[DCRM-L] Japanese Cataloging Tips needed

[Sarah Stanhope]

Good Morning All,

I hope this email finds you well. I have been working on cataloging some
Japanese titles and I would say that maybe 5-10% of our rare book backlog
consists of Japanese materials. We do acquire materials in Japanese, but
not very many. When I do come across one that requires original cataloging,
it can be quite difficult to know how to get started.

I had some questions about finding reference materials/resources and how to
get started. I don't have any experience with Japanese language. Here are
some questions I had that maybe some of you have come across cataloging
Japanese materials. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

1) How do you transcribe text from materials if apps like Google Translate
will not pick up the characters? (example: handwritten or stylized scripts)
Also, kanji can be challenging to transcribe in order to conduct a
search/translation.

2) What transliteration style should I use? I noticed that Connexion
supports Cyrillic and Chinese, but not Japanese. Do you have any
suggestions for online sites for Japanese transliteration and translation?
I have been using http://www.romajidesu.com/, but I am not sure it is the
best.

Examples: (source: http://www.romajidesu.com) The machine translations seem
very unreliable. Do you have any feedback about the quality of the
transliteration?

   1. Original: 役者似面
   Transliteration: Yakusha nimen
   Translation: Actor-like
   2. Original: 出世鯉滝白玉 Transliteration: Shusse koi taki shiratama
   Translation: Shiratama
   3. Original: 繪本太閤記. 三編
   Transliteration: E hon taikōki, san hen
   Translation: Taiko Ryomoto, three volumes
   4. Original: 三世相ゑにし乃緒車
   Transliteration: Sanzesō wenishi sha
   Translation: Third generation Soen Nishino car

3) If you do not have a Japanese language cataloger on staff, do you
contract out any translation work? Do you have volunteers or part-time
catalogers? Do you ask colleagues in other departments? (I am a little
reluctant to do this, as I know how busy everyone is!)

Sorry for the incomplete message earlier! I accidentally sent it before I
was finished editing!

I am eager to know how you approach cataloging these materials and if you
have any favorite online resources, such as online
translation/transliteration websites. Also, interested to know how you find
translation help if you know you will be cataloging a large batch of
Japanese language materials, as it can be quite time-consuming and quite a
big ask.

I look forward to hearing your responses and suggestions!

Best,
Sarah Stanhope
*Managing Catalog Librarian*
*Hirsch Library*
*Museum of Fine Arts, Houston*

On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 10:01 AM Sarah Stanhope <sstanhop at gmail.com> wrote:

> Good Morning All,
>
> I hope this email finds you well. I have been working on cataloging some
> Japanese titles and I would say that maybe 5% of our rare book backlog
> consists of Japanese materials. We do acquire materials in Japanese, but
> not many. When I do come across one that requires original cataloging, it
> can be quite difficult to know how to get started.
>
> I had some questions about references and how to get started. I have any
> experience learning Japanese. Here are some questions I had that maybe some
> of you have come across cataloging Japanese materials. Please let me know
> if you have any suggestions!
>
> 1) How do you transcribe text from materials if apps like Google Translate
> will not pick up the characters? (example: handwritten or stylized scripts)
> Also, kanji can be challenging to transcribe in order to conduct a
> search/translation.
>
> 2) What transliteration style should I use? I noticed that Connexion
> supports Cyrillic and Chinese, but not Japanese. I noticed on
> transliteration sites, such as
>
> Examples:
>
>    1. Original: 役者似面
>    Transliteration: Yakusha nimen
>    Translation: Actor-like
>    2. Original: 出世鯉滝白玉Shusse koi taki shiratama
>
> Shiratama
>
>
>
>
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