Survey on Japanese Romanization

Japanese Romanization Table Survey | Task Force Final Report

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Dear colleagues,
The CTP/CJM Joint Working Group on Japanese Romanization Table would like to invite your participation in a survey on the ALA-LC Romanization Table: Japanese (updated in 2012).

The WG has been working to resolve the issues that were identified by the Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization (for full details, please see the TF's final report). With this survey, we would like to hear from the CEAL community about how you currently deal with those issues, as well as what other issues or questions you have experienced since the Romanization Table was revised. The results of the survey will be used to prioritize the issues, and determine how they should be addressed to improve the Romanization Table.

Please take a moment to answer the Japanese Romanization Table Survey, by Thursday, June 19th. It should only take about 5 minutes of your time.

The WG appreciates your cooperation.

Sincerely,
CJM/CTP Joint Working Group on Japanese Romanization Table

Rob Britt
Mieko Mazza
Hikaru Nakano
Chiaki Sakai
Keiko Suzuki
Yoko Kudo, Chair

Technical Processing Committee: 2014 Program

Program (PDF) | CTP

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Council on East Asian Libraries Association for Asia Studies 

Committee on Technical Processing 

2014 Program 

RDA Implementation: Current Status and Known Issues

Philadelphia Marriot Downtown 

Marriott Liberty Ballroom C 

Thursday, March 27, 2014 2:30-3:20 p.m. 

The CEAL CTP Subcommittee on RDA will report a survey results on the current status of RDA implementation among CEAL members since March 31, 2013, the implementation date set by the national libraries. The Subcommittee will also present some examples of what public services and users would like to see on specific CJK known issues and how they may affect user tasks/experiences in resource discovery. A discussion of some possible solutions to some of known issues as well as how to prioritize these issues will be followed by a Q&A sessions.

2:30-3:00 pm RDA Implementation: Current Status and Known Issues (Charlene, Jessalyn, Sarah, & Shi)

• Survey report on RDA Implementation Status among CEAL Community
• Known Issues: how they may affect users’ experiences in resource discovery
• Known Issues: Some possible solutions to known issues and the committee’s priorities
• LC Updates on CJK Numerals, etc. (to distribute in writing via eastlib-l by Friday, March 21)
• PCC CJK NACO Project updates (to distribute in writing via eastlib-l by Friday, March 21)
• Q&A (5 minutes) 

3:00-3:05 pm Report: ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table (Yoko) 
3:05-3:10 pm Report & Award: LC-CEAL Internship Program (Yue) 
3:10-3:15 pm Report & Recognition of CTP members and subcommittee members (Shi) 
3:15-3:20 pm Q&A

Implementing the Japanese Romanization Table

LC Japanese Romanization Table (updated 2012) | Joel Hahn Macros (Includes Alif to Apostrophe) | Webinar on OCLC Macros (by Erica Chang) | NACO/SACO Change Request Form

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The Committee on Technical Processing (CTP)/Committee on Japanese Materials (CJM) Joint Working Group on the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table was formed in September 2013 to continue the work of the previous task force with regard to revisions and updates to the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table. It has been a year since the revision of the Japanese Romanization Table was approved and distributed. The Working Group would particularly like to raise the Japanese cataloging community's awareness that the current Table (linked above) specifies the use of the apostrophe | ' | (Unicode 0027) rather than the alif | ʾ | (Unicode 02BE) (see examples under "Diacritic Marks, 2").

What You Need to Know

• OCLC regularly updates Worldcat BIBLIOGRAPHIC records to the new standard, using an automated program to replace any alifs in Japanese cataloging with apostrophes (listserv post from Ms. Kotaka of OCLC).
• OCLC does not update AUTHORITY records. This is because the data management/control for LC/NACO authority files is in LC/NACO hands. As a result, pre-2012 authority records may still include the alif in romanized Japanese text.
• In bibliographic records, if the "control headings" feature is used with authority records that include the alif, the alif will be re-introduced. Alifs in controlled fields will be corrected when the linked authority records are updated with the apostrophe.
• Because of the normalization process, mixed use of these two diacritics will not cause any hindrance to searchers in WorldCat. However, it is still important to update authority records in order to maintain consistent use of diacritics in the records, as well as to prevent any search problems from occurring in local systems after importing records from OCLC.

What You Can Do

OCLC

• NACO (Name Authority Cooperative Program of the PCC) libraries : If you are a trained NACO contributor working for a NACO library, please update authority records by replacing any alifs with apostrophes in romanized Japanese, whenever time allows.
• Non-NACO libraries are not authorized to update the records. However, you may make a change request to the Working Group. Click here or above to submit a request form.
• Joel Hahn's macro for converting alifs to apostrophes, "AlifAyn2Apostrophe" (see links above) may be used in OCLC Connexion to update either bibliographic OR authority records.
• For more background on macros for this purpose and other related issues, see Erica Chang's presentation, "Using macros in Connexion for CJK materials webinar, Advanced session" (11/2012), linked above.
• Subject authority records may also include alifs, when they include romanized Japanese text. If your institution is a SACO library, ask your SACO coordinator to make a change proposal to LC. Non-SACO libraries may contact the Working Group using the request form link above.

Local Systems

• Be aware of the use of the alif in bibliographic records you download to your local integrated library system (ILS). You may want to replace any alifs with apostrophes in OCLC Connextion before exporting records to your local system.
• LC has kindly shared their alif-to-apostrophe macro for the Voyager ILS. For more information, please contact the Working Group chair, Yoko Kudo at yoko.kudo@ucr.edu
• For other local systems, each library must develop their own policy with regard to this issue depending on local needs and priorities. The effect of the mixed use of the alif and apostrophe may vary from system to system.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Yoko Kudo (yoko.kudo@ucr.edu), or any other Working Group member.

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Japanese Romanization Working Group (JRWG)

Yoko Kudo (Chair, UC Riverside)
Rob Britt (U. Washington)
Mieko Mazza (Stanford)
Hikaru Nakano (U. Florida)
Chiaki Sakai (U. Iowa)
Keiko Suzuki (Yale)
Working Group charge

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CTP/CJM Working Group on the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table Formed

In 2012 CTP and CJM formed a joint Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization to respond and provide feedback to the LC Revision Proposal for Japanese Romanization Table. The revision was approved and released in Dec. 2012.

Based on the 2012 CTP/CJM Task Force ’s report and recommendations, CTP and CJM formed a new joint working group on the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table in September 2013 to collect feedback on the 2012 revision and work on unresolved issues, etc., to be chaired by Yoko Kudo.

Thanks to Yoko and the following CEAL members who are willing to take the leadership and serve on the WG on the important issues concerning the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization guidelines:

• Yoko Kudo, Chair (UC Riverside)
• Rob Britt (U. Washington)
• Keiko Suzuki (Yale)
• Chiaki Sakai (U. Iowa)
• Hikaru Nakano (U. Florida)
• Mieko Mazza (Stanford)

The WG’s charge is available at the CTP website. The WG welcomes suggestions/comments from CEAL members. Please contact Yoko Kudo at yoko.kudo@ucr.edu

Shi Deng, Chair, Committee on Technical Processing Setsuko Noguchi, Chair, Committee on Japanese Materials

Japanese Romanization Table Revision Approved

Dear all,

Please read the LC announcement below approving the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table Revision. The major difference between this approved version and the September proposal you read is that Table C, Long Vowels and Diphthongs, was not included.

Japanese Romanization Table Revision Approved

The ALA-LC Romanization tables are developed jointly by the Library of Congress (LC) and the American Library Association (ALA). Romanization schemes enable the cataloging of foreign language materials. Romanized cataloging in turn supports circulation, acquisitions, serials check-in, shelf listing, shelving, and reference, particularly in library catalogs that are unable to display non-roman alphabet information.
The ALCTS Committee on Cataloging: Asian and African Materials (CC:AAM) recently received and reviewed a proposal to revise the Japanese romanization table. The table has subsequently been approved.

The revised Japanese romanization table is now available for downloading from the ALA-LC Romanization Tables webpage http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html .

Please direct any questions about romanization tables to Bruce Johnson, Policy and Standards Division (bjoh@loc.gov).

The CEAL Committee on Technical Process and Committee on Japanese Materials wish to thank the CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization for their great leadership and intellectual efforts in working closely with CEAL community and LC to provide significant contribution to this revision.

The Task Force members are:

• Keiko Suzuki, Yale University, Chair
• Rob Britt, University of Washington 
• Yoko Kudo, University of California Riverside 
• Mieko Mazza, Yale University (now at Stanford University) 
• Hikaru Nakano, University of Florida

Thanks also to CEAL members who have contributed to the revision by providing feedback.

As the work of the CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization is now complete, we are pleased to announce that it is formally discharged. For more details about the work of the TF, please check its web page at: http://www.eastasianlib.org/ctp/sub_Japaneseromanization.htm

Meanwhile, the revision of the Japanese Romanization Table will continue. CTP and CJM are working on the formation of a new working group. We will send out the announcement soon. If you are interested in joining the working group, please contact me (sdeng@ucsd.edu) or Setsuko (enoguchi@live.com). 

Best,

Shi Deng
Chair, CEAL Technical Processing Committee

Setsuko Noguchi
Chair, CEAL Japanese Materials Committee

Japanese Romanization Task Force Update

Committee Response to LC Comments (PDF) | Latest Draft Romanization Table (PDF)

 

Dear East Asia Library colleagues,

On behalf of the CTP/CJM Joint Task Force, I would like to share the TF comments regarding LC’s July 18, 2012 response and the draft Japanese romanization charts, which the TF derived from several sources and which replaces Appendix G in our June 13, 2012 response. 

Click the links at the top of this message to go directly to the latest PDF files. Or, find the PDF links under "August 17, 2012 Updates," near the bottom of the Task Force web page, on the CEAL Technical Processing Committee website.

This summary was included in our email to LC sent on August 17th, 2012:

As described in the TF comments, our latest recommendations are as follows:

• To include only minimum revisions in this current cycle of ALA-LC romanization table of Japanese, other than the alif/apostrophe clarification
• To work together for the comprehensive review after the initial implementation of RDA settle down
• To defer the switch from Kenkyusha's New Japanese English Dictionary to our own romanization charts to the comprehensive review

In addition, TF and CEAL community are looking forward to hearing from LC colleagues to clarify various important romanization and word division issues including the questions in the attached TF response and the ones from the Asian materials cataloging questions and answers (Appendix I of TF’s June 13, 2012 response) ...

In the same email, we wrote: “TF has been pleased to see the recent progress on the “Alif” clean-up initiatives by LC ([eastlib] Fwd: Announcing message on "Implementation of Apostrophes in Japanese Romanized Cataloging" on August 2nd, 2012) and OCLC ([OCLC-CJK] Conversion of alif and ayn to apostrophe on August 7th, 2012).”

Please let me or TF members know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the TF comments, the draft charts, and TF’s work as a whole.

We thank the CEAL community, LC and OCLC for their support of our work over the last eight months, and we look forward to the opportunity to continue to work together towards the important goal of further improving Japanese romanization standards in the near future.

- Keiko

For the CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization

Keiko Suzuki, Yale University, Chair

Rob Britt, University of Washington

Yoko Kudo, University of California Riverside

Mieko Mazza, Yale University

Hikaru Nakano, University of Florida

Shi Deng, University of California San Diego, ex officio (CTP Chair)

Setsuko Noguchi, CIC, ex officio (CJM Chair)

Response to LC’s Japanese Romanization Revision Proposal

Dear CEAL Community:

The CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization submitted its report to LC on June 13^th, 2012.  The report, created by the Task Force and approved by the CEAL Executive Board, documents the reasoning behind the Task Force’s belief that more extensive changes to the Japanese Romanization Table are needed. The Japanese Romanization Table is used as the standard for North American library cataloging. LC’s original revision proposal primarily addressed the issue of dropping the “alif” and using the apostrophe in all cases. The Task Force report spells out its belief that many other changes and updates are needed.

The Task Force’s new page on the CEAL website includes links to the June 13^th, 2012 report (click to go directly to the PDF) and other related materials.

Please contact us with any comments or questions.

Regards,

Keiko Suzuiki

Chair, CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on the LC Proposal for Japanese Romanization

keiko.suzuki@yale.edu

Shi Deng

Chair, CEAL Committee on Technical Processing

sdeng@ucsd.edu

Setsuko Noguchi

Chair, CEAL Committee on Japanese Materials

enoguchi@live.com

Japanese Romanization Taskforce Update

On March 21, 2012, the Library of Congress Policy and Standards Division announced that it will begin to follow recommendations of the CEAL Japanese Romanization Task Force, with the following message:

Implementation of Apostrophes in Japanese Romanized Cataloging and

Proposed Revision of the ALA-LC Japanese Romanization Table

The Library of Congress recently announced its interest in clarifying the use of apostrophes in romanized Japanese cataloging. Comments about the announcement were overwhelmingly in favor of using the apostrophe rather than the alif.

Based on this feedback, the Library of Congress will immediately align the use of the apostrophe in Japanese romanized cataloging with the published ALA-LC Japanese romanization standard. LC will also update headings in its bibliographic and authorities databases to reflect this decision. PCC member institutions are asked to adjust Japanese romanized cataloging records accordingly as they are encountered.

The announcement about apostrophe use in Japanese romanized cataloging revealed that additional revisions to the Japanese ALA-LC romanization table were needed. LC’s Policy and Standards Division is posting a revision proposal to the Japanese romanization table [PDF, 190 KB], along with a separate document [PDF, 36 KB] that enumerates changes in the revision proposal. These documents are available for download on the Library of Congress website at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman_japanesediacritics_Mar2012.html .

Comments on this proposed revision should be sent to Bruce Johnson in LC’s Policy and Standards Division ( bjoh@loc.gov ) no later than June 13, 2012.

Japanese Romanization Task Force Report

Link to PDF Report

Dear CEAL colleagues,

On Sunday, January 22nd, the CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on the LC Proposal Regarding Japanese Romanization submitted a report to LC titled “CEAL Response to the Clarification of LCpractice concerning the use of diacritical marks in Japanese romanization,” based on the survey conducted early this month.

The Task Force is very grateful to those who responded to the survey. We received close to 60 responses in spite of the very short notice and the brief survey period. I would also like to thank some Japanese experts consulted by the Task Force. Based on the survey results, close examination of the proposed revision, and brief research on related topics by Task Force members (excellent jobs!), we have composed a seven page response (45 pages including appendixes). Click here to view the report (PDF file). We welcome further feedback.

Here is a summary:

• The CEAL community thanks LC for clarifying the long-standing issue of alif and apostrophe usage in Japanese romanization.
• CEAL members support the idea of adding a “Diacritic marks” section to the Japanese romanization guidelines, and suggested moving the section towards the beginning of the document
• The TF also suggested adding a section on macron usage, with examples, to further clarify usage in more complex macron cases.
• The TF requests that LC continue to review the guidelines, and to establish a timeline for further revisions of the Japanese Romanization Table beyond the alif/apostrophe issue. The TF identified 17 additional examples and one deleted section included on the LC website version of the table (http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/japanese_table_111215.pdf), but not in the version attached to the original email to Eastlib on Dec. 14, 2011.
• The TF welcomes both LC’s and OCLC’s intention to work together with the CEAL community to do necessary cleanup work resulting from this change.
• The TF hopes that over time further improvements, bringing even more clarity to the ALA-LC Romanization Table for Japanese, will be made and that these improvements will be done in a collaborative and transparent way, with the participation of a range of stakeholders, including LC, OCLC and the CEAL community.

Please let Task Force members or me know if you have any questions or comments regarding our report. We intend to do follow-up work, including the review of any counter-response from LC, and further research on Japanese romanization, with the aim of improving the Japanese Romanization Table with broad input from the community. Please share your opinions, ideas, or insights on this issue. Also let us know if you notice any misunderstandings or inaccuracies in our report.

We are looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

- Keiko

For CEAL CTP/CJM Joint Task Force on LC Proposal to Japanese Romanization

Rob Britt

Yoko Kudo

Mieko Mazza

Hikaru Nakano

Keiko Suzuki, Chair

Shi Deng, ex officio (CTP Chair)

Setsuko Noguchi, ex officio (CJM Chair)

Ms. Keiko SUZUKI  鈴木啓子

Japanese Catalog Librarian, East Asia Library

Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University

P.O.Box 208240

New Haven, CT 06520-8240

Tel.: 203-432-2778 / Fax: 203-432-7231

keiko.suzuki@yale.edu