Searching for Non-English Language Materials: Scripts, Diacritics, Numerals and Dates

Different languages may use their own characters for numbers. In these cases, they are commonly converted to Arabic numerals (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) in a catalog record. 

Pro tip: Check the romanization table of the language you are working with for instructions on how to convert its numerals to Arabic numerals. For a search that includes numbers, try searching using the converted Arabic numbers and the romanization of the non-Latin script numbers, for the most comprehensive results.

Some international materials may have publication dates from a non-Gregorian calendar. When this happens, the non-Gregorian date is converted by the cataloger to Gregorian and both dates will appear in the catalog record. It is important to note that the Gregorian date is the one that is used to filter or sort by date in Library Catalog Search. 

For example, to convert Buddhist Era dates to Gregorian dates, subtract 543 from the Buddhist Era calendar

Buddhist Era date: 2540-543 = Gregorian date: 1997 

Both dates are displayed in the “Published/Created” field in Library search. The Gregorian date is in square brackets and that is the date that is indexed and filtered for Library search.

Published/Created: [Krung Thēp Mahā Nakhō̜n] : [Wat Phitchayayātikārām], 2540[1997]

Pro tip: Use a calendar converter to search effectively for dates of publication that are from a non-Gregorian calendar. Always use the Gregorian date (or equivalent) if searching by date in Library Catalog Search.