Converting Wade-Giles Cataloging to Pinyin: The Development and Implementation of a Conversion Program for the Australian National CJK Service

Abstract

In 1996, the National Library of Australia processed over 500,000 Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) USMARC records through a program that identified data in the Wade-Giles romanization scheme and converted it to the more user-friendly Pinyin romanization scheme. The conversion program was developed by the National Library in response to the needs of member libraries of the Australian National CJK Service. In this article, the author describes the development of the Pinyin conversion program, the functions of the program itself, and how it has been used in Australia. She also outlines the Pinyin word division standards adopted in Australia and briefly discusses the feasibility of an alternative methodology for the automatic creation of Pinyin data.