Entering Equivalents for OCLC Characters

Entering non-ALA Diacritics and Special Characters

When entering information in bibliographic records in Connexion, you can insert most letters, numbers, diacritics and special characters by using the ALA Character Set, which is available in

• Connexion browser as a pop-up menu (F7) or as bar syntax by clicking on Diacritics in the header
• Connexion client via ALA Character Entry (Edit/Enter Diacritics, or Ctrl-E, or toolbar option "ALA")

When entering diacritics, enter the diacritic after the character which it modifies. It will appear in the proper position. However, in some instances the ALA Character Set does not supply the appropriate representation. In those cases follow the instructions in the table below.

For more information, see Library of Congress Rule Interpretation 1.0E.

Original Character	Equivalent	Example	Type As
Subscript or superscript alphabetic character	If no distortion or loss of intelligibility results, use standard lowercase alphabetic character.		Cie
			2e
			no
	Otherwise use the double underscore with the standard character representing the superscript or subscript character.	-spaces
Subscript or superscript period	Blank space followed by dot below character or superior dot. (Since the dot below a character and superior dot are diacritics, a blank space is required to allow the dot to occupy its own position.)		Fe (51 .5)   Rh (83 .4)
Old German small e	Umlaut		Fu¨rsten
Scharfes s or ess-zet written as two characters 1	sz		Auszenhandel
Scharfes s or ess-zet written as a ligature 1	ss		Aussenhandel
Special letters or diacritics used in African languages	For a special letter, use a double underscore with the nearest roman alphabet equivalent to the unavailable letter.
	For a ^ below a letter, use a double underscore below the letter.
	For a below a letter, use a dot below the letter.
Abbreviation in Spanish or Portuguese	a.		5a. regia~o
Abbreviation in Spanish or Portuguese	o.		9o. Distrito
Inch(es)
Foot (feet)
Minutes. SEE Foot
Prime sign. SEE Foot
Seconds. SEE Inch(es)
Single quotation marks not enclosed within double quotation marks on source document	Double quotation marks	New 'half-inch' cycling road maps	New "half-inch" cycling road maps
Other signs or symbols not represented in character set	Use existing characters when this can be done without distortion or loss of intelligibility.	for social studies	Rx for social studies
	Otherwise, describe the special sign or symbol in words and enclose the descriptive words within brackets. If the special sign or symbol appears within a word, do not leave spaces on either side of the brackets If the special sign or symbol is used as a separate word, input spaces as for a word.	A study of the	A study of the [ankh]
Schwa			ha¨t
Greek characters (in scientific or mathematical contexts) Note: Greek characters should be used in a record only if the item is written in Greek.	Spell out in English and enclose in square brackets	Determining -helix correspondence for protein structure.	Determining [alpha]-helix correspondence for protein structure.
		- calculus	[lambda]-calculus

¹  The ess-zet is not yet authorized by the Library of Congress. Check the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations for the most current information.

²  Because the Spacing Underscore may cause problems with MARC output, users may prefer to continue entering it with the hexidecimal value %5F.