Numeric Character References

Owned by brandon dudley (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Aug 28, 2019
2 min read
Document status

APPROVED   ; REVIEWED  

Area coveredCataloging
Prepared byCataloging Task Force
Adapted fromOrbis Cascade Alliance Collaborative Technical Services Team

Background

Numeric Character References (or, NCRs) are common markup constructs used in markup languages like HTML and XML, where a sequence of characters will be rendered as a single character. NCRs are structured as ampersand ( & ), pound sign ( # ), lowercase letter x, four-position Unicode character code, and a trailing semicolon ( ; ). For example, च . This policy is about the use of NCRs in MARC cataloging records in Alma.

Policy Statement

Catalogers most often use NCRs in the context of non-Latin scripts. Catalogers may supply parallel non-Latin fields only for scripts supported by OCLC. These are:

  • MARC-8 scripts (subsets of UTF-8 characters, so they are also compatible with UTF-8 Unicode): Arabic, CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), Cyrillic (within the MARC-8 character set), Greek, or Hebrew scripts.

  • UTF-8 Unicode only scripts: Armenian, Bengali, Cyrillic (outside the MARC-8 character set), Devanagari, Ethiopic, Syriac, Tamil, or Thai scripts. These scripts are not included in MARC-8.


All settings for Alma should be UTF-8 Unicode. NCRs should NOT be used to create non-Latin scripts for scripts not supported by OCLC. Examples include Georgian, Khmer, and anything else not listed above. 

Exceptions to this policy may be made in the case of large record sets provided by vendors, but CSU Libraries must make a commitment to using the available records that most closely adhere to this policy in such cases. See OCLC Connexion Client guide International Cataloging: Use Non-Latin Scripts  for more details. 

Action log


SectionPoint Person

Expected Completion Date

Last action takenNext action required

Articulate the need for the policy (background)

Cataloging Task Force

 

Discussed need to adopt policy to ensure appropriate use of NCR for non-Latin scripts


To de discussed with TS Working Group.


Finalize Policy Statement

Cataloging Task Force

 



Revised to move best practices to a separate documentCataloging Task Force