INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT
July - December 1998
Contents:
The Interim Report for the period July - December 1998 will only summarize the most
important actions, achievements and results of the international project during the
first six months of its progress.
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
July
- 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
July - December
- 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
2. Technical progress
- 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
3. Promotional activities
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:
Promotional material and outlines of the Project were prepared and sent out on demand
to cooperating working groups and their funding bodies.
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
5. Concluding recapitulation and evaluation
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
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ivan.kanic@nuk.uni-lj.si
Created February 3, 1999