Should different translations of the same work be shelved all together or in language sections? At the moment non-English works are on the third floor and, as the bulk of them are in Italian, though there is a respectable showing in French and Polish, shelved alphabetically regardless of language. I'm failing to spot the inconsistency in this but I feel there is one.
The sixth most translated Italian author, after Dante, Machiavelli, Gramsci, Pirandello and Croce is?
Gianni Rodari
"Se andrete a Firenze vedrete certamente...." la gente will want to see the wonderful exhibition Gianni Rodari nel Mondo:Edizioni Straniere di Rodari at the Museo Marino Marini in piazza San Pancrazio.
I will be in Florence next week and will go on Tuesday then report. You have until 31 March, every day 10-5, except Tuesdays and Sundays.
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Do you place English translations of non-English originals amongst English books? Clearly you should not, all originals and their translations should be together, regardless of language. Let Estonian readers chose whether they want to read Dante in English, Italian or Polish without having to look in more than one place.
But Pispolo, some translations into English are not regarded as such; it's been mentioned before that there is a tendency to believe that secretly everyone's default language is English.
It would be unusual for Crime and Punishment to be referred to by its real title for instance; I don't think I've ever seen it, now I come to think. Though we do say Le Rouge et Le Noir; Mein Kampf always stays so, never My Struggle.
If the first principle is retrievability then rule follow-through might have to give way to putting books where most would expect to find them.
Then, though, there are books known better by main character than by author - Buffy, for example. This applies much more to films and videos, which I haven't begun to sort yet.
These are not do-it-yourself difficulties; I need help or none of you will be able to retrieve anything without adopting my mindset.
Pispolo, if you apply your logic you would have the english language shelves full of italian translations of english books...
I think there should be shelves for each language and translations of books live on the shelves of the target language not the source language.
Take the Master and Margarita. You might not have a whole Russian language section. Or you might not have a copy in the original language. (I realise this is not the best example as in this case you probably have both, but bear with me). And you might have many translations of it and into various languages.
Surely it is of most help for the library user to decide what language she wants to read in, and then look to see what books are available in that.
If you were being really trikki you could put a cross-reference slip in saying also available in (insert other colours here).
Here we seem to be veering (ever so slightly) to a topic close to my heart: What about music? Who looks after that and why not set up a trash-library for MP3s? Same principle, guests come with laptops, ipods etc, and they make their music available?
Lenna, Right, I'll do as you say, because it sounds as if it will work; if it doesn't I'm in the garden or cooking dinner or you'll all have to read what you can find.
Beachbum, Yes. Empty your Ipods all ye who enter here. Do you think people will be as embarrassed by some of their musical choices as some have been with their books? What would be the really worst thing to be found listening to?
(Just had to check how many 'r's in embarrass and only a German dictionary came to hand - verlegen possibly with heit, worse than determining number of 'r's).
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