[DCRM-L] Foreign Language Cataloging

[reithl at georgetown.edu]

Kate,

Off the top of my head, several suggestions, especially since I have also had to catalog more than a few modern foreign language dictionaries in recent years.

1) The chief rule is to look for and find good sample records which you can use for future reference. Most dictionaries in the major languages will have records to which you can refer.

2) Don't assume that the languages will be reciprocal(i.e. if there is an Italian to English, then there must logically also be an English to Italian equivalent). I learned early on (through some sadly misleading subject headings) that each dictionary has to be examined carefully to determine its scope (taken from the great French medievxal historian Marc Bloch's dictum, that the sources cannot be assumed, but they must be looked for).

3) If you can use LC classification numbers and are not required by your institution to supply unique call numbers understandable only to your own library and its clientele, then you should also be able to find sample records which provide good guidelines - in connection with the LC classification schedules, of course. A glance at the on-line Library of Congress Catalog (www.loc.gov) may also help you determine proper Cutter numbers, as will a glance at the patterns for LC subject headings.

4) Above all, try to be consistent, always trying to provide as much help for your users as you can through the cataloging record itself. This might require a simple or even more extended 520 contents note, as you see the need for it.

5) As Katie Henderson, my sainted cataloging professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, used to put it, "You are not trying to provide the perfect cataloging record, but you want to help the user find the xxxxxx book!" Perhaps not the most elegant English prose (Katie claims to be a descendent of Martin Luther's wife Katie from the 16th century - I'll take her word for it), but she made the point effectively.

Happy cataloging with all your dictionaries.

Louis Reith
Humanities/Rare Book Cataloger
Georgetown University Library
Washington, DC  2057-1174

reithl at georgetown.edu
Tel. (202) 687-7633 off.