1. OCLC Global Council  November 2013
NRCIG
Cendrella Habre
University Librarian, Lebanese American University
EMEARC Delegate

2. Mission
The mission of the Non-Roman Characters
Interest Group (NRCIG) is to inform the
Cooperative and OCLC’s strategic
development about the issues of making
OCLC’s products and services “work” in
languages that use non-Roman characters.

3. Charge
To provide background information to the
OCLC Board and SLT regarding the
locations, sizes and importance of major
Arabic-language collections and to
investigate and report on the status of
Arabic language in OCLC’s product
development plans.

4. Members
•
Cendrella Habre, Chair
•
Omar Farhoud, Information Management Manager, LAU (Lebanon)
•
Fares Jureidini, Logos (Distributor_Lebanon)
•
Asma Al-Kanan, Director, Library, American University of Kuwait
•
William Kopycki, Field Director, Library of Congress, Egypt
•
Magda El-Sherbini, Associate Professor and head of Cataloging Department, Ohio State University
Libraries
•
Martha Speirs, EMEARC Alternate Delegate, Dean, Library and Information Services, Azerbaijan
Diplomatic Academy
•
Rebecca Youth, Catalog Librarian, University of Iowa Libraries & MELA member
OCLC Staff
•
Janet Lees
•
Bemal Rajapatirana
•
Arthur Smith

5. Institutions that Create Records for Arabic-Languages Resources
82
58
1,307
51+
11-50
1-10

6. Institutions with Holdings on Records for Arabic-language Resources
101+
11-100
1-10

7. Issues and Challenges
•
Transliteration/Romanization


Tools are unknown to users

•
Tools are not user-friendly
Inconsistencies (In the US for example Romanization is performed by non-Arabic speaking staff)
Subject Headings


Translation of LCSH with modifications

•
Limited LCSH
Different Arabic SH Lists
Arabic topics
Undiscoverable
Names


•
Similar to SH
Complexities in Name Structure
Users (Western vs. Arab)

•
What do they want?
Technological lags

OCLC’s Z39.50 server is not enabled to search records in Arabic

Inconsistent use of MARC fields for Romanized diacritics

UNICODE

Indexing (non-filing characters for the ) and the Hamza on the Alef ( )

8. Suggested Solutions
• Transliteration/Romanization
LINKED DATA
• Subject Headings
LINKED DATA
UNIFIED LIST OF SUBJECT HEADINGS (a project that should be
sponsored by OCLC)
• Names
VIAF
LINKED DATA
• Users (Western vs. Arab)
LINKED DATA
• Technological lags
Experts from the Arab World

9. THANK YOU
Q&A