ALC CATALOGING COMMITTEE

AFRICANA SUBJECT FUNNEL REPORT

FALL 1997

The following subject headings have been proposed since the last update (June 5, 1997). A * indicates that the heading has been submitted, but not yet accepted by the Library of Congress.

FYI

-- Notes and Helps --

Please note that the following answers are taken from informal email correspondence and are not "official" LC communications, which can only be issued by CPSO.

• When establishing new languages do we also need to investigate/update the corresponding people headings that already exist in the authority file?

SACO liaison:

"In general, the preference is to have the form of name or the language match the form of name for the people and most language headings follow this preference unless there's overwhelming evidence to indicate the people and the language should have different forms. If usage seems more or less balanced between several different forms and one of the forms is that used on the heading for the people, there's no need to research the people. However, if your research leads you to think that there is a strong preference in the literature for a form of name for the language that is different from the name set up for the people, then you should research the people to see if that form should be changed also. If you end up concluding that the preferred form for the language is different from that for the people, you should submit evidence for both the language and the people ... "

--This leads to the next question that pops up frequently --

• Do we have to make sure then that the people and language name are the same? AND do we always have to prefer Ethnologue?

The answer based on my experience as funnel coordinator is that yes we should try to make them the same, but it is not required. Solid research is necessary to back up a choice of subject heading. For example we submitted the heading for Ogoni (African people) and it was accepted even though Ethnologue gave the preferred heading of Koana and the language for these people is given in LCSH as Kana language.

The subject as proposed:

02-92 SUBJECT AUTHORITY PROPOSAL FORM

008 : 2. I .X.. (May Subd Geog) 25. YZ00/11/26/96 (Cat. Code)

- ... (Not Subd Geog) 29. C

: ... (No decision) 040 : IEN $DLC

053 :

150 : Ogoni (African people)

4XX : Kana (African people)

4XX: Khana (African people)

4XX: Koana (African people)

5XX BT :|w g |a Ethnology |z Nigeria

5XX RT :

670 Work cat.: The singing anthill, 1991: |b t.p. (Ogoni) p. 9 (live near

Port Harcourt, northeastern Niger Delta)

670 Ethnologue, 1992: |b p. 340 (Koana (Kana, Khana, Ogoni))

670 (additional sources to justify hdg or x-refs) : Handbook of ethnic

units in Nigeria, 1985: |b p. 215 (Kana, cf. Ogoni; variant, Khana)

675 (Sources not found) : Murdock world cult., African ethnonyms

680 Here are entered works on

952 : ..... bib. records to be changed

LC pattern or SCM Memo: Yoruba (African people)

Response from LC:

"Please see changes made by CPSO to sp96-12117 Ogoni people. The 4xx's were eliminated, as was part of the citation in 670 -- Hand. of ethn. units, with the comment that the term Ogoni p. 215 covers Kana, Gokana and Eleme peoples. "

The subject authority records as it now appears in MUMS:

VERIFIED EVAL SU

MAY SUBD GEOG

%

&001 sh96-12117

&040 IEN DLC

&150 Ogoni (African people)

&550 Ethnology--Nigeria {broader term}

&670 Work cat.: The singing anthill, 1991: t.p. (Ogoni) p. 9 (live near Port Harcourt, northeastern Niger Delta)

&670 Ethnologue: p. 340 (Koana (Kana, Khana, Ogoni))

&670 Handbook of ethnic units in Nigeria, 1985: p. 215 (Ogoni, term covers Kana, Gokana and Eleme peoples)

&675 Murdock world cult.; African ethnonyms

&952 2 bib. record(s) to be changed

&952 LC pattern: Yoruba (African people)

• When establishing subjects it seems that English sources are preferred. If a source is in another language though, does LC want everything in the 670 $b to be translated rather than quoted?

SACO liaison:

"The material in subfield b should be in English, with the exception of the specific subject term being proposed. It doesn't have to be an exact translation; a paraphrase or summary is fine. In practice, I know I've let several French subfield b's through and CPSO hasn't said anything, probably because most of the specialists read either French or German or both, but the preference is for English. "

• Could you provide some information on how to cite electronic or web based reference sources? How would one provide information on where the citation came from when there are no page numbers and you get to the citation by looking through an index and clicking on the language name/code. (Ethnologue) Does it matter?

SACO liaison:

"In H 203.8d (p.5), the section on 'Citing computer network or Internet resources' it says to give the name of the home page and the date consulted in subfield a and the location, if appropriate, and information found in subfield b. In your case, no location is needed since you can easily find a language name from the home page. A location statement for an online resource is generally only needed when you have to take another, not immediately obvious, step to get to a point where you can retrieve the search result. For example, in searching Geonet you have to pick a country before you can start searching and in searching Firstsearch you have to pick a database. Something like this would be fine:

670 Ethnologue, June 14, 1997 (Wayto (Weyto, Wayt'o)) "

• Citing pattern headings.

SACO liaison:

"In general, one should be very cautious in using hdgs. with sh85-xxx numbers as patterns. That is the year LCSH was put on line. Those records do not contain complete authority information; they frequently include references from older forms of the subject hdg., identified by an nnen in subfield w, which should not be copied on new records; and they may not reflect recent changes in approach. It's always best to look at the most recent subject hdgs. possible for a pattern. "

• What is LC policy for cross references for African people and languages when variant names start with such prefixes as Ba, Ke, or Ki. Some would say that such references are redundant. Others would say that many users would not know what they mean and might try to search under them. It seems that LC practice has been to add such cross-references. However, sh 96008002 (Bondei (African people)) does not have such cross references even though the variant names are given in the 670s. Was this an oversight?

SACO-M. Wewerka:

"Regarding the references for form beginning with Ki (and variants), these references may be added if sources indicate that the form is used to refer to the people. Most commonly, this form is used to refer to the language, since in the Bantu languages this prefix usually means 'language' The corresponding prefix meaning 'people' is Ba." "Where the prefix Ki or Ba (or variants) occurs with or without the hyphen, either or both forms may be added as references."

• Is it necessary to put x-refs in authority records when the only difference is the presence or absence of diacritics?

SACO-M. Wewerka:

"The Library of Congress does not add references from forms that vary only in the use of diacritics."

• How thorough should we be in quoting from reference sources, especially when we run into letters and diacritics missing from our keyboards? (question from Joe Lauer)

My sense as coordinator is that one should be a thorough as necessary to support the heading. Note earlier statements about preferring English language sources. If there are letters or diacritics which you can not duplicate, describe them in English and put the information in parentheses where it should be located. Our liaison has requested that when I send in records using diacritics that I provide the information twice: once without the diacritics, once with the diacritic names provided in parentheses. For example:

Antologia poetica da Guine-Bissau, 1990

Antologia po(acute accent)etica da Guin(acute accent)e-Bissau, 1990

It would be very helpful if you all could do this for me. If all else fails, send me a fax of the t.p.

• How does LC justify the use of language reference sources for ethnic groups--and--the use of ethnic group reference sources for languages. There is some concern in the group that this confuses things when the name of the language is different from the name of the people.

SACO--M. Wewerka:

"Regarding the use of linguistic and ethnographic reference sources, preference should be given to the type of source corresponding to the category of heading. However, we have found that there may be few sources available and we use what we can. This is especially true for ethnographic sources. Until recently, most such reference sources were badly out of date, so catalogers supplemented their research with linguistic sources." "We do not automatically prefer Ethnologue, but it is usually the most current source. A judgement must be made balancing the most frequent usage and the currency or reliability of the sources."

• What should we do if one ref. source calls a language a dialect and another doesn't? What if variant names listed in one source are listed as dialects in another?

SACO--M. Wewerka:

"As to the dialect or language issue, this is indeed a case by case issue.