INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT

July - December 1998

1. Organizational issues

June 1998

• signing of the Contract for funding by the Open Society Institute - Regional Library Program, Budapest, and the National and University Library, Ljubljana

• preparation of basic formal documents (q.v. Appendix 1)
• contracts with national coordinating institutions
• author's contracts with individual editors/translators
• setting of organizational procedures and schemes

• fixed working groups have been established in individual countries
• contracts have been signed for 11 languages by 33 individual authors and 11 institutions (q.v. Appendix 2)
• contracts for 3 more languages are on their way to be signed (q.v. Appendix 2.a)
• the overall timetable and some individual time schemes have been agreed upon with particular collaborators
• the source material for the dictionary was sent out to 11 countries
• negotiotions with some potential partner institutions have been carried out resulting in 2 additional collaborating countries/languages
• negotiations with individual authors have been carried out in some language areas where no funding had been found yet additional financial sources have been sought for in individual countries
• as the result a contract was signed with the Open Society Fund Bosnia & Herzegovina for a donation covering the Bosnian language

• guidelines setting the common standards for technical procedures and preparation of target language material have been prepared and sent out to cooperating working groups (q.v. Appendix 3)
• communications channels for the exchange of dictionary material and conversion of file exchange formats have been tested and set for individual countries following their technical possibilities and usage
• the source material for the A - C segment consisting of 1.371 entries in English was prepared for exchange and sent out in printed and in electronic form to 11 cooperating working groups
• the source material for the D - L segment consisting of 1.084 entries in English was prepared for exchange and sent out in printed and in electronic form to 6 cooperating working groups
• supporting dictionary material in German, French and Russian has been prepared and sent out on demand to particular working groups
• the translations/equivalents for the A - C segment have been prepared and returned for further processing by 6 working groups
• technical issues concerning the preparation of the target language material were discussed, prepared and/or answered by phone, mail and e-mail
• a trial run has been executed converting the files in Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Estonian, Icelandic and Macedonian (in Cyrillic script)
• technical specifications have been prepared to upgrade the demo user interface

Promotional activities cover a wide scale of actions carried out in a number of countries by particular collaborators and their institutions and by the Project Manager. They range from individual presentations to international conferences, and the presentation of the project on the Web. Only four of the most important will be listed below:

4. Financial issues

The expenditures of the past period cover the following items related to the central preparation and processing of the dictionary (for details see Appendix 4):

• equipment
  • acquisition of a PC Pentium II for central processing tasks
• administration
  • telephone, fax
  • postage
  • office supplies
  • photocopies
• contracts and honoraria
  • preparation of source material
  • data processing
  • lexicographical work
  • data input
  • management, administration and translation
    • in-kind by the National and University Library

During the starting period of the project (July to December 1998) 11 national teams have formally signed the contract and further contracts for 3 languages are in the process of signing, thus uniting 33 and more individual authors in the preparation of a single dictionary. Further potential collaborators will be attracted if possible during the next phase. All the formal isues have been solved and technical standards set. Fund raising proved successful in some countries thus providing the basic conditions for their collaboration. The first results of the editorial work (comprising letters A - C, 1.371 items) had already been handed out by 6 teams who have started the second segment (letters D - L, 1.084 entries) already. File conversions have been successfully tested, with Cyrillic as well, and the upgrade of the demo user inteface has been designed.

One must agree with the overall evaluation that the project has started following to the planned schedule, so the results in the form of the edited electronic manuscript can be expected in summer 1999. It is not clear, however, if all of the participating parties will be able to keep to the proposed timetable. In the case of their delays the final editing will be postponed into the second half of the year.

In addition to the regular and planned activities concerning the preparation of the dictionary, much effort will be paid in 1999 to finding a suitable publisher and the financial means for the publication of the work.

Project Manager
Ljubljana, January 18, 1999

6. Appendices:

Appendix 1: Contracts - specimen
Appendix 2: List of cooperating institutions and authors
Appendix 2.a: Contracts sent out for signing and not returned yet
Appendix 2.b: List of languages we are seeking collaborators for
Appendix 3: Technical guidelines
Appendix 4: Detailed financial report