Allow the contents of MARC subfield 041 $$h to be considered for Search Index Mapping
The MARC 21 Bibliographic Tag to Search Index Mapping table (https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/040Resource_Management/040Metadata_Management/180Search_Indexes/050MARC_21_Search_Indexes) confirms that the contents of 041 subfields $$a, $$b, $$d, $$e, $$f, $$g, $$j, plus those of the 008 field positions 35-37, map to an advanced search of the Language (Title) index in Alma.
The contents of 041 subfield $$h ("language code of original"), however, do not. This discriminates against those works which are translated from an original language into the one stipulated in 041 $$a subfield.
There are plenty of titles in our stock where information regarding the language of the original material is no less important than the information regarding the language into which it has been translated (I'm thinking especially about texts in ancient language and/or non-Roman scripts); and experience of handling supplier and publisher MARC records confirms that 041 $$h subfields (which aren't mapped) are applied far more frequently and assiduously to records than 240 $$l subfields (which are mapped, albeit to Title and Uniform Title).
It is appreciated that adding $$h to the Language (Title) index may not be what every customer wants, as that would lose the distinction between, say, titles in Swedish and titles that were translated to English from original Swedish.
That being the case, could it at least be possible for ExLibris to introduce an additional advanced search index option - called "Language of Translation" or similar - whose contents are drawn solely from 041 $$h subfields wheresover they exist?
Jeremy Grayson
shared this idea
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Morten Soma
commented
Agree with this, we get some requests on translations between different languages, and use indication rules to sort this out. If anyone have an easier way of extracting this info, I greatly appreciate it.
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Jane Mertens
commented
I could really use this as well! Please!