IV. Organization of Equivalency Work
The ISO standards outline three options for administering a multilingual thesaurus project: centralized, decentralized, and semi-centralized. We recommend the semi-centralized approach, which allows work to be coordinated by a central editorial committee consisting of delegates from various language teams. This committee organizes all aspects of cooperation, allocates work, and serves as an authority in intellectual and editorial decisions. One member should serve as coordinator, preparing minutes and reports and overseeing the progress of the work.The semi-centralized option generally reflects the nature of the AAT equivalency work. Staff at the AAT and the participating institutions identify a section of vocabulary to work on: For example, the AAT, the Inventaire général des monuments et des richesses artistiques de la France, and the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) selected vocabulary for building types and constituent parts for a project that spanned two years and resulted in a set of French, American English, and British English equivalents for almost 900 terms. During this period (1991-1993) three residencies were held to identify equivalents for the chosen set of terms. In this case the Inventaire général and the RCHME had already established thesauri of building-types terms for application in their computer cataloguing systems, and these were matched with corresponding terms in the AAT. This early project clearly demonstrated the importance of the various teams meeting together in person to discuss the terms in the different languages.
Once the body of terms for equivalency work has been chosen, each participating institution identifies the sections of its vocabulary in which those terms are located. An example of this occurred with the project to prepare a multilingual thesaurus of religious objects, which began in early 1994 and will result in the publication of a thesaurus in English, French, and Italian in both print and electronic forms. The base term list was taken from Religious Objects: User's Guide and Terminology, the result of the Canada/France Accord project, a collaborative effort between the Canadian and French governments' cultural heritage departments. The Guide provided a hierarchically arranged list in English and French which staff from the AAT, the Inventaire général, and the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (ICCD) used as the basis for identifying matching terms in their own vocabularies.
The next step is to familiarize all participants with the structures of the vocabularies being used, including the definition of a main term or descriptor and compound terms in each. For example, the AAT is a highly decoordinated language and often splits terms that smaller, more specialized thesauri might keep together (e. g. , table de sacrestie = tavolo da sagrestia = sacristy + tables). It is important that all working group members agree on principles for establishing term forms and definitions (or scope notes, as they are called in the AAT) before the work begins.
The next step is to proceed through the vocabulary term by term, selecting the appropriate equivalent terms in each language. Initial work may be done independently by each participant off-site, but each site should have a copy of the AAT (print and, if possible, electronic editions), AAT bibliographic source forms, and full AAT term record reports, as well as copies of all other thesauri or term lists from participating organizations. As terms are identified, additional work on them may be required, such as adding scope notes or finding illustrations.
During residencies, which can either replace off-site work or act as a review of work previously done off-site, it is useful for the group to check each term directly in the AAT's Thesaurus Maintenance System. Whether participants are working together on-site or individually off-site, all working group members may wish to use bilingual term sheets or multilingual term tracking sheets to record all equivalents that are established. It should be stressed, however, that there is no substitute for direct review of each term in a group setting with representatives of each language discussing with each other the meaning of a term and deciding on a common scope note which is then translated into the languages represented. Often the discussion involves a review of prior research done on the term to establish its scope note. This process gives the group a chance to come to agreement on the final terms and scope notes in a timely fashion without lengthy correspondence by fax or electronic mail. On an even more practical level, it gives busy staff from individual institutions who would be hard pressed to find time away from their offices an opportunity to concentrate on the equivalency project.
Each residency generates a list of terms with equivalents organized either alphabetically or hierarchically. The multilingual term tracking sheet provides quick access to completed work. Equivalents may also be entered in a machine-based system that can hold multilingual term equivalents with accompanying scope notes. The advantage of the latter is that disks with the completed work can be given to each participant for proofreading and comments. A system that allows for changes to be accepted by all group members during the periods between meetings is desirable, since there is rarely time in a working meeting to go back over already reviewed terms.
A master file of the work done should be held in one place, with one person coordinating the inputting of terms and scope notes for final review and distribution or publication.
7. Objets religieux: Méthode d'analyse et vocabulaire / Religious Objects: User's Guide and Terminology (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux; Ottawa: Canadian Heritage Information Network, 1994).
8. See Appendix 1 for an outline of the elements in the AAT term record report.
9. See below for a detailed description of the bilingual term sheet and the multilingual term tracking sheet.
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