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| Issue 3 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Marieke Napier - January 2001
Most people will agree that the terminology and acronyms of the European Union are difficult to follow, even for those working within the sound of the European Community bells. Eurospeak, eurojargon, eurobabble (call it what you want) can be very tiresome to comprehend and quick definitions are often impossible to find. Eurojargon [1] is an attempt to give us Europeans a head start in understanding what is being talked about by people in and out of suits in Europe. Marieke Napier reviews.
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The
dictionary contains approximately 4000 definitions, which is 1000
more than the previous edition, yet on first opening I am struck
by the explicitness of its layout. The structure itself is
simplistic; the table of contents lists only six sections
including the acknowledgements and bibliography. The dictionary
opens with a brief preface detailing the aim of the book and is
followed by a list of symbols and abbreviations not explained in
the text. The main body of Eurojargon consists of 376
pages of spaciously laid out, comprehensive definitions in
alphabetical order. There are no graphics, gimmicks or colour to
confuse the reader; which makes the text quicker and easier to
use than a search engine. The only appendix is a list of postal
addresses of publishers and electronic hosts. The 6th edition is
the first time Eurojargon has been issued as a hardback
version. The cover does add to its value as reference work for
libraries or for personal use.
The blurb on the sleeve describes Eurojargon as "a dictionary of European Union acronyms, abbreviations and sobriquets". The use of sobriquets in the introductory sentence may put some people but for those without a standard dictionary it simply means nicknames. The preface warns that "not every abbreviation in EU documents has been cited" but that in compensation "some have been included which are from a wider context than that of the EU".
In order to review the text I set out to use it in earnest in a 'digital cultural heritage context' for a month. I was pleased to find that my first look up, IST (Information Society Technologies Programme), was listed along with three URLs. Unfortunately one of the urls was broken, an fact of life in our ever changing Web world. Eurojargon might benefit from citing the URLs of folders where possible instead of exact page addresses, which are more likely to change. The 6th edition contains many more Internet addresses than previous editions and as time moves on this will probably become a more significant part of the dictionary. However, it is first and foremost a dictionary and not a Web reference guide and benefits from remembering its own intent. The IST reference also gives previous and related definitions that can be looked up for further information.
During the month about half of the jargon I looked up in Eurojargon was contained in the dictionary. Although DIGICULT appears none of the new projects such as CULTIVATE are listed. Some of the previous TELEMATICS projects are there but not all of them. However whilst not all details for specific projects are given in the dictionary, most general areas are covered. Whilst investigating European Databases all the acronyms I was interested in were featured and details for how to actually access them was given for most.
Eurojargon markets itself at "specialist consultants in EU information, academics, documentalists, librarians, journalists, local authority staff, civil servants, economist and politicians." A long list of people to please but it does its job well. As a guide for general use this reference book is a must.
Where Eurojargon falls down is in its timeliness and focus. It does not and cannot contain all EU definitions and some readers may find that they require a more focused text that concentrates on their own specialised area of EU work. This aside, Eurojargon will still serve as a complementary text to any other European glossary. It is the Babelfish of eurospeak. Not only is the book a pleasure to hold (all that knowledge at your finger tips) but what a refreshing change from a Web page!!
For those who just can't say "No" to the Web, glossaries of terms are available online from InfoBASE EUROPE [2] and the University of Aberdeen [3].
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Marieke
Napier
Information Officer
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
England
BA2 7AY
m.napier@ukoln.ac.uk
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk>
Marieke Napier is editor of the Cultivate Interactive Web magazine.
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For citation purposes:
Napier, M. "Book Review: EUROJARGON", Cultivate Interactive, issue
3, 29 January 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/review/>
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