cimec 2005 arena project: a multilingual portal for archaeology irina oberländer-târnoveanu cimec...
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CIMEC 2005
ARENA Project: a Multilingual Portal for Archaeology
Irina Oberländer-TârnoveanuCIMEC – Institute for Cultural Memory
CIMEC 2005
Greetings
Good afternoon (EN)Bon giorno (IT)Bonjour (FR)Bună ziua (RO)
From a simple greeting we can notice:• What languages belong to the same family
(Italian, French and Romanian as Romance) • Some languages use diacritical characters which
indicate the pronunciation and may change the meaning (see ă):
‘Bună’ = good but ‘Buna’ = also granny
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Why does language matter?
• Language is related to identity, culture, and memory.
• Loss of language could mean loss of valuable culture and irreplaceable knowledge.
• Therefore diversity of languages is a value in itself, similar to biodiversity. It should be protected like endangered species.
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Cultural heritage is especially sensitive to language issues
because:
• Terminology is less standardised;• Terms may have different meanings from one
language to another;• Names of historical periods cover different
chronological limits (starting and ending dates), depending on geographical area;
• Terms from one language may have no equivalence in another;
• Professional vocabulary is often not included in general language dictionaries.
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One or many languages?
• The diversity of languages is a strong reality. We cannot speak all the same language.
• Languages are vivid organisms that always survive, transform themselves, assimilate and transmit.
• We think, write and read in our native languages, for a specific language community.
• English – the modern ‘lingua franca.’
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Why English?
• 'A language does not become a global language because of its intrinsic structural properties, or because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it has been of a great literature in the past, or because it was once associated with a great culture or religion… A language becomes an international language for one chief reason: the political power of its people - especially their military power. The explanation is the same throughout history.’ (Crystal 1997)
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One or many languages?
• In humanities, most of the scientific information is still written in national languages (including databases and other large cultural heritage resources).
• There is no easy way to improve access and communication among languages.
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Getting access to knowledge
• By learning others' languages
• By translating from one language to another
• By using a common international language
Scientific vocabulary – easier to understand
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Clues for content
• Scientific text is accompanied by many representations non-linguistic in character: maps, plans, charts, diagrams, drawings and photographs.
• Therefore, it is easier understood by specialists in a field than any literary text in the same languages.
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Small languages and translation
• Small languages remain isolated from the great fluxes of scientific literature. Few people in the world would understand Norwegian, Polish or Romanian.
• The only scientific information cited abroad is that available in largely spread languages.
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The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, Barcelona, 1996
• the right to be recognized as a member of a language community;
• the right to the use of one's own language both in private and in public;
• the right to the use of one's own name;• the right to interrelate and associate with other
members of one's language community of origin;• the right to maintain and develop one's own
culture.
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Languages on the WebSource: Global Internet Statistics
(http://global-reach.biz/globstats/index.php3) • 50.4 % of Web users
speak a native language other than English;
• 43 % of Web users do not speak English at all
• only 35.8 % from the almost 80% a couple of years ago. Italian3.3
Portuguese3.5
French3.3
German7.3
Spanish9.0
Japanese9.6
Chinese14.1
English35.8
LanguagePercentage
(%)
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ARENA - Archaeological Records of Europe Networked Access
• European Project (2001 - 2004)
• Culture 2000 Programme (ref. no. 430 CLT2001)
• Extending online access and digital preservation of European archaeological archives
• Website: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/arena/
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ARENA - Participants
1. United Kingdom - Archaeology Data Service (ADS), York University – project coordinator
2. Denmark - National Agency for Cultural Heritage, Copenhagen
3. Iceland - The Institute of Archaeology [Fornleifastofnun lslands - FSÍ], Reykjavík
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ARENA - Participants
4. Norway - Museum Documentation Project, University of Oslo
5. Poland - Poznan Archaeological Museum
6. Romania - cIMeC - Institute for Cultural Memory, Bucharest
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Main results on-line:
• ARENA Portal for Archaeological Archives
• ARENA Portal for Sites and Monuments Records
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Multilingual access interface: why and how
• To allow the first contact in the language most familiar to potential visitors of the site
• to facilitate access, translation and reading of archaeological information in the languages of the participating countries
• To provide the basic information and search terms (periods, site categories, location) in several languages.
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ARENA Multilingual Approach
• User interface, introduction and search index in six languages (Danish, English, Icelandic, Polish, Norwegian and Romanian)
• Content in the language of each country (for the records of sites and monuments and the archaeological archives made available on-line by the partner organisations).
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Six flags for Six Languages: the ARENA Portal
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Is the language option just a courtesy for our public?
• A tool to facilitate access to multilingual archaeological information
• Not just a simple translation from the English version in five other languages; we had to– Understand each other – Index our digital records using common terms – Find the right equivalencies for archaeological
realities described in several languages – Explain the concepts behind the words.
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Search for sites and monuments
• You can choose to search for sites within a certain period range.
• Choose a type of monument/site from a list of archaeological themes.
• Using a map of Europe choose the area you would like to search.
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Search by period
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Search by category
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Definition of category
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Search ‘where’ on the map of Europe
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Search ‘where’ in the selected country by zooming in
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Selection criteria defined
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Selection criteria (in Polish)
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Search result
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List of sites
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Full record
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ARENA Archives Portal
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Search for archives
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ARENA - List of Archives
• Dankirke, Denmark
• Hjelm, Denmark
• Vorbasse, Denmark
• Hofstaðir, Iceland
• Egge, Norway
• The Archaeological Repertory of Romania: Archive Digitisation Project
• The Chronicle of the Archaeological Researches in Romania (1983 - 2002)
• Cottam, United Kingdom.
• Danebury, Hampshire, United Kingdom
• Ager Tarraconensis, Spain
• Kowalewko, Poland
• Biskupin archaeological reserve, Poland
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Danish excavation archive: Dankirke (in Danish, with English summary)
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Romanian archives (in Romanian or English)
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Romanian archives: drawings from 1876 by Butculescu
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Romanian archives: images of archaeological sites
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Romanian archives: Axiopolis Roman City by 1900
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Polish archives: Kowalewko cemetery 1st - 3rd centuries A.D.
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Polish archives: Biskupin Late Bronze Age settlement
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British archives: Cottam: an Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian
Settlement in East Yorkshire
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British archives: Ager Tarraconensis (Spain) Field Survey
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British archives: The Danebury Excavations Digital Archive
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Norwegian archives: two farms, Egge and Hegge
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Icelandic archives: Viking pagan temple at Hofstaðir, in NE Iceland
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Icelandic archives: Hofstaðir in Mývatn, NE Iceland
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Multilingual approach limited to
• multilingual main search screens;
• a short list of general sites and monuments categories, accompanied by short definitions;
• a restricted list of historical periods and
• short introductions to archaeological archives.
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Work behind the scene
• Each of the six partners had to assign hundreds of sites types in the national records to common categories.
• A chart of historical periods, showing chronological covering in each country and area, was designed.
• Translations from original version to other languages using Excel spreadsheets and
• Lots of e-mails and discussions.
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Benefits for the users
• This analytical process 'behind the scene' is to the benefit of the users: their time and effort to put together records in many languages and establish the equivalencies in each case will be spared in part.
• Access in a familiar language favours longer visits, deeper understanding, and more satisfactory results.
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Conclusions
• Terminological tools for cultural heritage communication need large scale co-operation projects.
• They cannot be only by-products of other projects.
• Until this area will not enjoy proper attention we cannot expect significant progress.
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Multilngualism in a broader sense
• Multilingual access is effective if users get more than a thin multilingual surface.
• Money should go to translating content, mapping controlled vocabularies, explaining concepts and regional terminology
• Cultural heritage presented on-line in minorities' languages and for people with disabilities too.
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Conclusions
• The linguistic aspect of access to cultural heritage resources is just the surface of a much deeper phenomenon: cultural and scientific interest for other regions. Are we really wishing to share knowledge?
• Multilingualism should be promoted not only in official statements and international conventions but also at the level of each cultural heritage organisation and educational body.
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Conclusions
• The web is a good medium to disseminate multilingual information in digital format.
• But language is not enough: understanding depends on common theoretical approaches in interpretation, on common standards and procedures in research and documentation.
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Conclusions
• Multilingual – multicultural – multidisciplinary: the first addresses to understanding, the second to cultural specificity, and the third to other fields of knowledge.
• They all mean open-mindness, tolerance, curiosity and respect, key factors to progress and a healthy social environment.
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Conclusions
• Globalisation and Information Society seem to push us in different directions: either accepting English as a 'lingua franca' or preserving cultural and linguistic diversity. However, these do not need to be in opposition to one another.
• As difficult to reconcile as they seem, these trends are complementary. We must openly discuss and identify the needed actions.