Karen Coyle asked:
> Does anyone have the final word on the Unicode resolution that went back
to membership and then presumably back to ALA Council? Did it make the
full circuit? Was it passed?
The resolution did not have to do with Unicode but with "nonroman alphabets
and other writing systems for readers from and students of places where
nonroman materials are used." (transcribed verbatim from the version
available at the 2nd session of the ALA Members' Meeting). The actual
resolution at this point of its development said: "RESOLVED, that all ALA
units take appropriate steps to ensure equal and adequate access to all
Non-Roman alphabet materials." (The variant spellings of "non-Roman" appear
in the ALA document.)
Please bear in mind that Unicode is a comprehensive character set, and
includes not only non-Roman scripts, but Latin script too. In Unicode, all
scripts are treated equally.
Whether the resolution was passed or not does not affect the speed with
which additional scripts can appear in MARC 21 records. Adding more scripts
requires technical answers to the issues raised in Part 2 of the report that
was presented at the MARBI meeting on June 26.
-- Joan Aliprand
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