Home | Technical Responses to 
Multilingual Issues (Summary)
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GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES

Libraries should beware of the linguistic problems of the community they serve. In particular the needs of immigrants who may lack a thorough command of the majority language should be catered for by any means which seem appropriate. In some large cities with a rapidly changing population the library will need to actively monitor the linguistic needs of its users.

The services provided may include:

• Advice services suitable for immigrants

• Word processing facilities in immigrant’s languages.

• Book-stock, periodicals and audio-visual material in the appropriate languages.

• Cultural activities may be held on library premises.

• Websites may need to be redesigned with multilingual needs in mind.

• Dedicated libraries may be warranted to serve the needs of a linguistic minority

• Specially recruited staff with native command of the minority languages may be needed.

• If the library has to serve an indigenous minority the library may have to assume a role in the preservation and documentation of an endangered culture with all that entails. Such minorities are normally fully bilingual but there may be a need to acquire comprehensive collections in the minority language and compile special catalogues and answer questions from out of the area about the local culture.

Staffing

• The most obvious way for a library service to cope with a complex linguistic situation is by means of a recruitment policy. The offer of translation services to an established local minority is clearly not an adequate response. Technology-based solutions are not likely to be of much use in the foreseeable future.

• Libraries may have to recruit staff with a command of the languages and literatures used in their communities to help with cataloguing of materials in minority languages and services to readers.

• Speakers of minority languages will appreciate face-to-face contact with a native speaker of their language and not merely someone with a second language command however proficient.

• Where cultural as well as linguistic differences are important only advice from a member of a minority group will ensure good relations between a library and its readers.

• The design of publicity material, leaflets, and the library website will be much easier and cheaper if the library’s own staff are involved.

See also social inclusion

Provision of services for indigenous linguistic minorities.

• Indigenous linguistic minorities tend not present libraries with the same challenges as do immigrants. For example:

• They are often fully bilingual and do not require instruction in the majority language or culture.

• There is no doubt about their numbers or permanence or socio-economic circumstances.

• The languages of linguistic minorities may however present problems for libraries. Some minority languages are fully developed languages of culture taught in schools, with established orthographies, extensive literatures and a considerable amount of publishing. Others may lack some or even all of such attributes and it may be difficult for a library service to make provision for them.

Multi-lingual Thesauri

See also resource description.

A thesaurus is a set of controlled terms for the detailed subject indexing of (originally) printed documents. A thesaurus will show relationships such as hierarchy and equivalence between the terms it uses. A major problem in the construction of thesauri in more than one language is that terms in one language may not cover the same semantic fields as terms in another.
Examples:

• The English term teenager covers a narrower semantic field than the French adolescent.

• The German Schnecke normally translated snail includes slugs and snails and therefore has no exact equivalent in English.

• The German term Berufsverbot has no English equivalent at all and has to be paraphrased e.g. loss of the right to practise one’s profession.

There are standards for the compilation of thesauri and equivalent terms across languages see Guidelines for Forming Language Equivalents: A Model based on the Art and Architecture Thesaurus by the Getty Information Institute (see www.chin.gc.ca/Resources/Publications/
Guidelines/English/index.html.) See also ISO 5964:1985 (BS 6723:1985) Guide to Establishment and Development of Multilingual Thesauri. This standard is an adjunct to ISO 2788 which covers monolingual thesauri and so is not complete in itself, many of the problems in the construction of thesauri being common to the construction of monolingual and multilingual thesauri.

Multilingual web-sites
The structure of a bilingual website should be carefully considered from the outset so that bilingualism is an essential part of it and not just an afterthought. There are various policy decisions to be made which have far-reaching effects on the appearance of the website:

• Frames may be difficult in a bilingual context.

• Bilingual pages are likely to have a lot of text on them and may have a formidable appearance.

• Some fonts are more appropriate for one language than another, and it is preferable to use the same font throughout rather than to appear to make one language more legible than the other.

• The language of logos must be sensitively chosen. The use of a majority language in a logo can alienate minority language users.

Remember also that a bilingual website is not a cheap option and that, like other websites, it will require updating and this will not be such a simple matter as updating a monolingual site.

Bilingual web-sites may be used:

• To address a readership which can be expected to consist of bilingual individuals,

• To address individuals who may speak one or other of two languages,

• To make a social or political point by reminding members of the majority community of the existence of a minority.

There are a number of basic ways in which a bilingual web-site may be arranged:

• Readers may be offered a once and for all choice of which language they wish to use to read the site on the first page, and if they want to change, may be forced to return to that page. This may be appropriate in certain settings e.g. in a country in which two languages are used but by no means everyone is bilingual for example Belgium and Switzerland.

• They may be offered the choice on each page of the site. This may be by means of a button or filing tab – conventions familiar to most Internet users. Language links should be at the top of the page rather than at the bottom, as that is the part of the page displayed by default, and the link should take the user to exactly the same page but in the other language - not to another part of the site. The language should be given its native name e.g. French should be called Français.

• All pages may offer the same text in both languages. Beware that the same text in different languages may take up different amounts of space; typically an original text will be shorter than a translation.

• Sites may be asymmetrical, for example they may regard some information as relevant to speakers of only one language e.g. a social club for Welsh people may have its membership form in Welsh only but in other respects may be bilingual.

The choice of which type of bilingual format to use may be affected by which type of audience one is addressing - bilingual individuals or individuals speaking one or other language but not both:

• Bilingual individuals may want to be able to see both languages much of the time as a means of double-checking that they understand the text correctly.

• How different the two languages are; some languages are mutually comprehensible to a degree e.g. Spanish and Catalan whereas e.g. English and Welsh are not.

For recommendations for the design of bilingual web-sites: see the Welsh Language Board an commercial site for commendations of best practice in the design of web-pages and recommendations as to the best ways of incorporating bilingualism into the design of a web-site without giving undue prominence to one language over another and avoiding giving offence by the use of emotive or politically charged symbols such as flags to represent languages e.g. Union Jack/Stars and Stripes to represent the English language versions of web-sites as many languages are spoken in more than one country and many countries are bilingual. See also for further recommendations on the construction of bilingual web-sites. There may be a role for touchscreen technology in the design of webpages and on-line catalogues especially to serve the needs of multilingual communities.

Home | Technical Responses to 
Multilingual Issues (Summary)
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