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**************************************************************** Open Society Information
Programs Forum Budapest, 6 February 2001, Issue
59 *************************************************************** In this issue: Projects and Initiatives of the OSI/Soros Foundations Network Reinventing State Policy for Public LibrarieseIFL Direct Project Developments Public Discussion on the Translation Project Translations Published – Update Roma Translation Project Results Balkan History Program Competition - Results Information Sector News ======================================================= Projects and Initiatives of the OSI/Soros Foundations Network ======================================================= The Open Society Institute (OSI) has recently become a full member of the Global Knowledge Partnership initiative (GKP). The Global Knowledge Partnership is an informal partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organisations. The work of the Global Knowledge Partnership is rooted in the conviction that access to, and effective use of, knowledge and information are increasingly important factors in sustainable economic and social development for individuals, communities and nations. The GKP emerged from co-operation between several dozen organisations in sponsoring the Global Knowledge 97 conference, "Knowledge for Development in the Information Age" in Toronto, 1997. Today members of the GKP co-operate on a variety of initiatives: pilot projects, conferences and workshops, capacity-building initiatives, information sharing and project co-ordination. All the Partnership members work to provide a full range of complementary products that help people access knowledge and information. The OSI participation in the GKP could be a good way to find partners for Information Program initiatives. More information about the GKP can be obtained from <http://www.globalknowledge.org> or by e-mail: <globalknowledge@worldbank.org> REINVENTING STATE POLICY FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES The International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) Library Program and the Library Department of the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine initiated a letter to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from the Minister of Culture of Ukraine. The letter requested the organisation of collection, preservation and provision of information on the activity of local authorities and executive bodies directed at the development of public libraries as information centres in Ukraine. As a result the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine recently signed a decree issued by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The letter was officially sent to all heads of regional administrations stating that “the issue of broadening the information functions of the libraries and increasing the level of possession of information among citizens… will become of great importance. We request a review of the proposal of the Ministry of Culture and for a proper decision to be made on the matter.” eIFL DIRECT PROJECT DEVELOPMENTS It is the second year of eIFL Direct, the joint Open Society Institute (OSI) and EBSCO project. In the short span of the first year since the project's launch, almost 2 000 institutions have joined in 39 countries and the usage statistics are quite impressive. During 2000, over 2,215,000 searches were performed resulting in over 1,600,000 full-text articles being retrieved and over 13,345,000 pages being viewed. It is expected that these statistics will continue to rise in 2001 as more users familiarise themselves with the system and as other institutions join. It is also anticipated that up to 10 more countries will join the consortium this year. Last year OSI paid the full subscription fee for all participating countries. This year the Institute will not be covering any subscription costs and the consortium will cover subscription fee on its own in 2001. EBSCO remains committed to adding more content of particular relevance to our region and is currently in the process of adding titles from Central and Eastern Europe in English. In addition, EBSCO is developing a Russian-language interface and will be adding quality scholarly journals in Russian in the near future. This is in response to regular requests from users in many countries. For more information, please contact Anna Balogh (<abalogh@osi.hu>) or Michael Kay (<kaym@osi.hu>). PUBLIC DISCUSSION ON THE TRANSLATION PROJECT The Translation Project (TP) in Ukraine has earned its good reputation and has amounted to much more than the 160 translations that have been published (along with the 200 forthcoming), it is a new framework for the academic books market. As a result of the Translation Project two academic translation schools were created, something that has never existed before. As published in FORUM in September 2000, the IRF had a round-table discussion on the challenges and results of the Translation Project. As a follow up to this meeting, Iryna Kuchma, the TP Project Manager, received a number of evaluating reports on the project. Among the evaluators were translation experts, experienced editors, scholars and also publishers. All the reports were published in a separate book. The key point of discussions was quite different from the topic of discussions in previous years. While in 1998-1999, the focus of arguments was whether or not the titles on the Translation Project list were "what Ukraine needs". Now, three years after the project was launched, the key point is the quality of translations. Now the list (to which about 100 new titles were added by local academics) is acknowledged as a necessity and a new problem has arisen. The Ukrainian language was not much used in human and social sciences over the last century and in the Soviet era, so today's translators are the creators of a new terminology. This process is certainly very painful and this time is crucially important for academic language in Ukraine. The reports published in the last issue of Open World offer proposals for establishing working standards for academic translation in Ukrainian. Maria Hablevich, a translation expert, believes that a series of translators' seminars, working within the framework of the TP, would increase the quality of translated books and further evolve existing mastery of translation. The general evaluation of the Translation Project was quite positive but very challenging for the IRF. It imposed a number of aims to be reached before the Project is phased out. For a list of books supported by the Translation Project in Ukraine, visit: <http://www.osi.hu/cpd/tp/ceu/trans_project07.html#ukraine> TRANSLATION PROJECT: NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ARMENIA Aurelius, Augustin: Confessions, $4,800 Bergson, Henri: Creative Evolution. Introduction to Metaphysics, $5,000 Borgman, C.: From Gutenberg to Information Age, $5,000 Burda, Michael C. and Charles Wyplosz: Macroeconomics: A European text, $4,600 Canetti, Elias: Masse und Macht, $3,680 McLean, Iain, (Ed.): The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, $6,967 CROATIA Kant, Immanuel: Political Writings (Ed. Hans Reiss), $3,980 Almond, Gabriel Abraham and Verba, Sidney: The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, $5,850 CZECH REPUBLIC Habermas, Jürgen: Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, $938 Balandier, Georges: Anthropologie politique, $1,250 ESTONIA Popper, Karl: The Poverty of Historicism, $2,371 Baudrillard, Jean: Simulacres et simulation, $2,385 Ko³akowski, Leszek: Metaphysical Horror, $2,193 Canetti, Elias: Masse und Macht, $6,074 Rorty, Richard: Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, $3,289 KYRGYZSTAN George Jellinek: The Declaration of the Rights of Men, $4,890 Hohfeld, Wesley Newcomb: The Fundamental Legal Conceptions, $5,850 Mill, John Stuart: The Subjection of Women, $4,890 Waever, Ole, Buzan, Barry, et al.: Identity, Migration and New, $7,620 Burke, Peter: The Renaissance, $4,300 Oxford English Dictionary, $6,925 MOLDOVA Buzan, Barry: People, States and Fear: An agenda for international security studies in the post-Cold War era, $7,314 BULGARIA Wolkov, Salomon: Conversations with Iosif Brodsky, $1,500 Kis, Danilo: Encyclopedia of the Death, $950 ESTONIA Gombrowicz, Witold: Diary, $2,714 POLAND Lotman, Yuri: The Everyday Life and Traditions of Russian Nobles, $2,500 ROMA TRANSLATION PROJECT RESULTS
BALKAN HISTORY PROGRAM COMPETITION - RESULTS Bulgaria Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage, Amicitia, Sofia, German – Bulgarian Translation by Maria Redeva Neikova: $2,150 Raymond Detrez, Grigor Parlicev, een case study in Balkannationalisme, LIK, Sofia, Dutch – Bulgarian translation by Zherminal Civikov: $2,200 Francis Dvornik, The Slavs in the European History and Civilisation, GAL-ICO, Sofia, English – Bulgarian translation by Vassil Dudeckov Kurshev: $3,290 Slovenia Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, Studia Humanitatis, Ljubljana, English – Slovene translation by Špela Mihelac: $1,250 Yugoslavia Vesna Goldsworthy, Inventing Ruritania, The Imperialism of the Imagination,
Karl Kaser, Familie und Verwandschaft auf dem Balkan, Association for
Social History, Belgrade, German – Serbian translation by Alexandra Bajazetov
Vucen: Robert Mantran, L’Histoire de l’empire Ottoman, Clio, Belgrade, French – Serbian translation by Ema Miljkovic: $4,500 Hugh Poulton, Minorities and States in Conflict, Cikos Holding Print, Subotica, English – Serbian translation by Stanka Parac Demjanovic: $1, 630 ======================================================= Information Sector News ======================================================= NGONet has been created to provide information to, for and about non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in Central and Eastern Europe. It can be used in a variety of ways by donors and grantees, by organisations trying to identify possible project partners and by individuals looking to identify potential employers. The site is constantly revised and expanded to reflect up-to-date practical information on the region's NGO community, including NGO databases, funding guidelines, new program information, and direct links to hundreds of pertinent Internet sites. Visitors' comments and suggestions are heartily encouraged. For more information please visit the following site: <http://www.ngonet.org/> ======================================================= Descriptions and projects of Open Society Institute information programs can be found at their websites: Center for Publishing Development www.osi.hu/cpd Network Internet Program www.soros.org/internet Network Library Program www.osi.hu/nlp Open Society Information Programs Forum is published by the OSI Center for Publishing Development in collaboration with the OSI Network Library Program. Archive of back issues: <www.osi.hu/cpd/forum.html> Contact person: Mykhailo Minakov <mminakov@osi.hu> Requests to be added to and removed from the mailing list: Monika Horvath <mhorvath@osi.hu> You can also contact us at: e-mail <cpd@osi.hu> =======================================================
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