Scripts, Languages, and Authority Control

Abstract

Library vendors’ use of Unicode is leading to library systems with multiscript capability, which offers the prospect of multiscript authority records. Although librarians tend to focus on Unicode in relation to non-Roman scripts, language is a more important feature of authority records than script. The concept of a catalog “locale” (of which language is one aspect) is introduced. Restrictions on the structure and content of a MARC 21 authority record are outlined, and the alternative structures for authority records containing languages written in non-Roman scripts are described.