KOREATOWN : Library Offers Catalogue Cards in 3 Asian Languages
The Los Angeles Public Library, which owns one of the nation’s largest popular collections of Asian language books and materials, has introduced catalogue cards in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
The cards are used at seven branches that serve a large part of the city’s burgeoning Asian population. The branches are in the Koreatown area, Granada Hills, Northridge, Chinatown and Little Tokyo.
The catalogue department previously provided cards with Asian titles in Romanized script, a practice that confused many patrons and librarians.
“Romanized pronunciations usually correspond to more than one Asian character and can carry more than one meaning,” said Violet Koroki, head of the catalogue department. “Given this ambiguity, the Asian community rarely used the card catalogue.”
Nonetheless, use of the library system’s Asian collections has risen sharply as the city’s Asian population has grown.
Meanwhile, the library’s technical services staff is working on updating the automated circulation system and computerized catalogue to display Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters.
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