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