Dictionary Edit Procedures

From the PAP22 report we have:

Progress has been made in the drafting of an input paper (Paper PAP22/7/1), for which grateful thanks were expressed to Marie-Hèléne Grillet. The document was reviewed and minor changes made to the Table at paragraph 3.2.

A discussion then followed about roles, which included IALA’s information management process. It was agreed that, ideally, the task of maintaining the dictionary should move away from the Committees to a dictionary editor and might be combined with the role of IT manager, when funding permits and depending on the skill sets of the person involved.

This led to the suggestion that the aim should be to first locate an editor and an assistant editor; the latter could be someone recently retired.

It was agreed that definitions should continue to be allocated to the relevant Committee, for review / verification. It was also emphasised that the Committees should be diligent in using existing definitions and that where an error is detected it should be corrected, rather than a new definition being invented.

In considering terms not used within IALA documents, it was noted that many of the existing definitions come from non-IALA sources. Where the source is known, however, it was accepted that the resources are not available to verify their continuing validity.

It was agreed that if an editor can be identified and funded, then the Dictionary group should meet with him / her to decide how to proceed.