Library and Information Science

Purpose: Different scripts are often used for representing a particular person’s name in China,Japan, etc., which leads to variations of an author’s name in cataloging records used in libraries.Such variations cause serious problems in bibliographic control. This study compares descriptionsamong several authority files containing Chinese personal and corporate names in China, Japan,and Korea, to obtain deeper insights into this problem.

Methods: First, the situation of authority control in China, Japan, and Korea was reviewed. Second,Chinese personal and corporate name authority data created by several organizations were carefullyexamined in order to clarify four points: 1) Chinese character forms, 2) treatments and typesof Romanization, 3) separation of surname and given name with a comma, and 4) descriptions inlocal languages outside China. For this purpose, manuals, actual authority data and case reports ofthe organizations were collected.

Results: 1) Chinese character forms used by each organization differ, 2) all organizations useHanyu pinyin for Romanized forms, but description methods vary, 3) almost no organizationseparates surnames and given names with a comma in the vernacular form except Japan, however,they are separated in Romanization forms, and 4) yomi is mandatory in Japanese organizations;Korean organizations adopt Hangeul transcribed from Chinese characters or Hangeul fromChinese pronunciations. In particular, the examination revealed problems in description methods ofHanyu pinyin and treatments of variant Chinese characters.