Add ISO 639-3 microlanguage names to Alma title search facets
In Alma titles search facets, display the microlanguage name instead of its code. PCC recently approved the implementation of the ISO 639-3 language codes for use in MARC 008/35-37 and also 546$b.
Example: where the language facet for a title search shows...
Language
Chinese (1)
wuu (1)
...the following would be more useful...
Language
Wu Chinese (1)
Dear all,
We agree that support for ISO 639-3 languages in 041 is important, and are working on a solution for this.
Language marc codes are used in several places in Alma, including controlled vocabulary, advanced language search by selecting a language from a list of languages (which are mapped to marc codes in the metadata) and search facet.
The ISO 639-3 list introduces some complications to several of these workflows, such as languages that are mapped to different codes (e.g. French, which is mapped to fre / fra in the different coding systems). Our solution concept is therefore:
- Introducing a new search index, "Language code", which will allow searching for the language code from the MARC record directly, regardless of the source of code - planned for the coming November release (to be fully operational after the November re-indexing).
- We are working on future plans to offer more comprehensive solutions for ISO 639-3 languages, such as including them in the language drop-down (possibly adding the code to the language name, to disambiguate languages with multiple codes, etc.), and adding an optional combined controlled vocabulary for MARC 21 041$$a for libraries who wish to use it.
We will update on our future plans as more details become available.
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Susan Bond commented
This is a great idea! We're working at our institution to start incorporating these codes into our Primo VE display as well. If this goes forward, would it be possible to add a doe table to the labels are so these languages all show up without having to be manually added?
I'll follow up with our local PCC/language specialists to get an answer to that question, Lili. -
Thank you for this idea!
We are currently looking into the PCC guidelines for the use of ISO 639-3 language codes in MARC records.
However, from what we see the recommendation is to input them in field 041, and only use MARC language codes in 008:
"How to input
Bibliographic record
Always code the language(s) of the resource being cataloged by using MARC language codes (in the 008/35-
37, and if needed in an 041).
Optionally, also code the language(s) of the resource in an additional 041 field using ISO 639-3 codes."
Taken from: https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/scs/documents/ISO-639-3-guidelines.pdfOur plan is therefore to enhance the list of language codes supported in field 041 (in both search and controlled vocabulary).
If there is additional documentation updating the recommendations for the 008 control field, could you please point us to it?
Thanks!
Alma Product Team -
Anonymous commented
This should be implemented ASAP. The number of records with ISO 639-3 language codes is growing rapidly now that it is PCC policy (over 200,000 records). PCC policies are followed by most of ExLibris's North American customers, even if they aren't officially PCC libraries. This is like a change to any other standard, like MARC coding. ExL needs to keep its software in synch with library standards, this shouldn't even need to be an "enhancement" request.
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Leigh Billings commented
I support this. Adding additional language codes will allow more detailed faceting and display to understand all the possible languages and dialects appearing in the collection. My example includes:
041 17 |a chm |a mhr |a rus |2 iso639-3 : uses the iso639-3 language codes : https://iso639-3.sil.org/code_tables/639/data
* In this case, the "mhr" is simply not understood as "Eastern Mari" and thus displays as "mhr"
I'd also support other language codes being properly displayed as well, not just ISO-639.3:
041 17 |a mari1278 |a east2328 |a russ1263 |2 glotto : uses the “Glottolog” language codes: https://glottolog.org/glottolog
* the "East2328" is simply not understood as "Eastern Mari" and thus displays as "eas"
041 17 |a mah |a mme |a rus |2 walso : uses the Walso language encoding scheme: https://wals.info/languoid
* the "mme" is simply not understood as "Mari (Meadow)" and thus displays as "mme"