Numeric Character References

Owned by Eva Sorrell (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 17, 2024 by Christina Hennessey
2 min read

 

 

Document status

APPROVED  Dec 9, 2016 ; REVIEWED May 21, 2019 

Area covered

Cataloging

Prepared by

Cataloging Task Force

Adapted from

Orbis 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

 

Section

Point Person

Expected Completion Date

Last action taken

Next action required

Section

Point Person

Expected Completion Date

Last action taken

Next action required

Articulate the need for the policy (background)

Cataloging Task Force

Oct 23, 2016 

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

Nov 11, 2016 

 

 

Revised to move best practices to a separate document

Cataloging Task Force