Decision-making for automation : Hebrew and Arabic script materials in the automated library
Elizabeth Vernon · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · 1996
It is generally accepted in the library world that an automated catalog means more accessible data for patrons, greater productivity for librarians, and (via the services of bibliographic utilities) an improvement in the sharing of bibliographic data among libraries.While the desirability of automation is not a controversial issue, how to implement automation remains a problem: what hardware and software to use, what standards to follow, and so forth.Each institution must assess its priorities, determine the needs of its user population(s), and decide which are the most important needs to meet.The institution must also determine if sharing cataloging data with other institutions is a priority and, if so, with which ones?The institution must simultaneously assess its available resources: how much of an investment can it afford to put into hardware, software, ongoing maintenance and licensing costs, and staff time (both for system setup and maintenance and for actual cataloging and processing of library materials)?The final decision will reflect the interplay between the desired results and costs.This article surveys the automation options available to libraries with Hebrew and Arabic script collections and examines the automation decisions that different libraries worldwide have made, with consideration of how these choices relate to the priorities of these institutions.The focus will be on academic and research libraries, with reference to other libraries when appropriate. HEBREW AND ARABIC SCRIPTSHebrew and Arabic scripts bear important similarities.They are both written from right to left.Their short vowels are not represented by separate letters-i.e., these vowels are either omitted altogether or are represented by diacritics above or below the consonantal characters.Some long vowels, particularly in the case of the Hebrew language, may also be represented by diacritics.In addition, the Arabic script is