1. Special Issues in Hebrew Cataloging in Alma
Yoel Kortick | Senior Librarian

2. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Introduction
Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
Indexing when words are attached
number five
number six
number seven

3. Introduction
This presentation will focus on cataloging with Hebrew characters and related issues.
The situations mentioned here apply for Arabic as well, as it too is a right to left language.
While Alma (as well as Primo) come with a full Hebrew right to left interface, that will not be the focus of our attention. We will show our examples in the English interface.

4. Introduction
As soon as one letter is typed in Hebrew the entire field becomes right to left justified.
It is right to left justified while in edit mode, but after saving it is left to right justified.
While in edit mode it is right justified after entering Hebrew letter
After saving all fields are left justified regardless of character language (or script).

5. Introduction
The subfield indicators, for example $$ or ‡ are also to the right of the subfield letter.
$$ to the left of the a when in Latin
$$ to the right of the a when in Hebrew

6. Introduction
When adding an additional subfield the $$ is again automatically placed to the right of the subfield letter and then the cataloguer can continue cataloging.

7. שימוש ב ILS בספריות אקדמיות
Introduction
Generally speaking there are no ‘out of the ordinary’ issues when adding a word with Latin characters in a Hebrew field.
For example we will add title:
שימוש ב ILS בספריות אקדמיות

8. The field and Latin word are added and everything appears correctly
Introduction
The field and Latin word are added and everything appears correctly

9. We will look at three such examples.
Introduction
However, there are some cases where special attention is required when combining Hebrew and Latin in the same field.
We will look at three such examples.

10. Introduction
Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
Indexing when words are attached
number five
number six
number seven

11. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
We will now catalogue the following title which contains not only a Latin character but also a plus sign:
מאמר מופלא A+ על התנינים

12. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
See that I wanted to catalogue this:
מאמר מופלא A+ על התנינים
But instead when I typed A+ I got this:
מאמר מופלא +A על התנינים
I typed A then + and because I am in right to left mode the + goes to the left of the A instead of the desired right of the A

13. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
And also after saving the record the + goes to the left of the A instead of the desired right of the A

14. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Note that this is not unique to Alma.
Below user types an iPhone text message that his son received an A+ on a test but the message was in Hebrew so the + went on wrong side of the A

15. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
In order to fix the problem in Alma we will put our cursor before the A (to the right of the A) and insert directional “Left to Right Embedding” (Because we want A+ to appear that way left to right).
This can easily be done via the menu or via shortcut keys

16. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Before we begin we will also choose the option “Show Directional Characters” so that after we add the characters we will also see them.

17. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
In our demo we will use the shortcut keys as described here (from On Line Help)

18. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Cursor here before A
Insert desired directional character or use Ctrl+Alt+d for left to right embedding

19. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Now look what happened.
We see the left to right embedding character.
Data has changed appearance.
This is the left to right directional character added via Ctrl+Alt+d

20. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Now after the + we will insert character “Pop directional formatting”.
This option is used to return to the previous direction in which you were typing (we will go back to right to left).
Here we will insert Pop directional format using Ctrl+Alt+p

21. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Now we have the A+ appearing as desired
When no longer in edit mode no longer see special Unicode characters

22. Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
And of course it appears correctly in search results

23. Introduction
Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
Indexing when words are attached
number five
number six
number seven

24. Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
Another unique situation is when the field starts and ends in Latin but has Hebrew in the middle.
For example:
Annual graduation exercises of the תלמוד תורה Ocean Parkway Jewish Center

25. Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
It gets inverted and instead appears as:
Ocean Parkway Jewish Center תלמוד תורה Annual graduation exercises of the

26. Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
We will fix it by again using the Ctrl+Alt+d for left to right embedding
There is no need to add Ctrl+Alt+p for pop directional format to the end, because the whole string is left to right
Put cursor here before “Annual” because that is where string should start left to right
Use menu or do Ctrl+Alt+d

27. Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
Now we see that the field appears correctly and we can see the directional character
Left to right embedding

28. Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
And of course it appears correctly in search results

29. Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
And of course it appears correctly in Primo

30. Introduction
Latin character followed by a plus sign in Hebrew field
Field in Latin with Hebrew in the middle
Indexing when words are attached
number five
number six
number seven

31. Indexing when words are attached
In Hebrew words are attached with words such as “The” and “In” attached to the word coming after it.
Therefore indexing would not “normally” find each word separately.
For example: “Theeducation ministry inmandate period” would not find the word “education” or “mandate period” because it is part of another word and not a separate individual word.
משרד החינוך בתקופת המנדט
In mandate period
The education ministry

32. Indexing when words are attached
The solution in Alma is to use <<>> around the parts which are not indexed:
משרד >>ה<<חינוך >>ב<<תקופת המנדט
Just this is indexed
Just this is indexed

33. Indexing when words are attached
The title now contains string:
הלכה ומעשה בתקופת המנדט הבריטי

34. Indexing when words are attached
If we search for תקופת המנדט then we do not find it

35. Indexing when words are attached
The title now contains string:
הלכה ומעשה >>ב<<תקופת המנדט הבריטי

36. Indexing when words are attached
And now a search for תקופת המנדט does find it
This first letter was not indexed with the rest of the word

37. Thank You