Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 15:15:00 +0200
From: SLSER@RAM1.HUJI.AC.IL
Subject: Re: Enumeration question (Mitch Turitz)

Dear Mitch,

We, in our library, considered ourselves free from any standards etc. like
those you cite, and thought about the issue per se.
Our decision was, that no matter the language of the journal, we use
always the terms VOL. and NO.
The reasons, as far as I can remember, were, first, that we have journals
from all over the world, in all sorts of funny languages, and we did not
want to have to find out, for each such case, what the correct terms are.
Second, I disagreee to your assumption, that if a reader does not know a
language, he would not look up a journal in that language. In our library,
in many cases, when I tell a reader *this journal is in language x*,
he would answer: *never mind, I have a friend/colleague that knows the
language and he would translate the article for me*.
Third, we are a faculty library. We have no pretensions of serving as any
kind of union/reference catalog. We just want to give the best service to
our patrons. And we felt, that the English terms would do that best
(as every student - hopefully - knows English).

This is more or less what I recall. I hope it gives you some help.

Regards - Idith

**********************************************************************
* Idith Bar-Nachum                                                   *
* Periodicals Department            TEL.: 972-2-6584567              *
* Harman Science Library            FAX.: 972-2-6586237              *
* Hebrew University                 EMAIL:SLSER@RAM0.HUJI.AC/IL      *
* Givat Ram, Jerusalem                                               *
* ISRAEL                            NOTE!! RAM0 (zero) NOT ("O")     *
**********************************************************************

>Subj:  Enumeration question (Mitch Turitz)

>Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 16:33:52 -0700
>From: Mitch Turitz <turitz@SFSU.EDU>

>As we are automating our periodical check-in for the first time, I have
>been asked to justify why our online records should use the enumeration
>(volume and issue designators) of the language of the periodicals instead
>of converting everything into the English form (vol., iss., no.).

>My argument is that national standards (ANSI, MARC FORMAT FOR HOLDINGS,
>NISO, AACR2) say to use the designation that appears on the item itself.
>I also feel that a student looking up a German periodical will know that
>"Band" or "Bd." means "volume" and not "Bound".  If the student doesn't
>know German, they don't want to read the periodical anyway, IMHO.

>Our public services librarians seem to feel that our (medium-sized
>college) patrons would be confused by anything that is not the English
>designation.

>I would like to hear opinions from others on this issue.  You may respond
>either directly to me or to the list.