Transcript Spiritual enrichment through Nim Faslah and other Persian

Persian keyboarding in shared
bibliographic records:
cataloger-centric vs. user-centric
William J. Kopycki
Middle East Studies Bibliographer
University of Pennsylvania Libraries
[email protected]
Arabic keyboard w/Persian shift
(RLIN21)
Major libraries contributing
Persian-script records
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Library of Congress
New York Public Library
New York University
University of California at Santa
Barbara
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Persian keyboard layout (Windows)
Additional characters vs. Arabic
‫چ‬
‫پ‬
‫گ‬
‫ژ‬
‫ۀ‬
hex 0686
hex 067E
hex 06AF
hex 0698
hex 06C0
Just because it looks like a duck…
Modified Arabic letters in the Persian
keyboard:
Character
Isol Fin Med
Init
Hex 0643 Arabic Letter
Kaf (Arabic Kaf)
‫ك‬
‫ـك‬
‫ـكـ‬
‫كـ‬
Hex 06A9 Arabic Letter
Keheh (Persian Kaf)
‫ک‬
‫ـک‬
‫ـکـ‬
‫کـ‬
Hex 064A Arabic Letter
Yeh (Arabic Yeh)
‫ي‬
‫ـي‬
‫ـيـ‬
‫يـ‬
Hex 06CC Arabic Letter
Farsi Yeh (Persian Yeh)
‫ی‬
‫ـی‬
‫ـيـ‬
‫يـ‬
Experiment 1a
“Farsi” as keyword search with Arabic
“ya” :
‫فارسي‬
Experiment 1a results:
Experiment 1b :
“Farsi” as keyword search with
Persian “yah” (from MS Farsi
keyboard)
‫فارسی‬
Experiment 1b results:
Experiment 1b analysis:
The harsh realities
The Persian “Ya” does not exist in the
MARC-8 Character repertoire,
therefore users should not expect to
realistically achieve results unless
they switch to the Arabic Alif
Maksurah.
Experiment 1c
“Farsi” as keyword search with Arabic
“Alif maksurah”
‫فارسى‬
Experiment 1c results:
Variation on this experiment
(In LC Catalog, set limits to retrieve
records encoded as “Persian” only)
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= 32 records using ‫فارسي‬
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= 618 records using ‫فارسى‬
However… in WorldCat
= ‫فارسي‬
‫= فارسى‬
Normalization in WorldCat
Experiment 2a
Search LC catalog for “Kishvar” using
Arabic “kaf”
‫كشور‬
Experiment 2a results
Experiment 2b
Search LC catalog for “Kishvar” using
Persian “kaf”
‫کشور‬
Experiment 2b results
Meanwhile, back in WorldCat…
= ‫كشور‬
)‫= کشور (فارسی‬
Finally, a word about Nim Fasalah
Nim Fasalah
= ZWNJ symbol in Unicode
= hex 022C
= [numlock] Alt+0157 [keypad]
Nim Fasalah makes things look nice
and retrievable
This:
‫نسخههاى‬
NOT:
‫نسخه های‬
Else:
Experiment 4a
In LC catalog:
‫نسخههاى‬
Experiment 4a results
Experiment 4b
In LC catalog, using space (w/quotes)
“‫”نسخه هاى‬
Experiment 4b results
The WorldCat perspective…
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93 records when using ‫نسخههاى‬
The WorldCat perspective…
138 results when using “‫”نسخه هاى‬
The Numbers game
Compare the following:
[hex 0660 - 0669 vs. hex 06F0 - 06F9]
The “Persian” forms of the numbers 4, 5 and 6 are not
currently available for use in cataloging
Recommendations
1.
Create agreed-upon standards for input
conventions of Persian script in shared
bibliographic records.
2.
Replace/update existing records to reflect these
conventions.
3.
Explore feasibility making additional UTF-8
characters valid for input.
4.
Explore reasons behind current normalization in
WorldCat, in automated systems.
Recommendations
5. Work to create documentation to
education patrons on how to best
retrieve Persian-script records in
OPACs and WorldCat.
Further reading
Barnes, Judy. International cataloging: Nonroman scripts. OCLC Connexion
documentation.
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/support/docu
mentation/connexion/client/international/
default.htm
Esfahbod, Behdad. Persian computing with
Unicode.
http://behdad.org/download/Publications/
persiancomputing/a007.pdf
Further reading
Kopycki, William. “Al-Marâyâ al-muhaddabah: Availability
and quality of shared Arabic-script records in WorldCat
and RLIN”. Arabic Script Web-Based Catalogs in the
21st Century Symposium, 15-16 Feb. 2005. Al-Ain,
United Arab Emirates: United Arab Emirates University,
Libraries Deanship, 2005.
National Middle East Language Resource Center. Typing
Persian Word Documents in Windows.
http://sartre2.byu.edu/persian/persianword/persianwp.
htm
Failblog. http://failblog.org/ (for comedic relief; may be
unsuitable for sensitive viewers).