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Usability of online terminology Usability of online terminology databasesdatabases

Eduards CaunaTerminology Summer School 2007,

Cologne, July 16–20

«Content is the king»

Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

About myselfAbout myself

Editor (traditional media)Editor/Manager/Developer/Programmer (online media, news portals)Terminology work (IT, physics, general)Interests

Online mediaUsability of online environmentsDictionariesProgramming

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Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

Terminology in LatviaTerminology in Latvia

Terminology organizationsTerminology Committee of Academy of Sciences of Latvia

Established in 1921Restarted in 1946 (more than 60 years experience)Terminology for official communication (legislation, textbooks, etc.)

Terminology and Translation Center (EU terms)Latvijas Standarts — national standardization body (ISO, IEC)

200–300 dictionaries with Latvian termsTerminology databases

TTC CompleteDBwww.termini.lvwww.termnet.lvwww.eurotermbank.comAkadTerm (termini.lza.lv/akadterm)

Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

AkadTerm AkadTerm —— academic academic terminology databaseterminology database

Created in 2006Related with Eurotermbank activitiesResult of largest to date retroconversion (digitalization of paper dictionaries)

Latvian terminology64 terminology collections and counting300.000 concepts790.000 terms in 9 languages560.000 distinct termsFocus on user interface

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Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

User interface IUser interface I

So many terms…

Interface is so confusing…KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)Usability

Cursor locationSearch with enterSearch term remains selected

Summary boxInstant access to all translationsOne page for translators and terminologists

Grouping by conceptsInstant access to reverse translations

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Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

User interface IIUser interface II

No frames, no scrollbarsFirst screen usageTransparent web address of the term (easy to link)http://termini.lza.lv/akadterm/term.php?term=amats&list=amats&lang=LV

http://www.akadterm.lv/?term=amats&list=amats&lang=LV

http://www.akadterm.lv/{amats|amats|LV}

http://iate.europe.eu

Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

SearchSearch

So many terms…KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)What user meant?Wildcard searchFuzzy search

Stemming (call/calling) LV, EN, DE, RUMorphological forms (amats, amata, amatam, amatu, amatā) LV (weblog, videoblog, bogger) ENLook-alikes/spelling variants (Sheppard/Shepard, co-operation/cooperation)Sound-alikes (color, colour, kale, kalar)

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Eduards Cauna, University of Latvia TSS 2007 Cologne

ProgrammingProgramming

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)LAMP

LinuxApacheMySQLPHP

Pentium II, 180 MB RAM (www.termini.lv)

Pentium IV, 1 GB RAM (AkadTerm)