Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:33:55.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cataloguing Africana: the case for the integration of onomastics into training programs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Atoma Batoma*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Get access

Extract

Cataloguing principles and the rules that evolve from them have not been devised in a cognitive vacuum. The evolution took place in a Western cultural context and inevitably presents the problem of biases. When these cataloguing rules are applied to materials originating from non-Western cultures such biases surface and often constitute serious difficulties. This is the case with Africana materials that have caused and are still causing numerous problems to many a cataloguer. For example, many authors (Iwuji 1989, Aderibidge and Udo 1990) have pointed out the inadequacy of Library of Congress (LC) and Dewey Decimal (DD) classification schemes with regard to Africana materials claiming that they are restrictive, inhospitable, unfair, and biased.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aderibidge, M. R. and Udoh, D. J. E. LC subclass PL8000-88844: A Case for Revision. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 10(3): 79-90.Google Scholar
Aman, Mohamed M. ed. 1980. Cataloging and Classification of Non-Western Material: Concerns, Issues and Practices. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.Google Scholar
Batoma, Atoma. 2006. African Ethnonyms and Toponyms: An Annotated Bibliography. Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography, vol. 10.Google Scholar
Batoma, Atoma. 2010. Onomastics and Polemical Communication among the Kabye of Northern Togo. Northern Journal Of African Studies (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Bein, Ann. 1993. Cataloging of Materials in African Languages. Cataloging Materials in African Languages. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 17 (1-2): 97-114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertelsen, Cynthia D. 1995. Issues in Cataloging Non-Western Materials: Special Problems with African Languages Materials, http://filebox.vt.edu/admin/international/resdev/africana.htmlGoogle Scholar
Creaves, Monica A. 1980. Cataloging and Classification: The Nigerian Scene, in Cataloging and Classification of Non-Western Material: Concerns, Issues and Practices. Ed.Aman, Mohamed M.. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.Google Scholar
Evalds, Vicki and Henige, David (eds.) 2005. Africanist Libararianship in an Era of Change. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Exner, Frank Kepler. 2007. Creating Identity: North American Indian Names and Naming. Saarbriicken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller.Google Scholar
Fontvielle, Jean. 1967. Le nom des écrivains d'Afrique Noire. In Pearson, J. D. and Jones, Ruth (eds).Google Scholar
Gupta, Sushma. 1991. Cataloging Ethiopian Personal Names. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 14 (2). 81-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hider, Philip and Turner, Saralee. 2006. The Application of AACR2's Rules for Personal Names in Certain Languages. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 43 (2). 37-52.Google Scholar
Houis, Maurice. 1983. Preface, in Ntahombaye ,Phillipe.Google Scholar
Iwuji, Horn. 1989. Africana in LC and DD classification schemes: A need for Africana Scheme? Journal of Librarianship 21 (1).Google Scholar
Iwuji, Horn. 1990.Librarianship and Oral Tradition in Africa. International Library Review 22: 53-59.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Elwyn. 1996. Public Participation in Recent and Future Place Name Changes. Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations.Google Scholar
Junion, Gail J. 1982. A Guide to Reference Tools for Cataloging Africana. Library Resources and Technical Services. 109-21.Google Scholar
Lesh, Robert W. 2005. Continuing Developments in Africana Cataloging n the United States, 1989-2002. In Evalds, Vicki and Henige, David (eds).109-123.Google Scholar
Meiring, Barbara A. 1998. New Names for a New South Africa. In Nicolaisen, W. H. F. (ed.) vol. 2, 241-7.Google Scholar
Meiring, Barbara A. 1999. Dialects in Toponymic Guidelines: A Multilingual South Africa. In Adas do XX Congreo Internacional de Ciencias Onomasticas. Santiago: Institudo da Lingua Galega.Google Scholar
Nicolaisen, W. H. F. ed. 1998. Scope, Perspectives and Methods of Onomastics. Aberdeen: Dept. of English, University of Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Ntahombaye, Phillipe. 1983. Des Noms et des hommes : aspects psychologiques et sociologiques du nom individuel au Burundi. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Obeng, Samuel Gyasi. 2001. African anthroponymy: an ethnographic and morphological study of personal names in Akan and some African societies. Muenchen: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Pearson, J. D. and Jones, Ruth (eds). 1970. The Bibliography of Africa. New York: Africana Publishing Corporaton.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, Robert D. 1981 (in Vandenburgh).Google Scholar
Vandenburgh, Anne. 1981. African Geographic Names as Subject Headings. Africana Journal XII (2). pp. 123-137.Google Scholar
Witherell, Julian W., ed. 1989. Africana Resources and Collections: Three Decades of Development and Achievements. A festschrift in Honor of Hans Panofsky. Metuchen, N. J. & London: The Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Widenman, Elizabeth A. 1889. Recent Development in Africana Cataloging in the United States (1973-1988). In Witherell, Julian, W. (ed.).39-61.Google Scholar
Zabeeh, Farhang. 1968. What is in a Name? The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar