The Good, the Bad, and the Non-Latin: Further Adventures in Unicode

Abstract

Charles Husbands (Harvard University).

As an increasing number of ALEPH libraries have begun to include non-Latin data in their databases, questions arise that non-Latin implementers must confront. This session will talk about a miscellany of these, principally concerning CJK. It will also mention other challenges arising from increased use of data from Unicode sources beyond OCLC, whether for Latin or other scripts. The conversion of OCLC and RLIN databases to Unicode has also generated interesting issues. These are welcome developments but do not necessarily simplify our lives. The session will focus on problems that have been encountered in practice, offering a smaller number of answers than questions. Version: 16-18. Level: Systems librarians and catalogers, especially of non_Latin script materials, are the primary audience, but some topics may be of interest to public services staff, too. The talk will reference fix routines, other Aleph tools, and Unicode concepts, but expertise in those areas is not required.