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.