shinohara, U Penn., jshino@upenn.edu (Member)
Avrom Shuchatowitz, Yeshiva, shuchatow@yu.edu
Rachel Simon, Princeton, rsimon@princeton.edu
Galina Teverovsky, LC, gtev@loc.gov
Elizabeth Vernon, Harvard, vernon@harvard.fas.edu

Minutes by Lenore Bell

Minutes 2019