Cataloging Non-Western Christian Books, June 2010, ATLA conference

2. Importance of collecting non-Western
materials theological scholarship
 Reveals Western biases in our understandings of
Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, Church history.
 Provides a fuller understanding of God, and more
opportunities to glorify God by incorporating the
perspectives of many nations.
 Documents God’s global work for current and
future scholars to study and offer praise.

3. Importance of collecting non-Western
materials for masters’ level
curriculum
 U.S. ministry context is multi-cultural.
 U.S. students come with language and
culture skills greater than previous
generations (so can use non-Western items).
 Adds diversity to the learning experience
beyond what the faculty can represent.

4. Importance of quality cataloging
for non-Western materials
 Goal : interaction of topics across
languages/cultures.
 Requires even better subject headings and
classification than single language
cataloging, because title keywords won’t
provide correlations/relationships.

5. a Partnership between
Person with Cataloging expertise Person with language expertise
•English Theological vocabulary
•General computer skills (files, menus, cut/paste)
• Teacher/trainer
• Knowledge of Marc records,
Authority control, AACR2,
• Knowledge of classification, subject
headings
• Knowledge of local ILS & OCLC
•Type in English and Orig. Lang.
•Romanize the Orig. Lang. using standards
•Orig. lang. Theological vocabulary

6. OPACs and non-Western materials
 Display, search, type non-Roman alphabets
 Expand language limit options
 Offer the OPAC interface in multiple
languages; training in multiple languages.
 Differences between official Romanizations
and student Romanizations, particularly of
personal names and geographic names.

7. Cataloger growth
 Learn about languages
 alphabet, ideographs, both,
 articles or not,
 Numbers
 Learn about publishing in cultural contexts
 Editions/printings/ reprints
 Printing culture for different countries of
publication
 Romanization systems for different
countries/languages

8. Random challenges
 Serials check-in people need to recognized
languages, and be able count, and recognize
months.
 Original descriptive cataloging can be taught to
bright students in about 3 months of partnership,
but subject headings and classification requires
ongoing partnership.
 A lot of teaching can be done by pointing at an
interface with a pencil.
 Trainers must be aware of cultural diversity
regarding learning and hierarchy.
 Food, celebrations, exploring cultural difference can
be fun for all the folk in technical services.

9. Trejectories
 From part-time Korean students cataloging, Fuller seminary
moved to a full time Korean cataloger
 After two years, he knows what cataloging, I know
 With course work, his theological knowledge has grown.
 Now he is also purchasing Korean language books for Fuller.
 He gets better discounts for us, and gift books, by traveling
to South Korea, knowing the culture, developing
relationships with seminaries, universities, and bookstores.

10. Trejectories
 From part-time Korean students cataloging, Fuller seminary
moved to a full time Korean cataloger
 After two years, he knows what cataloging, I know
 With course work, his theological knowledge has grown.
 Now he is also purchasing Korean language books for Fuller.
 He gets better discounts for us, and gift books, by traveling
to South Korea, knowing the culture, developing
relationships with seminaries, universities, and bookstores.