REPORT

HOLLIS & Non-Latin Script Languages

In Fall 2023, the URC undertook two studies: one exploring Library staff's perceptions of HOLLIS when searching with non-Latin scripts and another examining the search strategies employed by non-staff users when looking for non-Latin script materials in HOLLIS. This research supports MyGo 6.

Methodology & Participants

The URC interviewed two groups -10 library staff who work with non-Latin scripts and 9 researchers who search for non-Latin materials. The latter was recruited by asking the library staff who they would suggest for an interview and received a $25 Amazon gift card for their time.

Research Questions

1. How do researchers use HOLLIS to conduct non-latin script language searches?
2. How do researchers and staff handle when HOLLIS search results are incorrect or unhelpful in their search?
3. What changes or enhancements could the library make to metadata or cataloging processes to improve searching in non-latin script languages?

Insights

Cataloging and Language

To better understand why HOLLIS searching for non-Latin materials can be difficult, it is important to understand these basics about cataloging and language found during the research:

• Language resists romanization due to dialects, colloquial pronunciation, or tonal pronunciation.
  • Affects the following texts: Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Coptic, Armenian, Hebrew, Yiddish
• Languages influenced by other languages lead to inconsistent standardization and ultimately romanization.
  • Affects the following texts: Yiddish, Coptic, Persian
• Language and cataloging practices change over time which creates differences in romanization.
• The lack of standardization between catalogers on unique cataloging instances makes finding items harder.

HOLLIS Search

Romanization and when non-Latin script is used is inconsistent in HOLLIS, leading to difficulty in searching for non-Latin materials. The following insights support this:

• Romanization usually leads to more results in HOLLIS because historically US search systems could not parse unique Unicode
• Some HOLLIS records were created with non-LOC romanization tables. This is either because a catalog record is brought in from a vendor, an author created a romanization themself, or a cataloger used OCLC or Worldcat to help fill in metadata pieces of information