RE: Ladino Database

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Critically important for anyone creating a database that contains Yiddish 
material -  learn the YIVO transliteration system or you will have a whole 
mess.   You will also not realize that what you have at home may already easily 
exist on some online data base, only because you didn't know how to write the 
word correctly.   You saw here earlier this year someone who was looking for a 
common Yiddish song, but because she didn't transliterate or transcribe it 
correctly she couldn't find it in any common Yiddish song book or even on web 
sites that follow the official transliteration rules, e.g., Bob Freedmans.   
When I pointed the problem out to her succinctly and directly and transcribed 
it correctly for her, some one who doesn't know me from Adam said that I was a 
nasty person.   It may be silly to stress this technical issue on this list, 
but I hope that you are wiser person.   

Write to YIVO and ask for a copy of the Transliteration rules to be sent to 
you.  I wish the rules were somewhere on the web, but they aren't on yet as far 
as I know.   Furthermore, know that people from Spanish or French speaking 
countries, will transliterate Yiddish differently than English speakers, but 
the YIVO system is built on an international linguistic system with direct 
correspondence to Yiddish spelling so that those rules should apply to all 
Yiddish words written in the Roman alphabet, no matter the dialect of the 
speaker.
 

Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky
 

----------
From:  robert wiener[SMTP:wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com]
Sent:  Wednesday, November 18, 1998 10:36 AM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant.
Cc:  jbresler (at) ultra(dot)net
Subject:  Ladino Database

Joel:

             Wow!  It seems like quite a project.  I have an old 4x6 card
catalogue that I stopped once I anticipated that computers could create a
database more efficiently.  (Would that be 15 years ago?)  Unfortunately,
I've never taken that step and now 1/2 of my LPs and all of my cassettes and
CDs are uncatalogued.  So I'd appreciate advice from any list members.

             Can you (and others) share with us your experience and
recommendations for such a venture?  What software to use, how to set it up
(e.g., what information/fields to include), transliteration
consistency...?  For those of you who have created databases for Yiddish or
Hebrew, did you do it in both that language and English?
I've heard of programs that read CD information on
the CD-rom.  Do you know of them?  I've also heard of some databases of
recordings that you can use as a source so that you don't have to do all the
entries yourself -- it seems that you electronically check off the albums
you own.  Has anyone used them?  Would a scanner help in downloading the
information?  What sort of hardware do you need (for example, for a
collection of about 4,000 LPs, 2,000 CDs, and 1,000 cassettes?  What do you
wish that you had known before you began the project (in addition to how
much time it would take)?  Are there any resources for funding such a
venture?

             Thanks,
             Bob