Association of Jewish Libraries
Cataloging Committee
Minutes
18 June 2006
Agenda items:
1. D. Lovins shared a draft letter of concern from the Association of Jewish Libraries to the Library of Congress concerning the recent decision to discontinue series authority control. Areas of concern include unexplained motivation for the change, lack of consultation, LC’s apparent abdication of its leadership role. Council members will sign the letter. The Committee approved it.
2. L. Bell reported on recent discussions at LC regarding RDA proposed revisions of Bible uniform titles, especially regarding “Bible. O.T.” and various possible less tendentious replacements for the heading. A proposal has been made to make alternative treatments optional. AJL and Committee members are urged to respond and comment, perhaps as a group. CC:DA has requested an AJL response by a month after the June ALA meeting.
3. Query: Why does LC not subdivide headings other than “Bible” with subfield “f” and date of publication—e.g., why not Talmud, Haggadah. AACR2 does not authorize such subdivision. However, since all of Chapter 25 is optional, any library may create (or not) uniform titles to suit its collection’s needs.
4. Hebrew dictionaries to supplement Even-Shoshan need to be authorized, especially for newer words. Rav milim and Morfix (online) were suggested. Use of these can be recommended for libraries with access to them.
5. L. Bell reported on current work at LC to revise the DS135 clasisviation area, now very crowded, especially for biographies. The Hebraica Team has proposed decimal subdivisions for DS134 to be completed using the standard biography tale. Comments are requested.
6. J. Biella reported that Hebraica Cataloging (HCM) is now online, and comments and proposed additions/revisions are requested to update it.
7. J. Biella and H. Lerner reported their intention to collaborate on materials to aid in Judeo-Arabic cataloging, including a romanization table, in 2006/7.
8. Guidelines for treatment of titles beginning with “Kuntres,” “Ma’amar,” “Mahberet” will be added to HCM.
9. The LC Update on June 20 will report the decision resolving the likatti/likatteti romanization controversy in favor of likatteti.
10. The Update will also include further proposals to increase consistency in Yiddish romanization of words of Hebrew/Aramaic derivation, surnames, and non-Hebrew place-names.
11. J. Nof will present an overview of Hebrew-script cataloging in OCLC on June 20.
12. P. Kearney will report on advances in his study of subject headings for piyyutim in the LC Update.
13. H. Lerner, perhaps with the help of Z. Baker, will draft a letter of support from the Cataloging Committee to the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book, now in danger of shutting down for lack of funds.
14. Should AJL endorse a policy of consisten application of parallel nonroman fields and use of ketiv male/haser supplemental fields? D. Lovins and Y. Galron will draft a proposed “best practices” document.
15. E. Adler reported that “in the next few months” the Jewish National and University Library (JNUL) will become ha-Sifriyah ha-le’umit (no longer “ve-universita’it”). It will assume responsibility to supply national bibliographic information. Its authority file will be made accessible by Z39.50. It may join LC and the Deutsche Bibliothek in partnership toward the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF). The Index to Yiddish Periodicals may supply Yiddish authorities for the file. Problems remain to be solved to reconcile varying Israeli practices regarding ketiv male/haser and similar problems.
Respectfully submitted
Joan Biella
This file last modified 07/10/07