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 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 | Cie |
| 2e | 2e | ||
| no | no | ||
| Otherwise use the double underscore with the standard character representing the superscript or subscript character. | Lp-spaces | Lp‗-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) | Fe ( 5 1 . 5) |
| Rh (83.4) | Rh (8 3 . 4) | ||
| Old German small e | Umlaut | Fürsten | Fu¨rsten |
| Scharfes s or ess-zet written as two characters 1 | sz | Außenhandel | Auszenhandel |
| Scharfes s or ess-zet written as a ligature 1 | ss | Außenhandel | Auszenhandel |
| 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. | ɘ ǝ | a‗ |
| ɓ | b‗ | ||
| ɗ | d‗ | ||
| ɛ | e‗ | ||
| ɤ ɣ | g‗ | ||
| ƙ | k‗ | ||
| ŋ | n‗ | ||
| ɔ | o‗ | ||
| ʋ | v‗ | ||
| ʒ | z‗ | ||
| For a ^ below a letter, use a double underscore below the letter. | ḓ | d‗ | |
| ḽ | l‗ | ||
| ṋ | n‗ | ||
| ṱ | t‗ | ||
| For a ̩ below a letter, use a dot below the letter. | e̩ | e.‗ | |
| o̩ | o.‗ | ||
| s̩ | s.‗ | ||
| Abbreviation ạ in Spanish or Portuguese | a . | 5ạ região | 5a. regia ~o |
| Abbreviation ọ in Spanish or Portuguese | o . | 9ọDistrito | 9o. Distrito |
| Inch(es) | double prime | 1″ = 2000′ | 1″ = 2000′ |
| Foot (feet) | prime | 1″ = 2000′ | 1″ = 2000′ |
| 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. | Rx 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 | hət | 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 α-helix correspondence for protein structure. | Determining [alpha]-helix correspondence for protein structure. |
| λ - calculus | [lambda]-calculus |
Spacing characters
You can now enter these characters as characters (you may continue to enter them using hex values).
Note: Do not confuse these spacing characters with their non-spacing counterparts. Use of the spacing characters is limited almost exclusively to URLs. For example, Núñez uses the non-spacing tilde, but {{"http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~jacm/"}} uses the spacing tilde.
| Original Character | Equivalent | Example | Type As |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enter as character or hex value | Spacing circumflex/circumflex accent | ^ | %5E |
| Spacing underscore/low line 2 | _ | %5F | |
| Spacing grave/grave accent | ` | %60 | |
| Spacing tilde/tilde | ~ | %7E | |
| Enter as hex value only | vertical bar | | | %7C |
2 Because the Spacing Underscore may cause problems with MARC output, users may prefer to continue entering it with the hexadecimal value %5F.