[Slavic Cataloging Table of Contents] | Index

In 2005 OCLC'c Connexion software enabled the addition of parallel fields in Cyrillic script for Slavic languages. Currently some of the characters included in the non-Slavic Cyrillic script languages are not supported. When OCLC's database becomes a Unicode database, those characters should be supported as well.

Soon after the Cyrillic script was supported, Joel Hahn from the Niles Public Library District in Illinois developed a series of macros to supply this data for catalogers. His macros can be used to supply a Cyrillic field from a romanized field or a romanized field from a Cyrillic field. The macros take into account the differences in romanization between the languages by having the cataloger designate the language as the macro is run. Because of the one-to-one correspondence between the original Cyrillic character and its romanized counterpart, the automation of parallel fields for these languages works much better than it does for many other languages.

TO DOWNLOAD THE MACROS:

Joel Hahn's macros can be found on his Better Living Through Macros website. You'll want to click on the "Connexion Client" link and download the "Transliteration" macros. At the top of the "Connexion Client" page, Joel gives a link to complete instructions for downloading the macros.

TO USE THE MACROS:

• Have your cursor in the field from which you want to generate a parallel field
• Run the macro
• A dialogue box will ask you to choose the language from a drop-down list. Russian is at the top of the list, and the rest of the Slavic Cyrillic languages are in alphabetical order under that. You can use a keystroke to identify the language by pressing Shift/Tab and then entering the first letter of the language that you want to use, e.g. "u" for "Ukrainian."

• Press ENTER or Click OK to supply your parallel field. The parallel fields will appear with Cyrillic field above the romanized field, linked visually on the left by a bracket.

• Some paired fields will need editing after you create them if the field contains non-Cyrillic data as well as Cyrillic language data in order to put the non-Cyrillic data back into the appropriate alphabet. Some examples of this:
  • Parallel titles in a 245 field when one is in a Cyrillic language and one not
  • Fields that contain a phrase like "At head of title:"
  • Some roman numerals remain OK, and some are cyrillicized
  • Personal name subject heading, followed by a subject subdivision, such as "Criticism and interpretation."

ADVANTAGES TO ADDING PARALLEL FIELDS

• The ALA-LC Romanization Tables have served us well, but they do require users to learn a special romanization scheme just to find Slavic Cyrillic language materials. Adding parallel fields allows users to search via the Cyrillic fields.
• For catalogers it can make proofreading your records much easier, since your record is in the same script as your item.
• You can earn OCLC credit for your library by enriching the record with these fields. Even non-PCC libraries can add parallel fields to DLC/PCC records.
• With Joel Hahn's macros, adding the parallel fields take very little time.

[Slavic Cataloging Table of Contents] | Index