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This is very interesting! I agree with the formatting of the footnote. Formats places the reference at the end of the print page, but of course the braille title page is not a print page. So you have placed the reference at the end of the title page. I think that’s a fine solution. A comment about the reference indicator symbol–if the asterisk is the ONLY type of reference mark used in the text, just the base indicator, 2356, 2356 is used. It is not necessary to show that it is an asterisk. And in that case it is identified simply as a reference indicator. See Formats 16.3.1
Your print sample does not include this Control Number so I can’t see what it is. Formats discusses ONLY printing history and also requires the information about the printing history to be on the second title page. So if you’re sure this control number is not the printing history under a different name, you can either omit it entirely or determine if the agency requires it. And if you’re sure this is not actually the printing history, do not include that note about printing history.
My final comment concerns the material on the second title page. You have additional information about the publisher that I believe belongs on the main title page. Also, I don’t think the officers of the publishing company are included in any case. The information about the publisher segment of the title page does not seem to include such information.
Consultants are included only if directed by the agency. And I think all the other personnel you have listed such as the editorial, project management and technology editorial information are not generally included at all. Of course if you have been specifically directed by the agency to include all this, then certainly do so.
–Joanna
The double caps for the Transcriber’s Note heading is an error. Since the time Formats was released online, errata have been collected so that the hard copy publications will be as error-free as possible. On the front matter pages, please see Appendix E section E.2. That issue is an agency decision as explained in this appendix.
–Joanna
There are box shapes that enclose nothing and there are box shapes that enclose freestanding letters and freestanding puncutation. These situations are not specifically covered in the guidelines, so I’ll offer suggestions. Transcriber’s notes will be needed to explain to the reader.
See 3.1.1 and 3.1.2. Transcriber’s notes should be worded at a level that is appropriate to the grade. The surrounding text and vocabulary is a good indication of that. However, since the print readers can SEE freestanding punctuation, I am not sure that a young braille reader is familiar with the term “freestanding.” Therefore, I won’t use that term here and instead I’ll just describe the way the puncutation is presented in print.
Parentheses is substituted for the box shape indicator and termination sign. See Formats 18.3.4.
TN preceding example sentence:
TNBoxes are shown as parentheses in braille. Punctuation marks that are in a box in print are in parentheses in braille and start with a dot 4.TNBraille the example without the crossouts and the text above the boxes. Words that start with a boxed letter are UNCONTRACTED. Show that letter unspaced in parentheses with its cap sign if it has one. On the next line, braille the example as it is corrected. Precede that with an embedded TN that says TNCorrected exampleTN
TN preceding sentence #5
TNA box that is blank is a double dash in braille.TNFollow print spacing for those double dashes.
–Joanna
So for confirmation there are no guide dots required due to the fact that these are unrelated columns and are treated as a list.
There is no braille designation for the okina and there is not even agreement about representing it in print. It usually resembles an apostrophe, but that is not what it IS. Sometimes it is printed as an apostrophe, sometimes as an opening single quote. It is also referred to in different ways, sometimes as inverse comma or reversed apostrophe.
The recommendation for braille is to use uncontracted braille, as in any foreign language, use the 456 preceding the affected letter for the macron, which is an established braille usage, and use the dot 4 accent indicator for the okina, again preceding the affected letter. List these in special symbols and just identify the dot 4 as okina (glottal stop). If there is a letter with both an okina and a macron, I would follow print order, okina first, followed by the macron, followed by the letter.
–Joanna
It is assumed that braille is contracted. It is the responsibility of the agency to specify otherwise. See Formats 2.3.8b Customized braille. The decision to use uncontracted braille comes about only as an agency requirement.
–Joanna
This is actually pretty simple and I think everything needed for this is in Formats. No captions. This is a graphic novel. The print sample (THANK YOU) looks to me just like the sameple in Formats and text in the frames is treated as scene setting. There is no dialog. Nobody is there and nobody is talking! When you think it’s necessary, you can add TN’s to describe what is happening (or visible) in each frame that is not covered in the text already there in print.
I hope that helps with this page, at least. I think the best way to approach this particular work is for you to send any additional pages that come along that you want to question if you find there is not enough information in Formats to help you.
–Joanna
Dots 5’s may not be the correct indication for the table and since there is more than one table affected, there could be omissions for different reasons. Without the print page, it is impossible to tell. See Formats 11.6.4 and 11.6.5. Sometimes an omission in a table is indicated by dots 5’s, sometimes by ellipses and sometimes with a dash. It depends on the nature of the omission. AND this question should be posted at the Math/Nemeth forum because Nemeth formatting takes precedence over general textbook formatting. Since this is a math book, I recommend that the math expert be consulted first to determine if there is a Nemeth format that should be followed.
IF and only IF it is determined that textbook guidelines apply and IF the same formatting applies to ALL the tables, you can inform the reader once on the TN page. However, the note you have suggested in your question would not work. A series of dot 5’s (or ellipses, or a dash, whatever is the right one) indicates a blank entry. Where? A blank entry in what? This is the TN page at the beginning of the volume! When you write such a note be sure to give the reader all the information needed to understand what you are writing about. You can see that this will apply only to tables, but the reader can’t possibly know that unless you say so.
And please don’t forget to check with the Nemeth expert first.
–Joanna
Yes, the two situations you cite are clearly stated and this makes them easy to remember and to follow with confidence. Thank you for pointing them out to us.
I think the situation that has many of us wondering is, do we leave line 1 blank on a new braille page (without a running head) when a “change of thought” new paragraph begins? [That is, if there is any braille on lines 24-25 of the preceding page, and the new paragraph uses the same cell pattern? such as 3-1] A print book would put centered asterisks (for example) at the top of a page to indicate a break in thought, even if centered asterisks were not used within a page to indicate such. What if displayed material begins at the top of a braille page and there is braille on the preceding page on line 24 or 25? Is the indented margin enough of a clue that this is displayed material? Or must line 1 be blank there as well?
A blank line 1 seems quite unobvious to me. Is it noticeable to braille readers? It is surely does not speak as loudly as a blank line *within a page. Regardless, we would all love to see a simple guideline we can turn to when faced with this layout which –as you say– occurs far more frequently than one can imagine is possible.
Your head may be spinning Lindy, mine has already fallen off. There are circumstances where line one is left blank.
Look 8.3.4a of Braille Formats 2011. A list can start on line one IF there are two or more blank lines at the bottom of the previous page. Start the list on line 2 when braille is on the last, or next-to-last line of the previous page.
13.4.1d When a stanza ends on the last line of a braille page, a blank line is left at the top of the next braille page. The new stanza starts on line 2 when a running head is not used.
The two rules above are very clear and are for very specific situations. I braille a lot of books loaded with lists, boxes, various headings, and displayed material. Each of these items requires blank lines. It is very simple when they fall in the middle of a braille page, but things get complicated when one of these items begins at the beginning of braille page or ends on line 24 or 25 of a braille page. I am also confused by whether the new braille page is also a new print page or a continuation page. The formatting is often dependent on what preceeds the items and what follows. I’m going to try creating a some kind of visual chart outlining all of these situations to see if that will help convey my questions and help NBA provide clear answers. Stay tuned.
Hi, Fred. These are very interesting questions.
1. Do not raise the ordinal ending. I believe the Foreign Language Interim Manual tell us to insert a letter sign, but because the numerals are Nemeth, the ELI is not needed.
2. Follow print with the location and spacing of the dollar sign. This symbol can stand alone just fine as it is. Just don’t wrap the space.
Regarding commas as decimals, the Nemeth code does address this point, calling it the “Continental decimal point.” See NC §8.a. which says this: “The transcriber should be alert to the possibility that variant forms of the comma and decimal point are sometimes employed, particularly in books published outside of the United States. Although the ink print signs for the comma and decimal point differ from those used in the United States, this difference is not reflected in the braille transcription. However, a transcriber’s note should be included at the beginning of the book to inform the reader of the continental usage in the ink-print edition.” [4 examples]3. Since NC has a rule, it supersedes the FL rule. Space the ellipsis.
Thank you for reminding me about the NBA Bulletin. I had forgotten about that wonderful resource for this type of question.
And thank you for your quick response. I really appreciate your help!
Best,
RebeccaThis topic is covered in depth in the Foreign Language Braille article in the Fall 2012 issue of the NBA Bulletin, so I will not repeat that here. To summarize, the foreign language label (or caption) is treated as a picture caption and the contracted English description is enclosed in an embedded transcriber’s note. The description should be verified in the book’s glossary by looking up the caption to determine the vocabulary. Thanks for including the print page. That is very helpful.
–Joanna
I’m so sorry about being dense, but C-5 does not answer my question. The rules about blank lines before and after page change indicators are spelled out. The rules about continuation pages are not.
If page 46 of the text book has a list and page 47 starts with a centered heading, then I would braille the list, put in a page change indicator and then a blank line before the centered heading.
Suppose text book page 46 has a list followed by a centered heading on the same page. I braille the list and the last item in the list falls on braille line 25. Then the next braille page is a continuation page. Do I put the centered heading on line one or do I drop it down to line 2? In this situation there is no page change indicator. Using the old formatting rules, the centered heading would only be allowed on line one if the list had ended on line 23. Both line 24 and 25 needed to be blank for the centered heading to be allowed on line one of the continuation page. Actually it didn’t make any difference it the centered heading followed a list, an attribution, a paragraph or anything else.
I agree with the formatting you have applied to these foreign language samples. For instance, the foreign language in the English context is contracted with general accent indicators. The foreign language passage is uncontracted and uses special symbols for the accented letters.
The pronunciation uses conventional diacritics and that is very well done.
The pronunciation key summary should be done just as if the words were English. I know that the guidelines suggest following the print format, but it assumes some sort of column/list arrangement. In this case, you are certainly correct to follow print and separate each entry with the slash. However, I would suggest that you consider modifying the format and changing this to a list format without the slashes. If you choose to do that, explain with a TN. This is an unusual print format for a pronunciation key and it involves foreign language words. In this case, the transcriber may make such a change for the sake of clarity.
That’s just a suggestion …
–Joanna
