Slovenu vienos ir keliu kalbu bibliotekininkystes ir informacijos mokslo terminu žodynai / Ivanas Kaničius (Slovene mono- and multilingual dictionaries of library and information science Terminology)
In: Bibliotekininkyste ’97 – Bibliotekininkystes ir bibliografijos terminologija – ISSN 1392- 544X (ISBN 9986-530-47-4), pp. 26-30
UDK 02:001.4 (497.1)

Abstract
The project of compiling, processing and constructing the Slovene dictionary of library and information sciences is described parallel to the project of arranging a multilingual dictionary covering the same field of knowledge. The trial volume as one of the preliminary results is presented with a description of the software tool used for the processing of the lexical data.

Slovenia is a small Central European state, neighbouring Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and the Adriatic Sea. In the period between 1945 and 1991 Slovenia represented one of the six federal republics of Yugoslavia. In 1991 it attained its independence and is since a sovereign state. Its population is round 2 million inhabitants, the ethnic composition being rather uniform - 88% claim Slovene nationality. The area, covering mere 20.256 km2, is very composite - partly Alpine, Mediterranean, Panonic and Carstic regions meet there. The capital Ljubljana counts no more than 275.000 inhabitants. The national currency is Slovene Tolar (SIT); 1 DEM equals 80 Sit, inflation rate being 1 % per month. Financial statistics (1994) show GDP at 12 billion US$ or 6.050 US$ GDP per capita. There are two universities, in Ljubljana and in Maribor. In Ljubljana, there is a Department for Library and Information Sciences at the Faculty of Arts, the Research & Development Department for LIS at the National and University Library, and of course, there is the Library association of Slovenia. The official language is Slovene, a branch of the South Slavonic languages, using the Latin alphabet.

2. LIS terminology in Slovenia

Professional terminology is a proof of the strength, variety, development and autonomy of a language, and of the particular profession. Librarianship as a profession has got a rather long and colourfull tradition in the history of the Slovene nation and the Slovene language, as well. Matija Čop, a genius in linguistics of the early l9th century, was a scholar speaking 19 languages fluently, and performing the duties of the librarian in the Lyceal Library which later developed into the National and University Library of today. Despite a very strong and steady influence of the German language in the l9th and early 20th century, and of the English technical literature and terminology of today, Slovene technical terms of library and information science have developed, survived and proved their worthiness. There are no serious lists, dictionaries and attempts of standard-setting in the "language of librarians" to be found in the past, though there was a need for it. The usage was based on the practical experience exclusively, and on the standard of particular "schools of thought" influenced by illustrious personalities of the time, like Avgust Pirjevec, Pavle Kalan and the like. Terminology was often unadjusted formally and from the semantic point of view, as well. An important number of strange words from the German, as well as from the English language in the last decades, caused additional trouble, being often misused, misinterpreted or misunderstood. Inspite of the fact that the first Slovene book was printed as early as 1550, and the first Slovene translation of the Bible in 1584, the Slovene language and its segment devoted to librarianship have no materialization in any monolingual explanatory, neither multilingual translating dictionary. Thus we felt strongly obliged to improve the situation in this respect.

Compilation, organization and the editorial work concerning a dictionary, being even the first of the kind in the respective language, is a long lasting project, even a never ending story. One cannot determine the time schedule, not even by years, and the final goal, the publishing of the dictionary, is often more a fata morgana than a reality to be fetched firmly. There is a deep well of expressions and phrases to be explored with no firm bases for orientation. For practical reasons of organization and team work atmosphere one must not exaggerate in the number of coworker fellows included into the team. If the best experts in the field should be invited to the group, one can be certain that they have already been "sold out" in other projects and similar activities. So time is running even faster. . .

2.1. Expert Committee on Terminology

In order to sustain organized and planned activities in the field of LIS terminology, a group of young experts founded a mixed yet well balanced working group. The Expert Committee for terminology in library and information sciences was established in June 9, 1987, joining professional efforts of the working group for terminology within the Library Association of Slovenia, the National and University Library in Ljubljana, and the Section for Terminology of the Centre for Scientific Research at the Slovene Academy of Science and Arts.

There are fundamentally three goals established by the Expert Committee for terminology:

2.2. Dictionaries of LIS terminology

During the years 1987 to 1992 lexical material from three multilingual dictionaries was selected and the vocabulary of 57 Slovene technical texts was excerpted. The lexical material was keyed into computer and processed according to the principles set prior to the project. Up to the end of 1992 the first redaction of the multilingual dictinary in four languages (Slovene, English, German and French) was accomplished, defining some 3.000 technical terms, and working material comprising some 9.000 terms was prepared and published as the basis for elaboration of the repertory for further processing of the dictionary. In 1993 the committee continued the selection and editorial work on the repertory (the basis vocabulary) and the first editing of some term word families started. In the years 1993 to 1995 the thesaurus (repertory, basic vocabulary), permuted thesaurus with some 23.000 entries, and the first trial volume were prepared and published.

The edition of the complete materials for the Slovene terminological dictionary of library and information sciences is a long lasting project and cannot be exactly defined by time. The final version of both dictionaries, ready for publication, will be available in machine readable form supported by a specific storage and retrieval system. Lexical material is prepared by members of the Committee individually, and discuseed in working sessionsin the years 1987 to October 1995 there were 154 of them. The Ministry of Culture, the National and University Library and the Library Association of Slovenia are the main and only supporting bodies, assisting the functionning of the Committee financially and in material.

2.2.1. The Slovene Dictionary of LIS Terminology

Terminological dictionary of library and information sciences will be an explanatory dictionary comprising technical terms currently used in Slovene library science and practice for communication among professionals.

The following technical terms will be discussed in the dictionary:

Excerption of important Slovene technical texts and selection from foreign language terminological dictionaries will be the source of the repertory. In the process of selection and processing of chosen terms comprised in the dictionary, within a word family, priority will be given as a rule to substantives rather than others parts of speech. Others will be included according to the frequency of their accurence based on excerption.

Data processing is fully automated throughtout compilation, selection and editing stages of lexicological work and results are stored in machine readable form. Thus the dictionary will be available online, on floppy disk, and CD-ROM, supported by appropriate DBMS and word processing software.

2.2.2 Multilingual Dictionary of LIS (in four languages)

The multilingual terminological dictionary of library and information sciences (in four languages) will be a translat‹ng dictionary comprising technical terms currently used in library science and practice for communication among professionals. Specialized in librarianship, the dictionary will deal with technical terms from the fields of printing, publishing, automation, documentation, and informatics if they have penetrated into the field of librarianship. Slovene, English, German and French equivalents will be given in each case.

The repertory of the multilingual terminological dictionary is based upon selection of the vocabulary of a number of multilingual terminological dictionaries in the sphere of library and information sciences and supported by the comparison with the repertory of the Slovene Dictionary of LIS. Data processing is fully automated throughtout compilation, selection and editing, and the results are stored in machine readable form. Thus the dictionary will be accessible online, on floppy disk, and CD-ROM, supported by appropriate DBMS and word processing software.

2.3. Members of the Committee

The following experts, members of the Committee for terminology in library and information sciences, have contributed their work and expertise, so far:

Branko Berčič, President, B.A. in Slavic Studies, Ph.D. in literary sciences, former Director of the National and University Library in Ljubljana, Head of the Department for LIS at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, retired as full professor.
Zlata Dimec, B.A. in linguistics and librarianship, Bibliographic Manager of the Shared Cataloguing System of Slovenia, assistant at the Department for LIS at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.
Ivan Kanič, B.A. in linguistics, former Head of the Central Economic Library, Head of the Research and Development Department for LIS, former assistant Director and Acting Director of the National and University Library in Ljubljana, president of the Library Association of Slovenia, lecturer at the Department for LIS at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.
Jože Kokole, B.A. in linguistics, M.A. in library and information sciences, former Head of the Union Catalogue Department at the National and University Library in Ljubljana, researcher at the R&D Department for LIS.
Zvonka Leder-Mancini, B.A. in Slavonic languages, advisor at the Institute for Slovene language within the Centre for Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts. Specialized in lexicography and lexicology, co-editor of the Dictionay of the Literary Slovene Language, Vol. 1-5, editor-in-chief of the Meteorological Dictionary.
Jože Munda, bibliographer, former editor of the Slovene National Bibliography, author of personal, publishers' and special bibliographies, editor-in-chief of the Slovene Literary Lexicon at the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts; in the field of history of literature editor of the correspondance of Ivan Cankar, Collected works of Ju{ Kozak, co-editor of the Bibliography of essays, articles and scientific works, Zagreb, (for the Slovene part).
Maks Veselko, B.A. in linguisitcs, lecturer of cataloguing, bibliography, and systematics of sciences at the Teacher Training College of the University of Ljubljana, translator.
Franci Zore, B.A. in philosophy, M.A. in philosophy, assistant for the history of philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, translator from ancient Greek.

To be operational enough througout all the steps of the preparation of the two dictionaries, the working group decided to fully computerize data capturing, data processing, output and the final use of the dictionaries. A firm pre-defined structure was set to enable smooth progress and painless data conversion whenever needed.

The following harware support is at the disposal of the group: PC 80486

3. The Trial Volume

The Dictionary of LIS Terminology has outgrown the phase of the concept and has become a tangible reality. Excerption has given the terminological basis for selection, evaluation, and linguistic processing of raw data, reflecting professional communication of several "time layers", but predominantly covering the second part of the century, including authors of various age and experience. Selection and translation from foreign multilingual dictionaries served as a second source. The comparative and cumulative result is shown in the form of a linguistic repertory, the Alphabetary, phisically presented by 23.000 permuted terms on 526 pages. Any compound term of two or more words can easily be found by any component and compared by the kin.

Selection is followed by defining the meaning or meanings of the term, and showing relations of synonymy and antonymy. The problem of synonyms is known to be of paramount importance in terminology of any science, causing signifficant trouble in exact communication, and unwanted delays in lexicographic work. Detailed semantic analysis is the core of the activities in the committee these days.

The efforts of the working group will be exposed to the public in a trial volume, published in November 1995. It will comprise a number of chosen subject areas, the terms being alphabetically arranged. Their number will not exceed 500. The 70 pages volume will be printed in 500 copies, completely processed, arranged and set by the above mentioned software.

The headings are represented by one- or many-words terms, represented in a particular paragraph. They are arranged by strict alphabet, and followed by their specific morphological ending or endings, defining clearly the parts of speech in the Slovene language. In nouns gender is specified, too. Pronunciation in brackets is shown exceptionally, for foreign words only, as it is not needed in Slovene. Acronyms have been taken into consideration as any other term. Definition (or definitions) is the central part of the paragraph, denoting clearly all the variants of the meaning. They tend to be short and clear. Synonyms, antonyms, and references are supposed to form the "network" of the dictionary, therefore much attention is paid to show this relations, new joints are added frequently and "false friends" are discovered and eliminated, as well. Archaic or improper use is signalled, and so is jargon. Terms from related fields are labelled properly, denoting their "homepage" of origin (e.g. printing, literature, bookbinding, etc.).

What next?

The future work of the group will be focused on completing the monolingual explanatory dictionary, parallel with the completion of the multilingual translating dictionary. Their distribution and use on different media is not a question any more. They will "run" on paper, diskette, and CD-ROM. Will the work have been completed before a new media emerges and spreads from the laboratories of the Silicon Valley?

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Created February 1999