The population of Iceland will reach approximately 280.000 inhabitants in the year 2000. Icelandic, the language of this small population, is certainly a minority language, and very few people outside the country speak and/or understand it. Icelanders can therefore rarely use their own language for international communicaton purposes. However, they are very conscious of the danger of foreign influence on their native tongue. New words (neologisms) are added to the vocabulary for modern needs and old words are given new meaning rather than borrowing loanwords to any extent.
New developments in electronic databases, library terminology, systematic thesauri and dictionaries of various kinds have called for increased international or global communication between professionals and institutions in recent years. Among important steps taken within the library community are the following:
A former project on data conversion and retrospective cataloguing for the National & University Library involved a contract with the international library service agent Saztec, the vendor being responsible for supplying MARC entries for foreign (non-Icelandic) materials. Since then record entries are regularly retrieve from foreign data banks, such as OCLC, SLS, etc. These are in most cases supplied with indexing data in English, which are kept in the library system for retrieval purposes.
The compilation of Icelandic multilingual thesauri was started in late 1980's, using the thesaurus software Tinterm, later replaced with MultiTes, which supports a thesaurus web-edition. Retrospective subject indexing in Icelandic takes place at the same time as the thesaurus construction, each task aiding the other.
Online access to multilingual dictionaries of the Icelandic Language Center and direct access to university professors and other specialists has been of great support for the project, among other tools used is the translation of DDC into Icelandic, LCSH, etc. The ILC dictionaries do not yet cover all fields.
The main task for the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs Translation Centre at present is to translate acts falling under the decisions of the EEA Joint Committee and other texts related to the European Economic Area. This unit has also specialised in translating international agreements and legal texts, formal letters and other such texts where standardised vocabulary is required. The Translation Centre Dictionary contains mainly legal and technical terms, not words readily found in ordinary dictionaries. Copying and publication of the files is strictly prohibited. However, browsing of the dictionary is freely allowed.
The Multilingual Dictionary of Library Terminology, now being compiled undir the leadership of Slovenia, with contributions from at least thirteen languages will be a great asset in the world of modern knowledge. The Icelandic part of the dictionary is now in its final stages. Compilers are Audur Gestsdottir, branch librarian, and Gudrun Karlsdottir, author of this abstract and the national co-ordinator for the project. We have translated from the English version and we have also consulted a copy of the German draft. The German version has been of much help to us, whenever we have come across terms with multiple meaning. We have found much interest among those who have helped us in translating less familiar words, and we believe that the dictionary will also to some extent serve the field of preservation, bookbinding and other book and media arts. Initial financing of projects is often difficult. In order to get an overview over the overall situation within the information technology field in Iceland the Ministry of Education nominated a Committee of Specialists to evaluate the situation within special fields such as language engineering, standards, script, translations, international database search, computer talk and computer hearing, conversion of data, e.g. text converted to sound and vice versa. The committee concluded with a report in 1999, including recommendations for actions and estimated costs.
Final abstract, September 20, 2000