by Norsuriaty Awang Hassim

The session was presented by Isabel Gonzalez Corral and Joan Van Albada (replacing Marcel Caya). It focused on the creation of a macro dictionary of archival terminology that aims to create a wide lexicographic database of archival knowledge.  Objectively, it tries to achieve progress in the field of archival scientific knowledge by creating a Macro Dictionary of Archival Terminology conceived as a wide database. This effort was undertaken due to the need to standardize and control archival vocabulary worldwide. It was also proposed due to the limited development of works on archival terminology in general.

After three years, the results of the projects are a terminological database, the original core of the macro dictionary, a terminological file and a common dictionary with a selection of around 500 terms, extracted from about 3000 terms.

The second part of the session talked about the Archipaedia project, a multimedia, online linguistic project for promoting understanding of archival terminology. Other aspects of the project include definitions, synonyms, terminology, and citations for each word.

The current manifestation of the project is based on the best selling Dictionary of Archive Terminology from 1984. Since its publication, there have been many requests to revise and modernize the book, and the Archipaedia project provides an opportunity to gain more understanding via internet tools such as Wikipedia.

Amongst issues highlighted in the session were the need to coordinate a committee at an international level, to set up national or linguistic committees and also to devise a budget to produce a standard glossary for archives.