Call for participation

This content you can find in sharable version here.

Who we are?
Information science experts. Theorists and practitioners of bibliography as a communication tool. Members of the Library and Information Science Institue at the University of Wrocław and the DARIAH-EU Bibliographical Data Work Group.

What we want to do?
We want to do a multilingual encyclopaedic dictionary facilitating exchange metadata describing one of the features of document – its form of perpetuation i.e. type of document. Two of the barriers (or source of noise) is the language and/or terminological barrier. Words labeling type of document are most often terms and their translation from one language into second language has to be strict therefore it has to use exact equivalent (not relative equivalent nor neologism). The issue is not only choice of proper equivalent, but also danger of false equivalency made by anisomorphism. This happens when on the lexical level equivalent is correct, however is in fact incorrect due to their semantic, grammatical or cultural differences. Calques also makes difficulties with appropriate data exchanging. Our source of information – a multilingual encyclopaedic dictionary, so not only with equivalents but also with definitions and annotations for individual languages – will remove this obstacles in the field of document types, because this way it will describing correspondence of designations for identical concepts. 

Who we need?
We are looking for people ready to team work in doing this dictionary as an information collector in the field of their native language. We are calling this part of job the language editor. We are editors of content, so we will edit and arrange the whole materials given by language editors. The language editor will be responsible for:

  • become acquainted with list of headwords in English language proposed by content editors;
  • prepare list of missing headwords in native language (not necessarily but it will be very helpful and useful) – especially for this kind of document types which are not common or specific for this language or culture; 
  • prepare for all headwords:
    •  exact equivalent in native language (with its definition in native language and translation into English language; definition have to be cited from any existing but authority source of information, e.g. dictionary / encyclopaedia / handbook / companion / manual / standard etc. but in native language – not as a translation or equivalent from foreign language) with related terms
    • or reason, why there is it impossible to give a proper equivalent with possible false equivalents (if exists);
  • contact with content editors.

This work for any language could be done by one person or by team. If so – the team will be asked to elect a team chairman, who will coordinate the work of language team and be a contact person for content editors.

How will we do it?
We want to work fully in online environment. For this moment we do not see necessity for an in situ meeting. The contact will be provide by e-mails and a workshop will be based on databases system Midas Browser. Detailed technical solutions for the cooperation of content editors and languages editors will be agreed later. The result of our work will be the dictionary published in the form of a database available online in open access. The main language of the dictionary will be English. It is not excluded that (when the dictionary gains the appreciation of users and some stage of saturation by informations) typography form (print or e-book) will be prepared too.

When will we do it?
The work schedule will depend on many factors, so we cannot provide specific end dates for subsequent stages. However, the first steps are established:

  • 02–03.2020 – first presentations about initial specification of the project on the Bibliographical Data WG DARIAH event in Prague (25–27 of February 2020) and TERMOS Conference (5 of March 2020).
  • 04.2020 – the end of preparing list of headwords in English; practical trial of using this list for foreign language (Polish) done by content editors; technical trial of using Midas Browser
  • 06.2020 – the end of the methodological part of work; consulting the project with other DARIAH’s work groups.

Then everything will depend on the number of languages submitted for description and the level of participants’ responsiveness. But surly the schedule will contain following steps:

  • fixing the first list of languages assumed for implementation.
  • the end of work in the field of native languages.
  • the end of the consolidation informations from native languages with English.
  • publishing of first version of dictionary.

The last, everlasting, step could be current updates of the dictionary content with new languages or information within old languages.