Meeting Notes

Wednesday, March 14th 2012, Yung Yidish Tel Aviv

Topics:

• call numbers, barcodes
• transliteration in the catalog
• preserving the current order of books in the museum
• using the Jerusalem catalog
• software tools
• workforce
• having lunch while in YY TLV

Call Numbers

In a library, every book has a call number'. The call number is a book's address' in the library. The call numbers help find the book in a library by specifying where exactly the book is located. Books on shelves are usually ordered alphanumerically by their call numbers, so that finding a book is easy.

There are several call number systems, an existing one can be adopted, and probably adapted/modified to the needs of the Yiddish book collection.

In a library, the label containing the call number is located at the bottom of the book in the spine, so that a book can be identified without taking it off the shelf. [dvd: It is unclear to me where the call numbers are placed on thin or spiral bound books; Anna, can you clarify?]

YY TLV is a book Museum, not just a library. Thus perhaps sticking labels on the outside of the books is not the best option. Can we think about an alternative solution? For example, how are books ordered/located in book stores? Maybe cardboard bookmarks between books on shelves with call number ranges can help?

Barcodes

A barcode label can be placed on the inside of the book cover. The label will contain two sections:

1. The call number --- for fast catalog lookup and library use.

2. a short book description (also transliterated?) so that the description is readily accessible without opening the catalog. Anna disagrees with me on this and thinks that the second part is superfluous.

The call number can use Code 39 or Code 93 linear barcode. The book summary can use QR-Code (the square bar code one sees often these days in adverts).

Transliteration and spelling differences

We agreed that the catalog should provide YIVO transliteration of the entries to the users (Anna, can you refer me to a definitive source of YIVO transliteration rules, I'd like to see whether this can be done automatically). Another issue affecting the efficiency of search is spelling differences in Yiddish. For example, I've put together a simple online interface to the Harkavy dictionary; to make it usable I built in a 'guessing' converter from the current spelling to the one used in Harkavy: the word opshisn is spelled obshiesen in the dictionary, thus search for both opshisn and obshiesen (in Hebrew letters, of course) brings the right pages. Something similar will have to be done for the catalog.

Preserving the arrangement of books in the museum

We noted that having a part of the book arranged by subject and another part alphabetically is somewhat non-orthodox. However, we understand that YY TLV is not just a library but also a Yiddish museum and are willing to preserve the current order. The call number scheme should somehow reflect the arrangement and make it easy to find the book in either the alphabetical or the thematic part.

The Jerusalem catalog

The Jerusalem YY catalog is very useful and definitely usable. I'll write a program to populate the new catalog with the entries from the Jerusalem catalog in HTML. I'll also write a program to extract an HTML version of the catalog so that when we add more information/entries, we still can generate the catalog in a format similar to the Jerusalem YY catalog. Until better search facilities are available, this will do the job (I hope).

Software tools

Right now, to begin cataloging the collection, we need

• a shared Google Docs spreadsheet (or spreadsheets) populated with the entries from the Jerusalem catalog,

• a script for generating call numbers (Anna, can you propose or refer me to a call number scheme suitable for the collection?)

• a transliteration aid (but transliteration can be done later)

• a program for exporting the catalog in HTML format (so that we can see the results and show them to others).

The rest of facilities (like user-friendly search) can be added later. I hope to prepare the basic set by the coming Wednesday.

Workforce

It would be extremely nice to find more volunteers when we have all the tools set up and the workflow polished out.

Having lunch while in YY TLV

We found a nice small cafeteria 15 minutes from the central bus station, but it makes sense to explore alternatives.