Dear listers,

I am working on a cataloging project, and I need a little help.  How do
you decide which spelling of an artist's name to use when there are
several spellings (i.e transliteration from another language)?  My
problem is specifically related to Russian artists.  There are, of
course, the Library of Congress transliteration system and the
linguistic transliteration system, which are options.  But many of this
group worked outside Russia and spelled their names using French
spellings, for example.

So, the ultimate question- shall I aim for consistency and use a
standard transliteration (LOC is my preference), or shall I use the
artists own spellings where applicable, and just figure out how to deal
with the rest?  In either case we will also index the other way of
spelling (i.e Gontcharova and Goncharova).

Thanks for any help you are able to offer!

Lisa Goodgame
Curatorial Intern
Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts