information and knowledge management for translators: online resources

*this blog post is the result of requests from the audience of my presentation at the LICTRA 2010 conference asking for tips and tricks on how professional translators can make the most of Web 2.0 as as resource for information and knowledge management. I started with a compilation of the most ‘famous’ online tools and dictionaries as well as discussion forums. It will be updated and extended constantly. Your comments and suggestions are very welcome.*

get info

- Google Hit List: be careful and critical, don’t only type the term you are looking for in the entry field, hit “Enter” and then simply base your decision on the number of hits you are getting! Learn how Google Search works instead: Read the Google Search Basics (Basic Search Help and More Search Help) This also works for other search engines you might be using. First know how they work, then make best use of their functionalities. By the way, it is always worth a shot using various search engines for a query and comparing the hits returned with each other.
- There are numerous terminology bases, online dictionaries, language forums, etc available on the internet. As it held true for the good old paper dictionaries, the ones online should also be used with a critical mindset. Particularly the ones that are compiled based on user discussions in associated discussion forums or pull data from parallel online texts such as multi-lingual websites can be powerful resources but must be considered carefully. Some famous online dictionaries are:
* http://www.leo.org/, the constantly evolving online dictionary from the TU München (DE – EN, ES, FR, IT, CH, RU)
* www.merriam-webster.com/ – a classic (EN, monolingual)
* myjmk.com (DE-ES, ES-DE)
* http://www.diclib.com/, which links to numerous dictionaries (e.g. an online version of the spanish dictionary María Moliner) and glossaries (e.g. English-Arabic Automotive Glossary)
* Wortschatz Uni Leipzig (DE, monolingual, providing further linguistic information such as the term’s frequency of appearance.)
* Wortschatz dictionary EN – DE

- Glossaries:
* Glossary Of Green Terms & Definitions
* Glossary Of Organic & Natural Food Terms
* more Food Glossaries
- One example of a search engine pulling terms and their various translations from multilingual websites (such as the European Parliament’s -> http://www.europarl.europa.eu/) is linguee.com (See my blog post about linguee to get some background information about the start-up. Now, that I’ve been using linguee.com for more than a year I would only recommend it as a source of “inspiration”, because of the text snippets (i.e. the co-text) displayed. However, this tool is still not mature enough to be recommended as a trustworthy tool to use. Please consider the sources the hits are pulled from. The terms from the European Parliament’s texts are – of course – very good quality.)
- I find the Visual Thesaurus/ particularly helpful. The free online version is a trial version that you can start over and over again. This tool is extremely powerful when it comes to calling up associations and “creatively” finding the words you are looking for. It’s also nice looking and fun to use. Don’t miss their articles and blog posts on linguistics, writing, etc. – they are real inspiration!

get knowledge

Online discussion forums adressing language and translation topics are a great resource when facing a translation problem. In the leo.org discussion forums, most of the time it only takes a couple of minutes until you will get an answer to your question. In the meantime, you can also browse the posts of other users and contribute yourself: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”
The advantage of such forums is the possibility of triggering a “quasi-synchronous” communication with others who are following the discussions and contributing to them. These actions lead to externalisation processes of the users’ knowledge and, thus, to one-to-many knowledge transfers as the information created will be accessible online for other users in the future.
Professional online discussion forums are offered by:
* proz.com/
* aquarius.net/questions
* If you have a profile on LinkedIn (linkedin.com) or any other social networking site, you might also want to check if there are groups for professional translators that could be helpful for you. The proz.com group on LinkedIn.com covers any topic related to the language and translation business plus personal experiences, tips and tricks for freelancers, etc.

get more…

A list containing more links to free-of-charge glossaries, dictionaries, online communities, associations, publications, etc. can be found on the website of Accurapid’s Translation Journal: http://accurapid.com/journal/links.htm

travel journal: leipzig international conference on translation studies – LICTRA 2010, day 1

„LICTRA 2010 is the continuation of a tradition that began in 1965 and has since regularly drawn researchers from all over the world to the University of Leipzig to discuss and exchange ideas on fundamental issues concerning Translation and Interpretation Studies.
Its combination of continuity, range and high standards makes LICTRA unique in Germany as an event promoting and developing T&I Studies, and the conference proceedings are milestones in the field. (…) about 200 T&I researchers, practitioners and students have registered for LICTRA 2010. They come from 30 nations all around the world (…).
(…) the New York Times ranked Leipzig in 10th place in its list of ,The 31 Places to Go in 2010‘. (…) We believe that LICTRA 2010 offers you something for the senses as well as for the mind, and so we hope that you have a thoroughly enjoyable and successful conference.“

This short summary of the warm welcome to the LICTRA 2010 participants by Prof. Dr. Peter A. Schmitt, director of the Institute for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, IALT of the University of Leipzig, hits the nail on the head when it comes to explaining the vibes to all those who (poor you!) couldn‘t make it to the conference.

The familiar yet international atmosphere at the event taking place in a beautiful modern university building in the middle of a historical city, and covering topics ranging from ancient translation theories to future visions for T&I Studies and the translation business was very delightful and only within a few hours I had forgotten that this was my very first time in Leipzig and that (except for my supervisor and one of my fellow doctoral students) I only knew most of the other attendees’ names from the university library’s bookshelves. Indeed, reading the badges dangling from peoples’ necks was like flipping through the table of contents of the standard references of translation studies.

I will blog about some interesting sessions and discussions asap. For now, you can find the slides of my presentation on “synergies in coopetition. an analysis of professional translators’ social networks.” here.

Enjoy!