Multiculturalism

In today’s society, there are many ethical dilemmas that nurses are faced with that are virtually impossible to solve. One of the most difficult and controversial issues that society is still facing is racism. Nursing as a profession seems to avoid considering the problem of racism (Vaughan, 1997). There is, however, a need to address this topic and to evaluate its implications for nursing practice. The ethics committee has to step in when an ethical dilemma arises and a decision must be made based on application of the universal ethical principles. Introduction

The health care sector of American society is far from immune to social injustice and the various forms of inequality that negatively impact other societal systems. The United States health care industry has been and continues to be plagued by racism. During the pre-Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras of American history, overt racism within the medical sphere was common. After the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, segregation and some of the more blatant manifestations of racism dissipated. More subtle forms of racism, however, continue to pervade the health care industry.

Historically, the American Association of Colored Graduate Nurses united with the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1952, before the general Civil Rights movement in the United States. There have always been prominent nurses of color, such as the past president of the ANA, Beverly Malone; the current president of the National League for Nursing, Rhetaugh Dumas; and the current president of Sigma Theta Tau, May Wykle. These women are all African-Americans who have been leaders for all nursing throughout their long and distinguished careers.

They are just three of the many ethnic/racial minority nurses who have made significant contributions to Nursing (Shaha, 1998). This is a real situation encountered on a post partum unit by a nurse supervisor. The situation describes an ethics consultation about the decision of a patient who refuses to be cared for by an African American nurse. The ethical dilemma is presented from the viewpoints of the patient, nurse, and ethics committee. The ethics committee steps in whenever an ethical dilemma arises and solves the problem based on universal ethical principles (Corley, 2002). History

Patient is a married 42-years old female, who has a PhD in health care and a history of two pregnancies. She is currently on a post partum unit after delivery of her second child. She had a C-section four hours ago and has just been admitted to the unit. Before the admission the nurse from Labor and Delivery heard the patient saying to her husband “I hope this time we do not get a black one”, as she was referring to the nurse who will take care of her in the post partum unit. By the time she was admitted there had been a shift change and the nurse supervisor handled the admission herself.

The patient verbalized that she had previously had a bad experience in the same hospital with an African American nurse who forgot to give her pain medicine after the C-section and she hopes that this time she will not be facing the same consequences: horrible pain that could not be controlled for two days. She asked the nurse to assign her the best nurse they have on the unit. The ethical dilemma arises when the nurse assigned to this patient for the day is an African American nurse. This nurse is also the best nurse on the floor with an extended experience of 20 years on post partum and is a very knowledgeable person.

She has a BSN and currently is working on her MSN in Obstetrics. All other nurses on the post partum floor on this day are floaters. After the nurse introduces herself to the patient, the patient asks the nurse supervisor to assign a different nurse. How is the nurse supervisor going to handle this? How is she going to explain that the African American nurse is the best nurse they have for that day without hurting the patient’s feelings and helping her to gain trust in the assigned nurse?

How is the nurse going to handle this patient knowing that she is judging her based on her race? Is she going to give her the same care afterward or the patient will suffer? Is the patient willing to accept the care from an African American nurse? Ethical Dilemma An ethical dilemma arises when the decision-maker experiences indecision because available choices or alternatives support conflicting values or ethical principles or rules support mutually inconsistent courses of action.

The most general ethical principle for human action is “do good–avoid causing evil”. Moral rules and ideals have to do with avoiding causing evil. Beneficence and utilitarian ideals have to do with doing good. Nurses use the principle of beneficence or nonmaleficence while providing care. Patients have the right to refuse care and medical treatment (mhcc. maryland. gov). This case is very sensitive because the patient refuse contact with one specific group of people, African Americans, but does not refuse care in general.

The charge nurse will use the veracity principle by telling the truth to the patient that the nurse assigned for the day is the best. The fairness principle is applied here too. The assigned nurse is fair to patient in order to provide good care. Confidentiality is maintained throughout the hospitalization. The nurse does not share patient’s information with anyoane beside the health care team. Equality is another ethical principle used here when making the decision of who is the best to provide care for the patient in order to benefit the patient and not hurt her feelings (www.nursingworld. org).

When ethical issues arise in the nursing field these ethical principles are guiding the health care professional in decision making. Clinical Evaluation and Ethical Issues When an ethical dilemma arises it needs to be brought to the ethical committee. The nurse assigned for the day called the ethical committee and brought up the patient’s and the charge nurse’s opinions. Since the patient had just been admitted to the floor, she needed to be assessed and have medication administered before the pain kicks in.

Since she is refusing care from the nurse assigned, her care is delayed. This might result in complications in the patient’s health condition. The nurse acts here as the patient avocate by protecting the patient’s right to self- determination. Nursing Management The nurse is acting as the patient advocate; she brought up the situation to the ethical committee saying that the patient will suffer if treament is delayed. Does the nurse know what to do in this situation? Can she handle this dilemma? The ethical committee met and looked at the facts.

Based on the principles of nonmaleficence, freedom, equality and justice they decide that the nure assigned for the patient is the best choice for her. Nursing intervention and Issues The nurse assigned to the patient started by assessing her thoroughly and then developed a plan of care. The patient received pain medications every 4 hours as needed and a pain assesment was done every hour. If a patient is experiencing moral distress, the nurse may confront the barrier, teach the patient how to take action or empower the patient to eliminate the barrier.

Summary Racial inequality is not unique to nursing. There are those who assert that America is indeed a racist society and that this racism is perpetuated by ignorance, apathy, poverty, and discrimination. Do not forget that racism, both active and passive, is not limited to relations among blacks and whites. Racism knows no bounds and can affect literally any subpopulation that occupies a “minority” status. Little or no research exists on race relations between other ethnic groups. The need for further research in this area is crucial.

To combat the problem of racism in nursing, whether perceived or real, nursing must first embrace diversity as an established mode of operation. Nursing faculty, in mentoring the future of the profession, should embody principles valuing diversity. It is only through accountability that we may implement and actualize diversity principles in order to ensure success of the profession into today’s nursing. Ethical discussion within training programs for nurses and the formation of units to deal with resolving ethical problems should be taken into consideration (Labunski, 2003).

Studying the Relevance of Larry Greiner’s Developmental Phases to the Future Stability of Maple Lodge Farms Maple Lodge Farms, a family-owned business awarded the prestige of being one of Canada’s 50 best managed companies, has attained success by employing a number of strategic organizational practices. Since the inception of Maple Lodge Farms, the founders’ commitment to providing various Canadian households with the highest quality chicken products has allowed it to become one of Canada’s leading poultry companies.

Initially, the business owners’ main priority was to launch Maple Lodge Farms as a highly recognizable brand capable of sustaining a loyal customer base. This goal was largely achieved through a variety of measures the founders implemented throughout the organization’s existence. Recently, a few of the methods used to promote Maple Lodge Farms consist of using an integrated organizational structure, ensuring the safety of the products through technological innovations and limiting the company’s environmental imprint on society.

In this research paper, I intend to analyze the current transitional stage of Maple Lodge Farms in Larry Greiner’s terms, evaluate the success of the organization’s human resources strategy – relating it to Larry Greiner’s developmental phases – and offer potential suggestions to boost its future growth. For the purpose of this analysis, a discussion of Larry Greiner’s article, Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow: A company’s past has clues for management, is necessary to provide insight into the growth phase Maple Lodge Farms is now in.

Larry Greiner, a professor at the Harvard Business School, believes the natural progression of a company from its initial stages to a more sophisticated business model is a consequence of its organizational structure. In other words, an organization’s current managerial framework influences its upcoming management decisions – hence the title of Greiner’s paper. He states that the future health of a business is dependent upon the way it is managed – i. e. its management style – in addition to how it reacts to challenges presented to the established managerial setup. Companies fail to see that many clues to their future success lie within their own organizations and their evolving states of development. Moreover, the inability of management to understand its organization development problems can result in a company becoming “frozen” in its present stage of evolution or, ultimately, in failure, regardless of market opportunities” (Greiner, 1998). Moreover, Greiner contends that a business undergoes five known developmental phases – each characterized by both an evolutionary and revolutionary stage. “1.

The term evolution is used to describe prolonged periods of growth where no major upheaval occurs in organization practices. 2. The term revolution is used to describe those periods of substantial turmoil in organization life. As a company progresses through developmental phases, each evolutionary period creates its own revolution” (Greiner, 1998). Therefore, a specific growth period is defined by a particular management style and a management crisis which results directly from it – i. e. the evolutionary and revolutionary aspects of each transitional phase respectively.

Furthermore, the age and size of the organization, in addition to the growth rate of the industry, all play roles in the construction of a progression model that accurately describes a business. Greiner’s assumptions are relevant to Maple Lodge Farms because not only do they enable an understanding of the organization’s present state of development, but they also offer implications for the future stability of the business – essentially by indicating which management style a company should adopt as it grows and changes.

Before I investigate the effectiveness of Maple Lodge Farms’ business plan – specifically its human resources approach – and forecast its growth capabilities, I must first identify the organization’s present developmental state. According to Greiner’s descriptions of the various stages a company undergoes, the history of Maple Lodge Farms shows that it is currently in the third phase of growth – specifically, the evolutionary part known as the delegation stage. The next era of growth evolves from the successful application of a decentralized organization structure. It exhibits these primary characteristics: 1. Much greater responsibility is given to the managers of plants and market territories. 2. Management often concentrates on making new acquisitions which can be lined up beside other decentralized units. 3. Communication from the top is infrequent, usually by correspondence, telephone, or brief visits to field locations” (Greiner, 1998).

The owners’ dedication to providing superior customer service has guided every facet of the way their business has been managed. In pursuit of this goal, the company has successfully implemented a decentralized management structure. “We are there every step of the way – we have established a unique integrated development team that includes senior representation from Sales, Marketing, Research and Development, Quality Assurance, and Supply Chain to ensure superior quality and customer-focused service” (“Maple lodge farms”, 2011).

This structural framework reflects Greiner’s organizational aspect of the delegation stage, as it offers managers greater responsibility in supervising the operations of their plants – fundamentally affording them the freedom to manage these plants as they see fit, with limited corporate intervention. The other traits Greiner prescribes to the delegation stage – besides the organizational arrangement –, confirms the notion that Maple Lodge Farms is in fact in this transitional phase. The delegation stage proves useful for gaining expansion through heightened motivation at lower levels. Decentralized managers with greater authority and incentive are able to penetrate larger markets, respond faster to customers, and develop new products” (Greiner, 1998). The organization’s foray into Halal poultry – especially with the prosperous Zabiha Halal line – not only demonstrates the effectiveness of the company’s branding system, but also that Maple Lodge Farms wants to breach the substantial Muslim market and thus attract a more ethnically diverse consumer base.

Moreover, the organization’s successful promotions of its newer items – such as the pre-cooked refrigerated foods, the chicken bacon and other innovative manufactured products –, suggests that Maple Lodge Farms is attempting to cater to different preferences; the firm does this to capture a larger market segment, beyond what they have attained so far. Furthermore, the company’s latest acquisition of plants in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in addition to Ontario, is testament to their desire to infiltrate a broader market across provincial lines.

This action implies that Maple Lodge Farms is not only expanding its product lines to suit differentiated customer tastes, but also enlarging the organization nationwide – a claim supported by its recent obtainment of plants in New Brunswick, as well as Ontario, and its intention of partnering with Nova Scotia and P. E. I. growers to build primary operations in Berwick, Nova Scotia (“Grand river foods,” 2011). Since the characteristics that Maple Lodge Farms possesses are outlined in Greiner’s delegation stage, it thereby affirms that the organization is currently in this part of its evolution.

Although Maple Lodge Farms appears to be doing well in the delegation stage of Greiner’s model, I believe that the organization may be on the verge of entering the revolutionary component of the third growth phase – referred to as the control crisis. Essentially, this situation arises as a product of the management style introduced in the delegation stage – involving market expansion, decentralized organizational structure, delegative managerial style and so on.

Moreover, the control crisis occurs when “top executives sense that they are losing control over a highly diversified field operation. Autonomous field managers prefer to run their own shows without coordinating plans, money, technology, and manpower with the rest of the organization” (Greiner, 1998). Though this scenario may not be representative of the company quite yet, Greiner insinuates that at the end of an evolutionary period, all companies must enter a revolutionary period; it is merely the path that all organizations must follow in their progression models.

Therefore, it is more than likely that Maple Lodge Farms may soon be in a crisis control situation, as its lengthy evolutionary stage is poised to end. The firm should understand the pending reality of a control crisis and be willing to make changes regarding the managerial framework, so as to preserve the health of the company. In 2010, Maple Lodge Farms was given the honor of being named one of fifty organizations in Canada that earned the Best Managed Company award. The CEO of Maple Lodge Farms, Michael Burrows, attributes this success to the customer-oriented method the company whole-heartedly embraces. At Maple Lodge Farms, we speak with our customers on an ongoing basis to gain their insights and to identify the most significant opportunities that move us closer to realizing their success…Our sales team is actively engaged with our customers and in the marketplace as often as possible in order to remain abreast of new opportunities and challenges” (“Maple lodge farms,” 2011). Maple Lodge Farms has nurtured this customer service focus through the use of effective human resources management, which prioritizes the recruitment and training of individuals able to meet inflexible customer demands.

Consider the organization’s venture into the untapped Halal foods market. The company’s interest in realizing potential gains from Muslim buyers compelled Maple Lodge Farms to first launch its Halal product line in the 1990s – which has since been perfected over the organization’s existence. In adherence with strict Islamic procedures, the company employs several Muslim individuals to handle the slaughter of its chickens. “We have a team of several Muslim Blessers and a dedicated Muslim Product Manager…under oath to perform the duties assigned to them with honesty and integrity.

ISNA’s Halal auditor visits our plant on daily basis to ensure the Halal process is followed with consistency” (“Maple lodge farms”). Consequently, in order to meet the stringent requirements of the Muslim community, Maple Lodge Farms has recruited and/or trained personnel in a highly specified manner, so as to satisfy their particular consumer needs. Additionally, the human resources department of Maple Lodge Farms encourages management leaders to continuously undergo training programs in order to keep abreast of new managerial techniques.

This increases the efficiency of how all the plants of the firm are run. Moreover, the company has regular employee performance appraisals in order to ensure the quality of services offered to consumers. Therefore, the organization’s emphasis on fostering an organizational culture premised upon customer satisfaction – achieved partly through human resources policies concerning recruitment and training – has allowed the company to achieve recognition for its entrepreneurial strides.

The workplace diversity amongst employees of Maple Lodge Farms – ensuing from the diversification of the firm’s product lines to accommodate Halal consumers – necessitates a form of diversity management and the implementation of employee diversity programs by the human resources department. Diversity management’s initiative is not simply to advocate tolerance; more significantly, its purpose is to combine the different perspectives of a multicultural organization’s staff and use them to improve the firm’s performance.

My research indicates that while Maple Lodge Farms may have a rudimentary diversity management system in place, its human resources team should consider taking full advantage of the company’s diverse employee population. This involves: top management commitment, diversity training programs, inclusive/representative communications, activities celebrating diversity, support groups/mentor programs, diversity audits and management accountability.

I believe establishing a comprehensive diversity management system will allow Maple Lodge Farms to become not only an inclusive firm but one that is more effective from a business standpoint. My analysis of Maple Lodge Farms shows that it has tremendous potential to grow as an organization. Firstly, the managerial team should consider altering its delegative style of management to one that involves coordination techniques. Since Maple Lodge Farms seems to be on the outset of a revolutionary period in Greiner’s growth model, a change in how the company manages itself is necessary. Those companies that move ahead find a new solution in the use of special coordination techniques” (Greiner, 1998). Establishing these modifications in the organizational structure and in the general way the firm is managed, will enable Maple Lodge Farms to progress into the coordination stage – the next phase of Greiner’s growth model – and maintain the company’s steady evolution. “All of these new coordination systems prove useful in achieving growth through more efficient allocation of a company’s limited resources.

They prompt field managers to look beyond the needs of their local units…they learn to justify their actions more carefully to a “watchdog” audience at headquarters” (Greiner, 1998). Furthermore, the aforementioned diversity management system is another change Maple Lodge Farms should make, as it will move the organization in a new direction – wherein the marketing strategy will be more wide-ranging and cognizant of the immense diversity in customer tastes.

From a human resources perspective, Maple Lodge Farms has succeeded in aspects other companies have failed in; they have created an organizational culture that whole-heartedly advocates superior customer service policies. This is evidenced by the human resources policies emphasizing the recruitment and training of qualified individuals, who are able to meet the organization’s standards of customer service. The distinction of being one of Canada’s fifty best managed companies validates the human resources measures Maple Lodge Farms has undertaken to provide first-class products and the best customer service.

If the firm were to establish a strategic plan to implement a coordination management style and a diversity management system, then Maple Lodge Farms would experience no difficulties in continuing its success as a company in the future. Works Cited 1. Grand river foods fresh poultry processing division sold to maple lodge farms. (2011, November 21). Canadian Poultry Magazine, Retrieved from http://www. canadianpoultrymag. com 2. Greiner, L.

E. (1998). Evolution and revolution as organizations grow. Harvard Business Review, (Reprint 98308), 4-11. Retrieved from http://www. gertjanschop. com 3. Maple lodge farms amongst best managed companies. (2011, February 23). Brampton Guardian. Retrieved from http://www. bramptonguardian. com 4. Maple lodge farms ltd. : Zabiha halal. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. zabihahalal. com

The thing about The Namesake is not that it is a great movie (although most avid movie-goers will be satisfied), but that it treats universal themes with such clarity that anyone who has been through the experience of leaving one’s land should be able to relate, even if not from India. Directed by Mira Nair and with Kal Penn leading a great cast, the movie follows the lives of an Indian couple coming to New York in the 70s and raising children in this context.

I have a number of friends that are second generation to Indian immigrants for which reason I believe my understanding of their culture is above average, but even if that was not the case I’m sure these themes would not be lost on me: Abandoning the comfort of family life in the quest for better opportunities Struggling to make a living without help, in a culture where all values are different All the sacrifices that parents make for the sake of their children.

I’ve always said that migration is cruel to our ancestors but selfless to our children. The agony of loosing loved ones being far away and the constant fight with the irrational thought that it could be avoided. The temptation of multiracial relationships The intimacy of the father/son dialog when the entire future of their lineage depends on them The cultural pride that one feels even after leaving the country behind, assuming all great achievements from our people as our own.

In many ocassions this only happens once we leave our countries. The quiet professional triumph that occurs almost in the background to all the other events in our lives. The crude attempt to follow tradition even if this means to butcher them once in a while The cultural mix that is driven by well adapted “second generation” kids and their loose interpretation of their heritage in the context of their daily lives. Go see it or continue reading the chatter at one of the Indian blogs I follow.

The Strength in Challenges My ability to overcome difficulties throughout my life is by far my greatest strength. I have gone through more hardships than the average teen. Each time has forced me to look inside myself, and find the strength to rise up again. I’ve never resented anything that has come my way because each hardship has placed a brick on what is the base of my character today. Back in fifth grade my house had caught fire. It was one of the scariest things in my life.

As a fifth grader, dolls and going outside to play soccer were the things I held most sacred. This one event changed my entire outlook on life and showed me what was truly important in my life: my family. When I moved into a hotel for months it made me realize, trivial things like clothes and toys aren’t what makes a home your home it’s the people that are with you through it all. Also, the enormous support we got from the community helped me understand the true meaning of giving. Although this happened to me at a young age, the lessons still ring true today.

I never wanted anyone to feel like they were alone and helpless, so every time an opportunity presents itself I feel the need to help. Whenever faced with a difficult decision or see someone in need I look back on this and it reminds me to place myself in their shoes and do whatever I can to help. Being pelted with a ball and getting the wind knocked out of you could be compared to the feeling I got when my mom told me she had terminal cancer. I knew the air was touching my lips, but I couldn’t suck it in.

The pain in my chest was so great I had to crouch. Drops from my eyes pooled on the ground and my ears only heard buzzing rather than words. After a while the tears stopped, and I was left in my mom’s arms trying to process all of it. It’s been a year and I am still processing all of it. Each day I wake up not knowing how long my mom has left, and yet each day my mom wakes up fighting for another day which keeps me going. I’ve never had an obstacle as great as this, but it doesn’t stop me from reaching for my dreams.

I am part of the first generation in my family to attend a four-year college, and my mom inspires me everyday. Although things may seem almost impossible, if you work hard enough and put forth your best effort, impossible is possible. Throughout my life I’ve been presented with many challenges; however, I never let them control my destiny. I now embrace each one as it comes because I’ve found that the harder I’ve worked to overcome something, it has always left me a better person than before. And with each new challenge, I become better at conquering the next.

Acknowledgements

From February 2004 10 new member states (plus Russia and Israel) have been participating in the joint European initiative of MINERVA Plus working with MINERVA to coordinate digitization efforts and activities.

Since then Minerva Plus supplementary working groups (SWG) started operation and Hungary became the coordinator of SWG Multilingual thesauri. The issue of multilingualism is becoming more and more important in making the digital cultural heritage of Europe available. Language is one of the most significant barriers to access of websites and, because of this barrier, great parts of the European digital cultural heritage cannot be found on the Internet. MINERVA Plus conducted a major survey to get an overview of the situation concerning language usage in cultural websites.

The aim of the survey was to see to what extent cultural websites and portals are available for users of different language communities and also whether websites use more languages than the language they were originally created in. Furthermore the survey intended to find out if cultural websites are using retrieval tools such as controlled vocabularies or thesauri and whether multilingual tools are available for use. The methodology used for our survey included a questionnaire completed on a voluntary basis by our target group: libraries, museums, archives and other cultural institutions operating websites.

The selection of the websites was not scientifically founded and so the sampling is not statistically representative. Nevertheless, the survey yielded a general picture of multilingualism of cultural websites and the findings will be a good starting point for more systematic and statistically valid research in the future. I would like to thank our Israeli colleagues for letting us use their questionnaire (Registry of Controlled Vocabularies related to Jewish Cultural Heritage and Israel) as basis for our survey. I am also very grateful to our respondents for collecting and mailing the requested information.

Last but not least I would like to express my gratitude to the editorial board of this document. Ivan Ronai NRG member for Hungary “We dedicate this report to the memory of the late Stephen Conrad. ” Editorial Committee Stephan Conrad (Germany) David Dawson (The United Kingdom), Christophe Dessaux (France), Kate Fernie (The United Kingdom), Antonella Fresa (Italy), Dr. Allison Kupietzky (Israel), Ivan Ronai (Hungary), Martina Rozman Salobir (Slovenia), Gabriella Szaloki (Hungary) 4 Contributors Jitka Zamrzlova (Czeck Republik) Marju Reismaa (Estonia) Veronique Prouvost (France) Dimitrios A. Koutsomitropoulos (Greece) Stephan Conrad (Germany) Szaloki Gabriella (HUngary) Marzia Piccininno (Italy) Guiliana di Frnacesco (Italy) Dr. Allison Kupietzky (Israel) Domitilla Fagan (Ireland) Laila Valdovska (Latvia) Pierre Sammut (Malta) Jos Taekema (The Netherlands) Lars Egeland (Norway) Maria Sliwinska (Poland) Piotr Ryszewski (Poland) Ana Alvarez Lacambra (Spain) Martina Roznan Salobir (Slovenia) Elena Kuzmina (The Russian Federation) Martin Katuscak (Slovak Republik) Kate Fernie (The United Kingdom) Guy Frank (Luxembourg) Minna Kaukonen (Finland)

Introduction

FOREWORD “Immer werden jene vonnoten sein, die auf das Bindende zwischen den Volkern jenseits des Trennenden hindeuten und im Herzen der Menschheit den Gedanken eines kommenden Zeitalters hoherer Humanitat glaubig erneuern“ Stefan Zweig: Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam There will always be necessary those who look on the binding parts between peoples beyond the separating ones, reinvigorating, in the heart of mankind, the thought of a forthcoming century of superior humanity. What is multilingualism? The European context “Multilingualism refers to both a person’s ability to use several languages and the co-existence of different language communities in one geographical area. “1 In fact, the more languages you know, the more of a person you are (Kolko jazykov vies, tolkokrat si clovekom), says the Slovak proverb that opens the Commission’s communication on multilingualism. The European Commission adopted in November 2005 the communication to the Council “New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism” document2, which underlines the importance of multilingualism and introduces the European Commission’s multilingualism policy. The Commission’s multilingualism policy has three aims:

•  to encourage language learning and promoting linguistic diversity in society;
•  to promote a healthy multilingual economy, and
• •to give citizens access to European Union legislation, procedures and information in their own languages.

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism COM(2005) 596 final Brussels, 22. 11. 2005 http://europa. eu. int/languages/servlets/Doc? d=913 European Commission press release http://europa. eu. int/rapid/pressReleasesAction. do? reference=IP/05/1451&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN &guiLanguage=en#fn1 http://europa. eu. int/languages/servlets/Doc? id=913 6 The Tower of Babel is an ancient symbol of the multilingualism in the Bible4 Ever since the European Year of Languages in 20015 was organised by the European Council, the European Day of Languages has been held every September 26 to help the public appreciate the importance of language learning, to raise awareness of all the languages spoken in Europe and to encourage lifelong language learning.

It is a celebration of Europe’s linguistic diversity. The European Commission has also launched recently a new portal for European languages6, which is available in all the 20 official languages of the European Union. It is a useful information source of multilingualism and can be a starting point for every project. The resource given has been prepared for the general public and covers a range from the Union’s policies to encourage language learning and linguistic diversity.

The main areas covered are:

• linguistic diversity
•  language learning
•  language teaching
•  translation
•  interpretation
•  language technology

A wid range of information is given for each of them from EU and national rules to a round up of employment opportunities for professional linguists with the Union’s institutions. In fact, the Communication also stresses the importance of language skills to worker mobility and the 4 5 6 Pieter Breugel: Tower of Babel http://europa. eu. int/comm/education/policies/lang/awareness/year2001_en. html http://europa. eu. int/languages/ 7 ompetitiveness of the EU economy. The Commission will publish a study next year on the impact on the European economy of shortages of languages skills. It is worth mentioning the Eurobarometer7 survey published on the web site that was carried out between May and June 2005 among European citizens including those of the accession countries (Bulgaria and Romania), of candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey) and the Turkish Cypriot Community. One of the most interesting results is that half of the people interviewed say that they can hold a conversation in a second language apart from their mother tongue.

Tower of Babel in the Maciejowski Bible8 Why Multilingualism is important? In Europe we want to live in a socially inclusive society in which diverse cultures live in mutual understanding, building at the same time a common European identity. Language, together with the shared knowledge and traditions, which passed from one generation to another, is an important part of an individual’s cultural identity. We strongly believe that the diversity of languages, traditions and historical experiences enriches us all and fosters our common potential for creativity.

Let us make languages connect people and cultures not divide them. This is an important role for cultural institutions. Take the case of museums; multilingualism is of significant importance. Museums define their sphere of tasks as collecting, making available, preserving, researching and exhibiting objects. A multilingual exchange of information on objects supports museums in their tasks on the one hand and on the other hand the users of the products of museum work (visitors). Museums collect objects whose meaning renders them unique and one-of-a-kind.

However, the physical objects can only be available in one place at one particular time, making them accessible only to a few people. In order to make information about museum pieces available to as wide a target group as possible, a special importance lies in the accessibility of the relevant information on the Internet and in overcoming language barriers. Web sites are extremely powerful mean to do that. Nonetheless, multilingual exchange of information about museum pieces is also of interest for cultural tourism and therefore for economic reasons.

A museum visitor wants to know how to access such objects, in other words, which museum is displaying the objects at what point in time. Museums need to be able to make this information available in different languages in order to reach visitors from neighbouring countries. 7 8 Europeans and languages. A survey in 25 EU Member States, in the accession countries (Bulgaria and Romania), the candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey) and among the Turkish Cypriot Community http://europa. eu. int/languages/en/document/80/20 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Image:Maciejowski_Tower_of_Babel. jpg 8

Multilingualism is of special interest to smaller and local museums in Europe, to preserve local and national differences and to make available their peculiarities and unique characteristics to others. Objects that originally belonged together have been spread around the world by means of exchange, purchase, division of goods and also by theft or violent conflict. To recreate relationships between the parts of collections that have been dispersed to multiple institutions and countries, it is essential to exchange relevant information and for this to happen multilingual accessibility is a prerequisite.

Further, it can be assumed that many objects can be qualified through a provenance reconstruction that crosses borders. The single objects mutually contextualise one another. And cross-border communication implies the use of multiple languages. Another point of view is the quality and effectiveness of communication on the Internet. Information technologies dramatically changed users’ behaviour at the end of twentieth century and a constant increase in demands and expectations from new services can be observed. Some countries report that the number of virtual visits to cultural institutions is becoming higher than real visits.

Therefore each institution should take care about communication on the Internet and the best medium for this is an institutional website. Cultural institutions have become aware of the power of websites and have been creating their own websites since the 1990s. Beyond the problem of guaranteeing a regular maintenance of the information provided, multilingualism plays again a strategic role, The majority of websites are addressed to their own small communities, such as university members, public library readers or the citizens of a town in which a museum is located.

However, the more useful information that can be found on a website, the more Internet users visit them regardless of borders. Language is the major barrier to foreigners in making use of these websites. Whilst policies and initiatives aimed at preserving languages are the prime responsibility of Member States, community action can play a catalytic role at European level adding value to the Member States’ efforts. The development of multilingualism on the Internet has been stimulated in recent years by the European Commission by supporting trans-national projects, fostering partnership between digital content owners and language industries.

However, support for high quality multilingual resources still needs to be enhanced. A panEuropean inventory and library of mature linguistic tools, resources and applications as well as qualified centres of competence and excellence would provide helpful support. Online access to this inventory, oriented towards problem-solving, providing cultural institutions with appropriate solutions for specific problems related to linguistic and cultural customization would be beneficial for the improvement of multilingualism in the web cultural applications.

This Handbook is intended as a contribution to this pan-European inventory. Europe’s experiences in multiculturalism and multilingualism represent an enormous strength that European cultural institutions should be able to exploit by positioning themselves in the new digital sphere of information and knowledge society.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This document was created for cultural institutions to emphasize the importance of multilingualism, and to provide them information and tools for establishing multilingual access to their collections.

In the Introduction we summarize the whole survey process carried out by the WP3 working group in the scope of the MINERVA Plus Project. The aim of the survey was mapping the multilingualism of the cultural sites and collecting information on multilingual thesauri in use. The survey lasted for a year from June 2004 to June 2005 in two runs, the results are presented in the following chapters. During the survey process we realized that we need to learn about official and minority languages and legislation within different countries and so we started to collect Country reports.

This information should be the starting point in each European Union project because it helps to understand the differences between countries. Each report has the same structure: multilingual diversity of the country, an evaluation of the participation in the survey and use of multilingual thesauri or controlled vocabularies. One of the practical aims of the MINERVA Project is to share the Best practice examples. Country representatives were asked to nominate the best practice examples for multilingual websites and thesauri.

We have summarized the results of the nominations for Best practice examples for multilingual thesauri and introduced some of them in detail, which are already in use in many different countries. In the survey we collected 657 multilingual websites9 from all over Europe. We present the Best practice examples of multilingual cultural websites, which are available in two or more languages, and meet the requirements of the 7th chapter of the Quality Principles for cultural Web Sites: a handbook10 published by the MINERVA Plus WP5 working group.

Some of them implements thesaurus for information retrieval. From the results, and findings we set up the Conclusions about the importance of multilingualism, and the use of multilingual thesauri. We also made same proposal for the future in the Future perspectives about supporting the translation of the well-tested thesauri, the quality test beds for thesauri, and the further collection of multilingual thesauri.

INTRODUCTION – ABOUT THE SURVEY

After accession to the European Union the new member states became a part of a multicultural and multilingual community.

At present there are 20 official, and about 150 estimated minority and immigrant languages are spoken in the enlarged European Union11. Thus information retrieval whether on the Web or in a common database can be a serious problem. That is why, at the kick off meeting of the MINERVA Plus Project in Budapest February 2004, it was decided to establish a working group specializing in multilingual issues, especially on multilingual thesauri. The working 9 10 11 MINERVA Institutions http://www. minervaeurope. org/institutions. htm http://www. minervaeurope. org/publications/qualitycriteria. tm Calimera Guidelines: Cultural Applications: Local Institutions Mediating Electronic Resources, Multiligualism, 2004. http://www. calimera. org/Lists/Guidelines/Multilingualism. htm 10 group was a follow up of the work carried out by the working group by the MINERVA Project Work Package 3 (WP3), led by France. Instead of creating a brand new multilingual thesaurus for the project’s purposes, we decided to make a survey of multilingual websites and thesauri. This also gave us a good opportunity to discover the usage of multilingual thesauri all over Europe.

The survey was completely voluntary, and we declare that our results cannot be considered to be statistically relevant. They can be best referred to as a random sampling. The reason for this is explained by the different customs of the member states, different methods of circulating and gathering information implemented by the national representatives and the different social attitudes of each country towards the issue of multilingualism and consequently the different levels of maturity of the digital products in terms of multilingual features.

The coordinators’ attitudes, working fields and positions made a major impact on their countries’ results. Some countries, including Israel, The Netherlands and Slovakia, had just finished a survey and were able to contribute these results offline. Other countries, including Poland, Greece and Russia, decided to send offline results because of a shortage of time or resources; these were added to the online results in the same format. The aim of the survey was mapping multilingual access to the European digital cultural content. To implement the survey we compiled a website http://www. ek. oszk. hu/minerva/survey, which was used for data collection and displaying the actual results. The online questionnaire could be reached from the front page. The questionnaire had two major parts. The first section was for auditing the multilingualism of the cultural websites. The second part could be filled out only by institutions that declared the use of controlled vocabularies for information retrieval in their database. This part was based on an Israeli questionnaire that was developed for a different survey. The results could be continuously followed online.

There were separate links from the front page to the “Statistics”, to the registered “Institutions”, and to the “Controlled vocabularies” grouped by the countries. The statistics were calculated by individual countries and also for the results of the whole survey. The institution’s types, the number of the languages available on the site, the site availability in English and the type of searching tools were analyzed. “Institutions” showed the names of the registered institutions linked to their websites, so that the site could be easily reviewed. Controlled vocabularies” showed the names of the registered thesauri and their registration form. The first run of the data collection started in June 2004 and ended in August. In the first analysis there were 236 answers from 21 states. This high score indicated also the diversity of participation. From 1 to 40 institutions answered per state and registered their websites in our database. There were 67 libraries, 63 museums, 35 archives, 21 cultural sites, and 45 other institutions. The results of the first run demonstrated that the 30% of the websites were still monolingual, 3% were bilingual, and about 26% were multilingual. There were 31 thesauri registered: 13 from Italy, 10 from the United Kingdom, 6 from Hungary, 1 form the Netherlands, and 1 from Austria. The working group had its first meeting on 12th of November 2004 in Budapest. The members of the working group presented a short country report. The slides are available on the official website of the survey by clicking on the “Download the slide shows”. It was clear, that there are different legislation and customs in each member states and so we planned to collect country reports of multilingual aspects.

The group agreed on new rules for the survey and restrictions for the results. We started a second run of the survey for those countries that were underrepresented in the first run. We also decided to create a mailing list (WP3 list) for circulating general information and discussion. We set up the criteria for the best practices examples and agreed on definitions. The second meeting took place in Berlin on the 8th of April 2005, during the two day WP5 meeting on quality of the websites. We gained useful experiences. We realised that it would be useful to get 11 o know about the multilingual issues from each country in a sophisticated way and so we decided to collect country reports. This will also help us to find the best practices examples to share. We agreed on the form of the country reports and the deadline for preparing them. The second run of the survey closed at the end of May 2005. The combined results of the two runs of the survey doubled those of the first. There were 676 websites registered from 24 countries. Some countries, like Germany, Italy, Greece, Israel and Malta sent additional information, but no information came from Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania or Luxembourg.

There were 265 museums, 138 libraries, 98 archives, 65 cultural sites, and 129 other websites registered. 179 of them were monolingual, the majority (310) were bilingual, 123 were available in 4 languages, 14 in 5 languages, 10 in 6 languages, 4 in 7 languages, 3 in 9 languages, and 1 in 34 languages. 491 out of the 676 websites were available in English. There were 106 registered controlled vocabularies in our database: 1 from Austria, 3 from France, 22 from Germany, 6 from Hungary, 30 from Israel, 13 from Italy, 19 from Russia, 1 from Sweden, 1 from The Netherlands and 10 from the United Kingdom.

The third meeting took place in Budapest on the 8th of September 2005. The participants of the meeting established an editorial board of this document. We agreed on the timeline, set up the structure of the deliverable and shared the tasks among the group. 1. 4 DEFINITIONS Definition of terms used in the survey: Cultural Site: is a website of a cultural institution (libraries, museums, archives) or a website providing cultural information having a digital collection (virtual galleries, cultural databases, historical sites).

Multilingual website: is a website providing information in two or more languages We understand that thesaurus is a special type of controlled vocabulary, in which the relations between the terms are specified. We are looking for multilingual thesauri focusing on cultural coverage, which can be used for online information retrieval on a cultural website. A controlled vocabulary12 is a list of terms that have been explicitly enumerated. This list is controlled by and is available from a controlled vocabulary registration authority.

All terms in a controlled vocabulary should have an unambiguous, non-redundant definition. This is a design goal that may not be true in practice. It depends on how strict the controlled vocabulary registration authority is regarding registration of terms into a controlled vocabulary. As a minimum the following two rules should be enforced:  If the same term is commonly used to mean different concepts in different contexts, then its name is explicitly qualified to resolve this ambiguity. If multiple terms are used to mean the same thing, one of the terms is identified as the preferred term in the controlled vocabulary and the other terms are listed as synonyms, aliases or non-preferred. A thesaurus is a networked collection of controlled vocabulary terms. This means that a thesaurus uses associative relationships in addition to parent-child relationships. The expressiveness of the associative relationships in a thesaurus vary and can be as simple as “related to term” as in term A is related to term B. 12 What are the differences between a vocabulary, a taxonomy, a thesaurus, an ontology, and a meta-model? ttp://www. metamodel. com/article. php? story=20030115211223271 12 A thesaurus has two kinds of links: broader/narrower term, which is much like the generalization/specialization link, but may include a variety of others (just like a taxonomy). In fact, the broader/narrower links of a thesaurus is not really different from a taxonomy, as described above. A thesaurus has another kind of link, which typically will not be a hierarchical relation, although it could be. This link may not have any explicit meaning at all, other than that there is some relationship between the two terms.

Additional information about thesauri: What controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, thesauri, ontologies, and meta-models all have in common are:

• They are approaches to help structure, classify, model, and or represent the concepts and relationships pertaining to some subject matter of interest to some community.
• They are intended to enable a community to come to agreement and to commit to use the same terms in the same way.
•  There is a set of terms that some community agrees to use to refer to these concepts and relationships. The meaning of the terms is specified in some way and to some degree.
•  They are fuzzy, ill-defined notions used in many different ways by different individuals and communities.

Controlled Vocabulary vs Free Text13 When you search an electronic database for information on a specific topic, you must find a balance between achieving high precision and achieving high recall. A search which results in high precision will be narrow, including only records which are very focused on your topic. However, this type of search may be so focused that you miss out on some information which may be relevant.

A search which results in high recall will be broader and more inclusive, but may retrieve irrelevant information which you then have to sort through. Controlled Vocabulary Most electronic databases allow you to search a subject by controlled vocabulary. This is often the best way to strike that balance between precision and recall. Controlled vocabulary is a set of predetermined terms which are used consistently to describe certain concepts. Experts in a discipline analyze an article and choose the appropriate terms from the controlled vocabulary which best characterize what the article is about.

All articles which address the same concept will be indexed using the same term or combination of terms. . Thesaurus Of course, to use controlled vocabulary, you must know what the terms are. The list of these terms is called a thesaurus. Many electronic databases allow you to search the thesaurus online to find the appropriate term for your search. Some databases, including OVID databases, will automatically map, or translate the term you type to the closest matching controlled vocabulary term and perform the search on that controlled vocabulary term. 3 Information adapted by Shauna Rutherford, University of Calgary Library, from: Barclay, Donald (ed). 1995. Teaching Electronic Information Literacy: A How-To-Do-It Manual. New York: Neil Schuman. (p. 63-64). 13 Controlled vocabulary terms can usually be found in the subject headings or descriptor fields of a database record. When you search by controlled vocabulary, the system is looking for those terms only in the subject heading or descriptor fields, not in the other fields of the database.

Advantages: Controlled vocabulary ensures that you retrieve all records which address the same topic, regardless of which words the authors use to describe that topic. Synonyms are all indexed under the same controlled vocabulary term, so the searcher is spared the job of thinking of and searching every term that describes a certain topic. Controlled vocabulary also avoids problems with spelling variations. Disadvantages: There will be times when using controlled vocabulary does not result in the exact search that you need.

New topics are not well represented by controlled vocabulary. As well a very specific and defined topic may not be represented in the controlled vocabulary which provides a subject heading which is much too broad. Free Text Almost all electronic databases allow free-text or keyword searching. In this type of search, the system usually looks for your search terms in every field of the record (not just in the subject heading or descriptor fields) and it looks for those terms to occur exactly as you type them, without mapping or translating them to controlled vocabulary terms.

Advantages Free-text searching can often provide more results in a shorter time p because you are not reviewing the thesaurus for the controlled subject heading. It is appropriate for very specific searches or when the topic you are looking for is relatively new. Disadvantage Free-text searching often results in missed records that are very relevant to your search topic. You must spend more time planning your search strategy to ensure that you are searching all appropriate synonyms of your search term.

Success, therefore, often depends on your familiarity with the search topic and your ability to identify appropriate keywords and their synonyms. 14 2. 2. 1 Country reports CZECH REPUBLIC 2. 1. 1 Population and Languages spoken The number of inhabitants in the Czech Republic is about 10 million. 90. 4% of the population is Czech by nationality although many other nationalities are represented (see the table below). 94,1% citizens speak Czech, which is the official language of the Czech Republic.

Nationalities in the Czech Republic in 2001 Population in total 10 230 060 Czech Moravian Slovakian Polish German Ukrainian Vietnamese Hungarian Russian Romany/gypsy Silesian Bulgarian Grecian Serbian Croatian Romanian Albanian Others U/I 9 249 777 380 474 193 190 51 968 39 106 22 112 17 462 14 672 12 369 11 746 10 878 4 363 3 219 1 801 1 585 1 238 690 39 477 172 827 100% 90,4 3,7 1,9 0,5 0,4 0,2 0,2 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0,4 1,7 2. 1. 2 The survey in the Czech Republic In the first round of the survey, 15 cultural institutions were chosen; the survey was completed by studying their web sites via the Internet.

This seemed to be the most suitable method of the obtaining valid results. The cultural institutions were grouped into 4 categories: museums, memorials, galleries and libraries. Museums Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague National Technical Museum in Prague Technical Museum in Brno National Museum of Agriculture in Prague The Moravian Museum Comenius Museum in Uhersky Brod Museum of Puppets in Chrudim 15 Languages used CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ CZ, EN, DE CZ, EN CZ CZ, EN, DE, FR, NL, IT

Hussite Museum in Tabor Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou The Wallachian Open Air Museum in Roznov Memorials Memorial Lidice Memorial Terezin Galleries National Gallery in Prague Moravian Gallery in Brno Libraries National Library of the Czech Republic CZ, EN, DE CZ CZ, DE, EN CZ, EN, DE CZ, EN, DE CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ, EN In the second round of the survey, a random sample of the websites of members of the Association of the Museums and Galleries of the Czech Republic (AMG) were checked.

The AMG has 856 official members. In Prague there are 51 institutions; 26 museums and 25 other cultural institutions (galleries, memorials etc). The survey found that, among the Prague museums websites 19. 2% were monolingual, 69. 2 % were bilingual and 11. 6% were multilingual; 80. 8 % were available in English. The survey found that, among the non-Prague museums websites: 33 % were monolingual, 40% were bilingual websites and 27% were multilingual websites; 67% were available in English.

The results from non-Prague museums were as follows: Museums The City of Tesin Museum The Pharmaceutical Museum Kuks Regional Museum Ceska Lipa City Museum Usti nad Labem Regional Museum of Kromeriz South Moravian Museum in Znojmo The Museum of Moravian Slovakia East Bohemian Museum in Pardubice The Museum of Mlada Boleslav Region The Museum of Romani (Gypsy) Culture Sports Cars Museum Lany Museum Podkrkonosi in Trutnov Museum of Historical Motorcycles and Bohemian Toys Museum Kasperske Hory Regional Historical and Geographical Museum in Sumperk The Town Museum Nova Paka Technical Museum in Koprivnice Languages used CZ CZ CZ CZ CZ CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ, EN CZ, EN, DE CZ, EN, DE CZ, EN, DE, PL CZ, EN,DE CZ, EN, DE, FR, PL, RU 16 Portals The Server muzei a galerii CR (Association of the Museums and Galleries of the Czech Republic: http://www. cz-museums. cz/) is the most comprehensive portal of the Czech museums. An English version is currently under construction. Information on museums and cultural heritage can be found on the portal Startpage (http://muzea. startpage. cz/) as well, but only in the Czech language, the same situation is on the Seznam web catalogue (Muzea).

Prague museums are described and listed on the portal ‚Prague – Heart of Europe‘ (http://www. heartofeurope. cz/museum_national1. html), which is used by foreign visitors to Prague and has an English version. There are several library portals. A list of the most comprehensive can be found on the home page of the National Library of the Czech Republic (http://www. nkp. cz/_en/). Uniform Information Gateway (http://www. jib. cz/), Conspectus (http://conspectus. nkp. cz/), Memoria Project – Manuscriptorium (http://www. memoria. cz/) and Kramerius (http://kramerius. nkp. cz/) all have an English version. Czech libraries can be found also on Kknihovny. cz http://www. knihovny. cz/en_index. hp3), which provides information on Czech libraries, their collections, information resources, services and how to access and use them. Comparison of findings Websites included in the MINERVA Survey: 86. 7% available in English. Websites included in the survey of Prague cultural institutions: 80. 8 % available in English. Websites of other Czech museums and institutions: 67 % available in English. 2. 1. 3 Thesauri and controlled vocabularies used No multilingual thesauri with cultural coverage were found to be available online among the institutions included in the survey. Relations between terms were mostly done using links or some other hypertext methods. Some of the institutions used free text indexing, but most did not use any sophistical retrieval tools.

The same situation is true of online controlled vocabularies or eglossaries. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are currently used in the Czech Republic as a source of English equivalents of subject terms, a Czech translation does not exist. UNESCO Thesaurus A Czech translation of the UNESCO thesaurus does not exit. 17 2. 2 ESTONIA 2. 2. 1 Population and Languages spoken Estonia has about 1. 351 million inhabitants (as of January 2005). The largest ethnic groups are Estonians (68%), Russians (26%), Ukrainians (2%), Belarussians (1%) and Finns (1%). Estonian is the only official language in Estonia in local government and state institutions.

The Estonian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is closely related to Finnish. Finnish, English, Russian and German are also widely spoken and understood in Estonia. 2. 2. 2 The survey in Estonia In 2004, 8 Estonian institutions took part in the MINERVA survey of multilingualism in cultural websites. These included 2 archives, 1 library, 4 museums and 1 other cultural organisation: Estonian State Archives (http://riigi. arhiiv. ee/) Estonian Historical Archives (http://www. eha. ee/) National Library of Estonia (http://www. nlib. ee/) Estonian Theatre and Music Museum (http://www. tmm. ee/) Estonian National Museum (http://www. rm. ee/) The Art Museum of Tartu (http://www. tartmus. ee/) Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (http://www. etdm. ee/) Conservation Centre Kanut (http://www. kanut. ee/) As this was not a representative sample, 34 additional websites were surveyed via the Internet. These included 30 museums (museums within the government of the Ministry of Culture, county museums and municipal museums financed by the Ministry of Culture), 20 libraries (research and special libraries and central libraries) and 4 archives (governmental and national archival institutions). Est Museums within the government of the Ministry of Culture: Central museums: Art

Museum of Estonia Estonian Health Care Museum Estonian History Museum Estonian Maritime Museum Estonian National Museum Estonian Open Air Museum Estonian Sports Museum Estonian Theatre and Music Museum http://www. ekm. ee/ http://www. tervishoiumuuseum. ee/ http://www. eam. ee/ http://www. meremuuseum. ee/ http://www. erm. ee/ http://www. evm. ee/ http://www. spordimuuseum. ee/ http://www. tmm. ee/ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + free text free text Eng Rus Ger Fin Search tools Museum of Estonian Architecture http://www. arhitektuurimuuseum. ee/ State museums: Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design Tartu Art Museum County museums: http://www. etdm. ee/ http://www. tartmus. ee/ 18 Harjumaa Museum Hiiumaa Museum Iisaku Museum Jarvamaa Museum Laanemaa Museum Mahtra Peasantry Museum Memorial Museum of Dr. Fr.

R. Kreutzwald Parish School Museum of Oskar Luts at Palamuse Polva Peasantry Museum Parnu Museum Saaremaa Museum Tartumaa Museum Valga Museum Viljandi Museum Foundations: Anton Hansen Tammsaare Museum at Vargamae Museums of Virumaa Municipal museums: Juhan Liiv Museum Muhu Museum Setu Farm Museum Libraries: Research and special libraries: Academic Library of Tallinn University Estonian National Library Estonian Repository Library Tartu University Library Central libraries: Harju County Library Jogeva County Central Library Johvi Central Library Jarva County Central Library Kohtla-Jarve Central Library http://www. muuseum. harju. ee/ http://www. uuseum. hiiumaa. ee/ http://www. hot. ee/iisakumuuseum/ http://www. jarva. ee/? CatID=201 http://www. muuseum. haapsalu. ee/ http://www. hot. ee/mahtram/ http://www. hot. ee/muuseumvoru/ http://www. palmuseum. ee/ http://talurahvamuuseum. polvamaa. ee/ http://www. pernau. ee/ http://www. saaremaamuuseum. ee/ http://www. tartumaamuuseum. ee/ http://www. valgamuuseum. ee/ http://www. muuseum. viljandimaa. ee/ http://ice. estnet. ee/albuvv/? id=257 http://www. svm. ee/ http://www. muusa. ee/ http://www. muhumuuseum. ee/ http://www. hot. ee/setomuuseum/ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + – + + + + free text free text – + + + + free text + + – + ree text – + – + + http://www. tulib. ee/ http://www. nlib. ee/ http://www. hoiuraamatukogu. ee/ http://www. utlib. ee/ http://www. poltsamaa. ee/index. php? lan g=est=72,661,664 http://raamat. paide. ee/ http://k-jarve. lib. ee/ + + + + + + + free text free text – + – + + + + free text Korvekula Library / Tartu County http://tmk. tartuvv. ee/tmk/ Central Library Kardla Central Library Laane County Central Library Narva Central Library Polva Central Library Parnu Central Library http://www. lib. haapsalu. ee/ http://www. raamat. polva. ee/ http://www. pkr. ee/ + + + + + + – Laane-Viru County Central Library http://www. lvkrk. ee/ + + – 19

Rapla Central Library Saare County Central Library Sillamae City Central Library Tallinn Central Library Tartu City Central Library Valga Central Library Viljandi City Library Voru County Central Library Archives: http://www. raplakrk. ee/ http://www. kuressaare. ee/skr/ http://www. slib. ee/ http://www. keskraamatukogu. ee/ http://www. luts. ee/ http://www. valgark. ee/ http://www. raamatukogu. viljandi. ee/ http://lib. werro. ee/ + + + + + + + + + + + + free text free text free text free text Governmental and national archival institutions: Estonian Filmarchive Estonian Historical Archives Estonian State Archives National Archives of Estonia http://www. filmi. arhiiv. ee/ http://www. eha. ee/ http://www. riigi. arhiiv. ee/ http://www. ra. ee/ + + + + + + + + + + free text free text – 4 of these websites were monolingual while 30 were multilingual as follows: • 20 sites were available in 2 languages • 7 sites were available in 3 languages • 2 site was available in 4 languages • 1 site was available in 5 languages 4 foreign languages were represented including English (28), Russian (9), German (4) and Finnish (3). The extent to which the contents are available in these languages varies. On the web pages there are many signs of work-in-progress: pages in other languages being announced or in an early stage of development. 2. 2. 3 Thesauri and controlled vocabularies used At present there are no multilingual thesauri in use on the Web by any Estonian cultural institution. 15 sites provide free text search. 20 2. 3 FRANCE 2. 3. Population and Languages spoken The linguistic situation in France The political context Since the launch in 1998 of the Government Action Plan for the Information Society (PAGSI) that made culture and language two of its priorities the French government has been actively supporting and promoting research efforts and applications in the field of language. Here are some examples of this multifaceted involvement: • Taking part in multilingual European projects with an educational content (eg Linguanet : http://www. linguanet-europa. org) • Taking part in multilingual European projects with a cultural content (eg Herein: http://www. european-heritage. et/sdv/herein/ , Narcisse, Minerva or Michael) • Taking part in multilingual European projects with a scientific content (eg Cismef: http://www. chu-rouen. fr/cismef/) • Taking part in the equipment of language (terminology committees ) or in the industrialisation of language through supporting the creation of basic tools and linguistic resources in the oral and written areas (support of the linguistic research laboratories by the ministries in charge of industry, culture and education) • Promoting knowledge in linguistic engineering by making it available to the communities of research workers and industrialists (eg Technolangue project: http://www. technolangue. net) With its rich past and its large dissemination the French language can face the future with confidence.

In order to guarantee its national and international role in an ever changing world the general policy in favour of the French language has taken into account all areas: the role of the French language in the social cohesion, its teaching (in France and abroad), its enrichment (creation of new words), its display through the new technologies and on the web, and its dissemination, but also its relationship with the other languages. General overview and actions taken France possesses a very rich linguistic heritage. The languages of France are our common good and contribute to the creativity of our country and to its cultural influence at the side of the French language. By the expression “languages of France” we mean the regional or minority languages that are traditionally spoken by French citizens on the territory of the Republic and that are not the official language of any state. For this reason neither Portuguese nor Chinese are languages of France though spoken by many French citizens.

Apart from the fact that they are not endangered languages, they are regularly taught within the education system as foreign languages. Western Armenian is the language of the diaspora and thus a language of France whereas Eastern Armenian is the official language of the Republic of Armenia. Colloquial Arabic is the language that is actually spoken by many French people. It differs from literary or classical Arabic that is the official language of Arabic countries and is used in the media but not by the general population. These definition criteria are adapted from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. France’s linguistic policy is indeed developed within the European framework. 21

Languages that transcend political frontiers, such as the Basque, Catalan, Flemish and Frankish languages, illustrate the internal plurality and the unity of our common cultural space. They open doors on neighbouring countries. From this angle the languages of France can be viewed as means of cultural invention and as the components of a polyphonic ensemble where the imaginary, intellectual and affective worlds of the men and women of our country can express themselves freely. On the basis of these criteria more than seventy-five languages of France can be counted in Metropolitan France and overseas areas. They are characterized by a great diversity.

In Metropolitan France: Romance, Germanic, Celtic languages as well as Basque, a non-IndoEuropean language. Overseas: Creoles, Amerindian, Polynesian, Bantu (Mayotte) and Austronesian (New Caledonia) languages, among others. There is also a great demographic diversity between these languages. Three or four million people are speaking Arabic in France whereas Neku or Arha are spoken only by a few dozen people. In between, the various Creoles or the Berber languages are spoken by about two million people in France. The 1999 national census revealed that 26 % of adults living in France had regularly practiced in their youth a language other than French – Alsatian (660 000 speakers), Occitan (610 000), Oil languages (580 000), Breton (290 000).

For each of these languages one can add an equal – at least –number of occasional speakers. However language transmission in France is almost not effective any more in the family circle and relies today mostly on the teaching of these languages and their creativity in the artistic domain. Metropolitan France Regional languages : Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Western Flemish, Moselle Franconian, Franco-provencal, Oil languages (Franc-Comtois, Walloon, Champenois, Picard, Norman, Gallo, Poitevin-Saintongeais, Lorrain, Bourguignon-Morvandiau), Oc languages or Occitan (Gascon, Languedocien, Provencal, Auvergnat, Limousin, Vivarese-Alpine).

Non-territorial languages: Colloquial Arabic, Western Armenian, Berber, Judeo-Spanish, Romany, Yiddish) Overseas Caribbean area: French-based Creoles: Guadeloupean, Guyanese, Martiniquan, Reunionese; Bushinenge Creoles of Guyana (Anglo-Portuguese-based): Saramaca, Aluku, Njuka, Paramaca; Amerindian languages of Guyana: Galibi (or Kalina), Wayana, Palikur, Arawak (or Lokono), Wayampi, Emerillon; Hmong New Caledonia: twenty-eight Kanak languages. Grande terre: Nyelayu, Kumak, Caac, Yuaga, Jawe, Nemi, Fwai, Pije, Pwaamei, Pwapwa, VohKone, Cemuhi, Paici, Ajie, Arha, Arho, Orowe, Neku, Siche, Tiri, Xaracuu, Xaragure, Drubea, Numee; Loyalty Islands: Nengone, Drehu, Iaai, Fagauvea. French Polynesia: Tahitian, Marquesan, Tuamotuan and Mangareva languages, languages spoken in the Austral Islands: Raivavae, Rapa and Ruturu languages. Wallis and Futuna Islands: Wallisian, Futunian. Mayotte :Maore, Malagasy dialect of Mayotte.

French Sign Language (Langue des signes francaise or LSF) It is traditionally used by French citizens and is also a language of France. Several legislative provisions and regulations define the place of the languages of France in the areas of culture, education and the media. The law of 4 August 1994 relative to the use of the 22 French language specifies: “The provisions of the present law apply without prejudice to the legislation and regulations relative to regional languages in France and is not against their use” (article 21). The recognition by the French State of the specific position held by the languages of France in the nation’s cultural life was materialized by the creation in October 2001 of the Delegation generale a la langue francaise et aux langues de France.

The Ministry of Culture and Communication support and promote the languages of France through its multiple fields of intervention: music, literature, theatre, ethnological heritage, archives, museums, cinema, … Moreover, specific credits have been allotted to the Delegation generale a la langue francaise et aux langues de France for the following priority objectives : • Helping publications in or about the languages of France; • Supporting the fields – such as the performing arts, singing, television and radio – where language act as a vector for creation • Ensuring the presence of the languages of France through the new information and communication technologies; • More generally, putting the emphasis on the interaction between language and culture and their importance in a living society. http://www. languesdefrance. om/ At a time when economical or cultural transactions between countries are growing rapidly and Europe14 gets stronger a policy that guarantees the presence of the French language for French citizens and French national interests is asserted: (http://www. culture. gouv. fr/culture/dglf/Actualites/communication_ministre_17_mars. pdf). The French linguistic situation has come under close scrutiny and has been studied conjointly by the two national analysis institutes – INSEE15 and INED16 – on the occasion of the last national census: http://www. ined. fr/publications/pop_et_soc/pes376. pdf However this national policy goes together with a decided openness towards the other languages: • Through the promotion of minority and/or regional languages that are part of France’s heritage. France’s linguistic heritage consists of 75 languages.

However this list puts together idioms that have a variety of socio-linguistic status. It goes from the mostly spoken Creoles, which are the mother tongues of more than one million speakers and probably the regional languages that are the most alive, to the mostly written Bourguignon-Morvandiau which is only spoken by a few people nowadays and with no mother-to-baby transmission. See: http://www. culture. gouv. fr/culture/dglf/lang-reg/rapport_cerquiglini/langues-france. html http://www. culture. gouv. fr/dglf/politique-langue/assises/actes_assises. pdf http://www. insee. fr/fr/insee_regions/idf/rfc/docs/alapage226. pdf • Through the creation of an Observatory of Linguistic Practice (Observatoire des pratiques linguistiques).

The observatory’s task is to study current linguistic practices in France as well as the modalities and the effects of the contact between languages. The observatory was established in 1999 within the Delegation generale a la langue francaise et aux langues de France (DGLFLF), an interdepartmental service for culture and communication. It aims at inventorying, developing, making available, the knowledge pertaining to France’s linguistic situation, in order to provide information useful for developing cultural, educational or social policies. One of its aims is also to make more widely known the common linguistic heritage http://culture. gouv. fr/culture/dglf/lois/politiques_ling_eng_Europe. df INSEE : Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) INED : Institut National d’Etudes Demographiques (French National Institute for Demographic Studies) 14 15 16 23 that consists of all the languages and linguistic varieties spoken in France and that contribute to its diversity. The activity of the observatory is organized around four axes: • Research and study work: the observatory does not carry out research work as such but it is supporting and coordinating projects or research programmes on themes that are of interest to the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and – more generally – to the public authorities, the representatives, the decision

Isaiah Pompey February 18, 2012 English 101 Do You Stereotype? Have you ever judged a book from its cover? Have you ever judged a person by his or her looks or, maybe something you heard about them? If so this is merely a common mistake people make. This is called stereotyping. Usually you have some prior concept on the topic or person. In “About Men” the author, Gretel Ehrlich stresses these simple mistakes that are made when coming up with a judgment of cow boys and their characteristic. The same stereotypes cowboys face as do poets.

Poets are sometimes looked at as reclusive and over sensitive and in some case this may be true but not in all cases though. In today’s society, the general concept of cow boys is covered by old western horse backing, shoot outs and salon fights portrayed in movies. This idea foreshadows the real concept of cowboys and what they stand for. Poets are very much alike. The concept of poets to the general public is that they are overly sensitive, stuck up and lonely.

These stereotypes are untrue. I believe that the general public mistaken poets passion for their work as character. The Ehrlich gives prime examples of how in the case of cowboys, they can really be tender and caring and how society views can be so judgmental not just only on cow boys but on men in general or in this case poets . She goes to talk about the occupation of cow boys, which is to care for the farm animals, mostly cows though. Ehrlich goes to say that “ on some nights a cow boy can be caught sitting in front of an oven fire holding and caring for a struggling baby calf”(105pg) .

This relation to animals is one of the author’s main points. Poets to some degree can have a relationship with their work. In writing poetry or any work of art you generally want to have some inspiration. The means of inspiration have sometimes been misunderstood as the use of drugs. This misconception of poet’s daily life is confused by movies such as, “Edgar Allen Poe”, which was a movie about a poet whose choice of inspiration was the drug Opium. This can then be in return misunderstood as poets in general using drugs and this is not true.

The misconception of cow boys and poets in relation are generally the same. Cow boys are often mistaken as cruel to women and rough at times, and in some cases this can be true, but there is reasoning behind it. In “About Men”, Ehrlich explains how cow boys differentiate themselves from woman and have a stronger relationship with the animal in which they care for. In a poet’s case, they have a stronger relationship with their work of poetry. Whether it’s a cow boys or simply a poet. Any thought that precedes the actual facts or value of something or someone, can be considered a preconception or stereotype.

In “About Men”, Gretel Ehrlich clearly shows how coy boys can be a victim of false preconceptions. Poets are much alike cow boys and are also victims of stereotypes, such as being over sensitive, reclusive or even drug addicts. With all of these examples, I think it’s safe to say that judging a book or person by a preconception is wrong. Taking the time to get a better account of that person or topic can make you realize that great qualities be blinded by false preconceptions. Erlich, Gretal. “About Men”. Fifty Great Essays. 5th Ed. Robert Diynann. Boston. Pearson,2013. 104-107. Print.

Advantages of Globalization Globalization means increasing the interdependence, connectivity and integration on a global level with respect to the social, cultural, political, technological, economic and ecological levels. Advantages * Goods and people are transported with ease and speed * the possibility of war between the developed countries decreases * free trade between countries increases * global mass media connects all the people in the world as the cultural barriers reduce, the global village dream becomes more realistic * there is a propagation of democratic ideals * the interdependence of the nation-states increases * as the liquidity of capital increases, developed countries can invest in developing ones * the flexibility of corporations to operate across borders increases * the communication between the individuals and corporations in the world increases * environmental protection in developed countries increases Effects of Globalization enhancement in the information flow between geographically remote locations * the global common market has a freedom of exchange of goods and capital * there is a broad access to a range of goods for consumers and companies * worldwide production markets emerge * free circulation of people of different nations leads to social benefits * global environmental problems like cross-boundary pollution, over fishing on oceans, climate changes are solved by discussions * more trans-border data flow using communication satellites, the Internet, wireless telephones, etc. international criminal courts and international justice movements are launched * the standards applied globally like patents, copyright laws and world trade agreements increase * corporate, national and sub-national borrowers have a better access to external finance * worldwide financial markets emerge * multiculturalism spreads as there is individual access to cultural diversity. This diversity decreases due to hybridization or assimilation * international travel and tourism increases * worldwide sporting events like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup are held * enhancement in worldwide fads and pop culture local consumer products are exported to other countries * immigration between countries increases * cross-cultural contacts grow and cultural diffusion takes place * there is an increase in the desire to use foreign ideas and products, adopt new practices and technologies and be a part of world culture * free trade zones are formed having less or no tariffs * due to development of containerization for ocean shipping, the transportation costs are reduced * subsidies for local businesses decrease * capital controls reduce or vanquish there is supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions, i. e. patents authorized by one country are recognized in another Advantages in the Developing World It is claimed that globalization increases the economic prosperity and opportunity in the developing world. The civil liberties are enhanced and there is a more efficient use of resources. All the countries involved in the free trade are at a profit. As a result, there are lower prices, more employment and a better standard of life in these developing nations.

It is feared that some developing regions progress at the expense of other developed regions. However, such doubts are futile as globalization is a positive-sum chance in which the skills and technologies enable to increase the living standards throughout the world. Liberals look at globalization as an efficient tool to eliminate penury and allow the poor people a firm foothold in the global economy. In two decades from 1981 to 2001, the number of people surviving on $1 or less per day decreased from 1. 5 billion to 1. 1 billion.

Simultaneously, the world population also increased. Thus, the percentage of such people decreased from 40% to 20% in such developing countries. Globalization means increasing the interdependence, connectivity and integration on a global level with respect to the social, cultural, political, technological, economic and ecological levels. Advantages * Goods and people are transported with ease and speed * the possibility of war between the developed countries decreases * free trade between countries increases * global mass media connects all the people in the world as the cultural barriers reduce, the global village dream becomes more realistic * there is a propagation of democratic ideals * the interdependence of the nation-states increases * as the liquidity of capital increases, developed countries can invest in developing ones * the flexibility of corporations to operate across borders increases * the communication between the individuals and corporations in the world increases * environmental protection in developed countries increases Effects of Globalization enhancement in the information flow between geographically remote locations * the global common market has a freedom of exchange of goods and capital * there is a broad access to a range of goods for consumers and companies * worldwide production markets emerge * free circulation of people of different nations leads to social benefits * global environmental problems like cross-boundary pollution, over fishing on oceans, climate changes are solved by discussions * more trans-border data flow using communication satellites, the Internet, wireless telephones, etc. international criminal courts and international justice movements are launched * the standards applied globally like patents, copyright laws and world trade agreements increase * corporate, national and sub-national borrowers have a better access to external finance * worldwide financial markets emerge * multiculturalism spreads as there is individual access to cultural diversity. This diversity decreases due to hybridization or assimilation * international travel and tourism increases * worldwide sporting events like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup re held * enhancement in worldwide fads and pop culture * local consumer products are exported to other countries * immigration between countries increases * cross-cultural contacts grow and cultural diffusion takes place * there is an increase in the desire to use foreign ideas and products, adopt new practices and technologies and be a part of world culture * free trade zones are formed having less or no tariffs * due to development of containerization for ocean shipping, the transportation costs are reduced * subsidies for local businesses decrease capital controls reduce or vanquish * there is supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions, i. e. patents authorized by one country are recognized in another Advantages in the Developing World It is claimed that globalization increases the economic prosperity and opportunity in the developing world. The civil liberties are enhanced and there is a more efficient use of resources. All the countries involved in the free trade are at a profit. As a result, there are lower prices, more employment and a better standard of life in these developing nations.

It is feared that some developing regions progress at the expense of other developed regions. However, such doubts are futile as globalization is a positive-sum chance in which the skills and technologies enable to increase the living standards throughout the world. Liberals look at globalization as an efficient tool to eliminate penury and allow the poor people a firm foothold in the global economy. In two decades from 1981 to 2001, the number of people surviving on $1 or less per day decreased from 1. 5 billion to 1. 1 billion. Simultaneously, the world population also increased.

Thus, the percentage of such people decreased from 40% to 20% in such developing countries. The Negative Effects of Globalization globalization point out to its negative effects. Some of them are listed below. * Developed nations have outsourced manufacturing and white collar jobs. That means less jobs for their people. This has happened because manufacturing work is outsourced to developing nations like China where the cost of manufacturing goods and wages are lower. Programmers, editors, scientists and accountants have lost their jobs due to outsourcing to cheaper locations like India. Globalization has led to exploitation of labor. Prisoners and child workers are used to work in inhumane conditions. Safety standards are ignored to produce cheap goods. * Job insecurity. Earlier people had stable, permanent jobs. Now people live in constant dread of losing their jobs to competition. Increased job competition has led to reduction in wages and consequently lower standards of living. * Terrorists have access to sophisticated weapons enhancing their ability to inflict damage. Terrorists use the Internet for communicating among themselves. Companies have set up industries causing pollution in countries with poor regulation of pollution. * Fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are spreading in the developing world. People are consuming more junk food from these joints which has an adverse impact on their health. * The benefits of globalization is not universal. The rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer. * Bad apects of foreign cultures are affecting the local cultures through TV and the Internet. * Enemy nations can spread propaganda through the Internet. Deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS are being spread by travelers to the remotest corners of the globe. * Local industries are being taken over by foreign multinationals. * The increase in prices has reduced the government’s ability to sustain social welfare schemes in developed countries. * There is increase in human trafficking. * Multinational Companies and corporations which were previously restricted to commercial activities are increasingly influencing political decisions. Disadvantages of Globalization So what’s the harm if the entire world is coming together on a common platform?

Why are we even discussing whether globalization is good or bad for the world? As we said earlier, everything has a good side and a bad side. The bad side of globalization predominantly revolves around the fact that the preferences differ from nation to nation, and coming to a consensus on any issue becomes more difficult when too many nods are required. When it comes to globalization, the difference between the rich and poor nation can be a major hindrance. Even though the richer nations will try to assimilate and help poor nations come up, they will not sacrifice on their national interests willingly.

Economic Problems: If the entire world becomes a global village, any sort of economic disruption in one nation will have a disastrous impact on various other nations which are closely related to it in terms of trade and commerce. It will be a domino-effect wherein disturbance in one economy would result in disturbance in another, and so on! Cultural Problems: Culture and globalization also seem to be at the loggerheads. Critics of globalization are also of the opinion that it will hamper the age-old cultures which have been followed religiously all over the world.

There are many countries in the world which would never agree to compromise when it comes to culture or religion. Migration will become even easier, and the influence of local cultures and traditions will slowly start to wear down. Incessant westernization of Southeast Asian nations has already put western cultural beliefs and traditions under the scanner in these countries. Unemployment: One may feel that globalization is promoting employment, but the fact is exactly reverse of this is happening, especially in developed countries wherein people are losing jobs as a result of outsourcing.

Several major companies from the United States and United Kingdom have outsourced their jobs to the developing nations in Asia, this has in turn resulted in unemployment in these countries. Spread of Diseases: Increase in flow of people will also result in spread of diseases, and thus make people more vulnerable to health issues. We do have many examples in history wherein outbreak of a particular disease happened in some part of the world, and before we could realize it spread throughout the world.

The critics of globalization and those involved in anti-globalization movement often argue that the implications of this phenomenon will be seen in economics, culture, health and employment, and most of the countries are not ready to take on these disadvantages head-on. Taking their seriousness into consideration, it is not at all possible to turn a blind eye towards these negative effects of globalization. The need of the hour, therefore, is to evaluate the pros and cons of this concept to find out which of the two have an edge over the other.