1. Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union
More than a tool: The interinstitutional terminology database IATE
Dieter Rummel
Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union

2. The Project IATE = “Inter Active Terminology for Europe”
Objective: the creation of an interactive terminology database system that allows the consultation, the creation and the joint management of terminological data;
Project partners: European Commission, Council, Parliament, Court of Auditors, Economic and Social Committee/Committee of the Regions, Court of Justice, Translation Centre, European Investment Bank, European Central Bank;
The development phase started in January 2000;
IATE has been operational since summer 2004.
IATE was opened to the public on 28 June 2007 Commissioner Orban and Vice-President of the European Parliament, Miguel Ángel Martínez Martínez

3. Project organisation 2000 – 2004 Since 2004
Project overseen by the Interinstitutional Committee for Translation
Top level group: Expert Group (Institutions, Agencies, Member States)
Steering Committee (Institutions, Agencies, chaired by DG ENTR)
Several technical work groups (data structure, workflow, implementation support)
Implementation managed by the Translation Centre
Since 2004
An interinstitutional work group oversees the requests for improvements and reports to the Interinstitutional Coordinating Committee on Translation
Annual costs for hosting and staff are shared by the project partners according to a distribution key that is based on number of staff and freelance budget.
The Centre chairs the interinstitutional IATE Management Group and hosts IATE Support and Development Team that carries out corrective and evolutive maintenance

4. The Before and After test (Part 1) - 2000
Several separate databases, using different technologies
Different data structures, different meta data (domain classification, reliability codes etc.)
Different working methods and little practical interinstitutional cooperation
Doubts as to the usefulness of a common database
Strong wish of the partner to stick to their traditional working methods

5. Feasibility study: Recommendations (1999)
Incorporation of all existing terminology databases into single new inter-institutional database
Adoption of fully interactive creation of terminology
Reorganisation of terminology activity and reinforcement of staffing where necessary
Integration of terminology tools, including tools designed to support terminology activities, into translation and office automation environment
Deployment of new ergonomic and user-friendly interfaces
Co-operative infrastructure for data management rational recovery of existing data

6. IATE in a Nutshell (1)
IATE merged all existing terminology collections of the EU’s translation services into a single database
Several user friendly interfaces were implemented to cater for the needs of translators, terminologists and other EU staff.
Eurodicautom
COM
TIS
Council
Euterpe
Parliament
Others

7. Language Independent Information
IATE Data Structure
E.g. domain, domain note, origin, problem language, cross reference ...
Language Independent Information
E.g. definition, comment...
Language 1 EN
Language 2 FR
E.g. term, term type, context, grammatical information...
Term 1
Term 2
Term 1

8. For example…

9. IATE in a Nutshell (2): Main Features
On-line search
On-line data editing
Validation system
Communication mechanisms
User management
Statistics
IATE Database

10. Collaboration and Validation
All institutional IATE users can – in principle - add terminology to the database
They can update each others terminology
IATE provides a validation mechanism to ensure that all new terminology and all modifications are reviewed
The process takes into consideration the language competencies of the people involved
Problem of this approach: validation bottle neck
“validation” basically means that each new entry in IATE should be “proof-read”. When a new entry is created it is flagged as “non-validated”

11. IATE in Figures Plus terms in about 100 non-EU languages
bg - Bulgarian
24742
it - Italian
705941
cs - Czech
33068
la - Latin
64688
da - Danish
605007
lt - Lithuanian
45471
de - German
lv - Latvian
27635
el - Greek
524478
mt - Maltese
25261
en - English
nl - Dutch
696306
es - Spanish
617883
pl - Polish
49256
et - Estonian
32315
pt - Portuguese
532996
fi - Finnish
328462
ro - Romanian
25217
fr - French
sk - Slovak
30951
ga - Irish
42191
sl - Slovenian
33004
hu - Hungarian
38960
sv - Swedish
315539
Plus terms in about 100 non-EU languages
About 250 term added per day

12. Terminology Workflow: From IATE to IATE Public
Add
Modify
Validate
Publish
Intern

13. IATE Public in figures
IATE Public receives about queries per day
The public site has about unique users
It is used in over 180 countries
24/7

14. Terminology work in IATE
The IATE working group has organised the practical cooperation between the IATE project partners by…
Regular interinstitutional meetings (ca. 6 per year);
Creation of a network of contact points for terminological questions in each participating service per language;
Defining “writing rules” for the creation of new terminology;
Creation of a “Best Practice” guide establishing general principles for the work with IATE.

15. Best Practice: Examples
Usefulness of a term for multilingual drafting, translation and interpreting in the EU context
Reliability of the proposed term.
Relevance of the proposed term.
Information fed into IATE must have an added value over and above what can be found in documentary databases or on the Internet.
Responsibility of each service to apply the guidelines.
Usefulness: IATE is a translation-oriented terminological database geared towards multilingual drafting, translation and interpreting in the Community sphere. Its usefulness for that purpose must always be the prime concern, especially as regards the credibility of proposed solutions, rigour in entering data and ease of access to relevant information. With that in mind, not only terminology stricto sensu but also the names of international conventions and treaties, institutions and other proper names of use for translation will be entered into IATE, the strength of which lies in multilingualism. It is therefore very important to promote the development of entries towards multilingualism, in particular by consolidating and merging any monolingual or bilingual entries for a single concept and by adding as many languages as possible to new entries.
Reliability. The person supervising the terminology work (hereinafter the "terminologist") for each language acts as a filter to ensure that validated terms are reliable and comply with this Best Practice and the Writing Rules.
Added value. Information fed into IATE must have an added value over and above what can be found in documentary databases or on the Internet. Its added value is the result of the research work undertaken when the information is processed terminological processing of the information (for instance, a document search, the addition of a definition or reference, the designation of the preferred term for consistency reasons, the endorsement of a solution suggested by a translator, etc.) in order to increase the reliability of the proposed solution. Multilingualism, and consistency between languages in particular, is also an added value, since it enhances the usefulness of the database.
Responsibility. Each institution must ensure that all the terminology work it carries out complies with this Best Practice and the Writing Rules, and must appoint a body or a person responsible for the implementation of decisions taken by the Data Management Group

16. The Before and After test (Part 2) - 2011
One common database with a common data structure and harmonised meta data
Working methods still differ but based on common guidelines and best practices
Stable interinstitutional cooperation in a joint Management Group and networks
The usefulness of a common database is undisputed.
Strong wish of the partners to further increase cooperation

17. You can access IATE Public under: iate.europa.eu
Any questions