For the element preferred name of place, in the section Names found in a non-preferred script, there is the following condition:
A value of a name appears in a script that differs from a script that is preferred by an agent who creates the metadata.
In old RDA 16.2.2.5, there is a main instruction and an alternative:
If a name of place is found in a script that differs from a preferred script of the agency creating the data, transliterate the name according to the scheme chosen by the agency.
Alternative:
If:
a name of place is in a script that differs from a preferred script of the agency creating the data
and
a transliterated form is found in reference sources
then:
use the transliterated form. If there is more than one transliterated form, use the form that matches the agency's transliteration of the name (i.e., the form transliterated using the transliteration scheme chosen by the agency).
In new RDA, under this condition there is only the option to "Record a value that is in a script that is preferred by an agent who creates the metadata." I'm wondering why the new RDA has only a single option instead of the two in old RDA. I can see that the option given sort of covers both the choices of transliterating according to a preferred scheme or using a found transliterated form. Was the intention to let agencies specify the more specific choices that were in old RDA in a policy statement or metadata guidance document and state which of them to follow?
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Adam Schiff
Principal Cataloger
University of Washington Libraries
He/Him/His
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