Re: Arabic subject headings

Latifa,

The two most popular/widespread subject heading thesauri used in the
Arab world are (these citations are copied from the MARC Subject Heading
and Term Source Code pages:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/sourcelist/subject.html)  : 

Qâ'imat ru'ûs al-mawdû'ât al-'Arabîyah = List of Arabic subject headings
(al-Kuwayt: Dhat al-Salasil, last edition was in the early 1990s, I
believe) (this is also known as al-Suwaydan's subject heading list) 

and 

Qâ'imat ru'ûs al-mawdû'ât al-'Arabîyah al-qiyâsîyah al-maktabât
wa-marâkaz al-ma'lûmât wa-qawâ'id al-bayânât (al-Qâhirah: Dâr Shurûq,
2004?) (this is also known as the Subject heading thesaurus of Dr.
Sha'ban Khalifah) 

In addition, some Saudi libraries use: 
Ru'us al-mawdu'at al-'Arabiyah (al-Riyad: 'Imadat Shu'un al-Maktabah,
Jam. al-Riyad) 

Public libraries in Jordan (and elsewhere?) use a tri-lingual thesaurus
(arabic-french-english) called "al-Maknaz", which is published by the
Shuman Foundation Public Library. 

Some libraries will use one the above or else a blend, with local
developed lists, to cover headings (especially newer ones) not found in
any of the above. 

Bibliotheca Alexandrina also has their own multilingual thesaurus used
in their cataloging (and they can better comment on this than I can). 

I also believe that libraries participating in King Abdul-Aziz Public
Library's Arabic Union Catalog project also have a local thesaurus
currently in development. Whether or not this is available for sale I am
not sure. 

Hope this helps. Perhaps others can chime in or correct me if I'm
mistaken here; but these are the general trends. 

all best,

william.

(views not necessarily that of my employer) 

William J. Kopycki
Field Director
Library of Congress--Cairo, Egypt
US Embassy
8 Kamal al-Din Salah St.
Garden City, Cairo
Egypt
Tel. +20-2-2797-3564
Fax +20-2-2796-0233
wkopycki@...
>>> <lb2432@...> 09/02/10 10:14 PM >>>
Hello,

I was wondering whether libraries in Arab countries use a certain  
thesaurus of Arabic subject headings similar to the LCSH. For  
instance, if a patron speaks only Arabic and he/she would like to make  
search the OPAC for a book by subject heading, is that possible ?

Thank you

Regards,

Latifa

-- 
Latifa Baali
Bibliographic Assistant
Columbia University in the City of New York
Bibliographic Control Division,
101M Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027

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