Topic 4. Transcription

[Robert L. Maxwell]

At 11:19 AM 1/25/99 -0800, Steve Tabor wrote:
>Thus we back into the horns of the
>i/j u/v dilemma. The rationale for the DCRB guideline in section 0H (which
>I have never found confusing or time-consuming to follow) is to avoid
>fantastic spellings that the printer would not have countenanced. This is
>actually another concession to legibility, albeit mainly for the benefit of
>users familiar with the compositorial conventions.

I do not have the answer to the dilemma and agree that solutions may not be
simple, but I would like to reiterate that the problem (at least one
problem) is not how confusing or time-consuming it is for a cataloger to
produce a record (though taking the time to establish a printer's practice
is something that takes extra time every time a record is produced), but
how difficult it is for a user to find a record. It is not a matter of a
user being "familiar with the compositorial conventions". Underlying 0H is
the fact that there ARE no compositorial conventions, at least not
universal ones. If there were universal conventions, we could come up with
a satisfactory transcription rule that fit every case. That is why each
individual book has to be examined separately for printing conventions in
order to apply 0H. But given that, how can a user who by definition does
not have the book in hand even come close to guessing what the convention
used in that particular book was? Even if he/she actually is aware that we
transcribe according to 0H?

>
>This is partly a long way of saying that I am happy with DCRB 0H as it
>stands, and hence with Elizabeth's option 2 (though there is an ambiguity
>in the phrase "as printed").
>
>Incidentally, I could probably cite examples of early English revolutionary
>pamphlets in which the i/j usage is a clue to whether you have the original
>or a contemporary reprint.

Yes, but that clue would be lost through the application of 0H, would it not?

Bob
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Robert L. Maxwell
Special Collections and Ancient Languages Cataloger
6428 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 378-5568
robert_maxwell at byu.edu
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