Pinyin implementation at the Library of Congress

Citation

(1998), "Pinyin implementation at the Library of Congress", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 10. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.17307jab.007

Pinyin implementation at the Library of Congress

Pinyin implementation at the Library of Congress

Summary provided by Angela Kinney, Head, Southeast/South Asia Team, Library of Congress

On 25 March 1998 Philip Melzer, Head of the Korean/Chinese Team in the Regional and Cooperative Cataloguing Division (RCCD) at the Library of Congress, gave a status report at the Plenary Session of the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL), outlining LC's plans for the conversion to Pinyin from Wade-Giles for the romanisation of Chinese. LC established a Pinyin Task Group in May 1997. The task group is responsible for carrying out the implementation plans. It includes representatives from the Cataloguing Policy and Support Office, Network Development and MARC Standards Office, Geography and Map Division, Acquisitions and Support Services Directorate, Asian Division, and RCCD. The task group held a brainstorming session in May 1997 with participants from OCLC, RLG and CEAL. The group urged LC to:

1. 1.

   announce publicly its intention to convert to Pinyin;

2. 2.

   issue guidelines for Pinyin romanisation;

3. 3.

   declare a Day 1 implementation date; and

4. 4.

   formulate a general strategy for conversion.

In September 1997 LC issued a formal statement of its intention to convert to Pinyin, promising to consult with CEAL on various aspects of the conversion project, such as the development of guidelines for romanisation of Chinese based on Pinyin.

LC has accepted a proposal by RLG to convert Chinese records in the RLIN file to Pinyin, including over 100,000 Chinese bibliographic records contributed by LC. LC is working with RLG to develop conversion specifications and testing procedures. This undertaking will ensure that LC and RLIN files remain compatible. OCLC is also participating in this planning process.

LC's Pinyin Task Group has developed the following recommendations:

1. 1.

   only machine readable records should be converted; when non-machine readable Chinese records are converted, they should be romanised in Pinyin;

2. 2.

   an acceptable level of accuracy in records for conversion should be defined;

3. 3.

   insofar as possible, conversion should be performed by computer program; human review should be minimised;

4. 4.

   there should be an extended period of work on specifications and thorough testing of conversion hypotheses and workflow procedures;

5. 5.

   during the conversion process, access points on bibliographic records should be compiled; that list should be used as the basis for the conversion of name authority records;

6. 6.

   the access points on non-Chinese records should be brought into conformity with the headings in the authority file;

7. 7.

   converted LC bibliographic and authority records should be redistributed.

LC's Pinyin Task Group will draft a general implementation schedule during the coming months. A small subgroup has been formed to investigate subject headings that are candidates for conversion and to assess the impact of the conversion on the classification schedules.