Dear PCCLIST readers,
I was asked about a similar case last year. My correspondent called the vertical bar symbol a "pipe". More on terminology here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_bar
For NACO purposes, documentation on normalization is found here
https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/naco/normrule-2.html
In which the following table is included as Appendix A:
Character |
Character |
Comments |
Music flat sign |
Retain |
|
Number sign |
Retain |
|
Slash |
Blank |
|
Reverse slash |
Blank |
|
Commercial at sign |
Retain |
|
Ampersand |
Retain |
|
Asterisk |
Blank |
|
Vertical bar (fill) |
Blank |
Accordingly, a heading for the body with name
S|2 would normalize to S 2. That is, S blank 2. However, normalization instructions don't equate to substitution, and I don't see any instructions to substitute a slash for the vertical bar. Furthermore, if that were the case, another question is whether
you would simply type a blank or enter a code to provide a non-spacing blank, which would be needed (more on that here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-breaking_space). Obviously, it presents a problem in interpretation if presentation results in the S being
on one line of a display and the 2 on the next line.
You can enter a vertical bar by holding down the Alt key and typing 124 - that gives you the ASCII value, according to the section "In common character maps" in
the Wikipedia article: which has a range of values. I don't see that any such values are acceptable for NACO/Connexion work, however. We seem to be stuck with using ALA characters. More on the adoption of ALA characters and related issues is here http://www.oclc.org/support/help/olib/909/Content/Data%20Exchange/About%20Character%20Sets.htm
Sincerely - Ian
Ian Fairclough
Cataloging and Metadata Services Librarian
George Mason University
703-993-2938