A Dictionary Of The Welsh Language Annual Report 2010-11

This has been an important year in the long history of the Dictionary: the foundations have been laid for the Dictionary’s digital future. While this was going on, the detailed work of re-editing the work thoroughly continued, and concerns were raised about the way the project will be funded in future with the transformation of the structure of higher education in Wales.

Editorial Progress

The next part of the Dictionary, Part 11 of the Second Edition, is about to go to Press for publication before the end of the year. All of the part following that one, Part 12, has now been drafted and pre-edited. The intention is to complete the basic drafting up to the end of the letter B before the end of the academic year so that work can begin at once on the letter C using the new computer system which is currently being prepared.

Among the 1,200 articles in Part 11 there are 120 words starting with the prefix bio- (compared to just three in the first edition: bioleg, biolegol and biograffi), a reflection of our ‘green’ age, from bioactif to bioystadegaeth, but about 71 other words beginning with bio- were omitted as we do not have sufficient evidence for them as yet. There is a substantial article on the word blodau with a selection of around 72 combinations – more than twice as many as in the first edition – and another 19 were omitted because of a lack of sufficient evidence. Also of interest are some of the common words that have no known origin, including blingo, bloesg, and boda¹ (the bird).

The three Assistant Editors (Mary Williams, Brenda Williams, and Sarah Down) are now sufficiently confident to deal with this complex and varied material skilfully and intelligently. Their work is pre-edited thoroughly by Manon Roberts and Angharad Fychan, the highly experienced Senior Editors, and we are indebted to them for their professional work.

Software systems

Following lengthy discussions with several potential suppliers, a small company, Erlandsen Media Publishing (EMP AB) of Malmö in Sweden (previously of Denmark) was selected to partner the Dictionary in the preparation of a new editing and publication system. The iLEX program will be used to prepare the Dictionary from C onwards. Inevitably, a number staff members had to heavily involved in the development of the new system during the year, particularly the Managing Editor and the Senior Editors. The first step was to analyse the complex structure of the Dictionary (including how it has changed gradually over the four volumes and the beginning of the second edition) by considering the complete range of articles contained in the work. A document of around 80 pages was prepared including a detailed analysis of all sorts of information.

Also an XML ‘Schema’ began to be developed for the Dictionary in its new form. The aim of the schema is to identify accurately and correctly how the Dictionary’s structure and data are represented in the XML database which will store the data in future. The internationally recognized standards XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and Unicode (the standard for denoting characters in the majority of the world’s writing systems) will be used to ensure the long term future of the project by ensuring that the data can be transferred from one software system to another should the need arise. These standards are so important in contemporary computing that they will be supported for many years. Two workshops were held by EMP in Aberystwyth to begin designing the schema, in order to devise a framework for converting the Dictionary data from its current computerized form to standard XML. EMP has already started converting the data (from C–Z at first, and converting A–B when that work is fully re-edited). Many attempts will probably be needed before an acceptable standard is achieved.

There is much work still to be done to refine the schema, which will be done simultaneously with the data conversion. Converting the data will highlight weaknesses and inconsistencies in the schema, and consideration of the data structure will influence the conversion. Many inconsistencies and errors discovered during the initial phase of the work were resolved before transferring the Dictionary data to EMP. Indeed several thousand errors and inconsistencies were corrected, and the opportunity was taken to include most of the corrections to the print volumes as noted over several decades by the Editors, including many articles in the Appendix at the end of the first volume.

These developments would not have been possible without the generosity of the University of Wales. As reported last year, a substantial sum was received from the University towards consultancy and software costs. This is funding EMP’s work in converting the data and developing the schema. The support of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) who awarded the Centre a grant to improve the research infrastructure (Research Capital Investment Fund (RCIF)) over three years to this year must also be acknowledged. Among many other purposes, around one third of the total was allocated to purchasing computer hardware for the Dictionary for the new developments.

Hardware Resources

The Dictionary’s Technical Officer, Mr Huw Davies, has worked diligently over the year to research the necessary hardware and to prepare a specification for the equipment. Most of the equipment was ordered in June and July, and it has now all arrived. High specification servers were purchased to store the iLEX databases, other Dictionary files, to accommodate the publicly available electronic version of the Dictionary, and also for data backup and long-term archiving

The Centre’s Internet access is provided via the National Library of Wales and Aberystwyth University. For some time the Library has been trying to provide a new more dependable Internet link and it was proposed that we share their new facilities. We now have a new link of the highest specification with Aberystwyth University’s main Internet connection in the See3D Ltd building (a visualization subsidiary of the University) by means of fibre-optic cables. It is a pleasure to thank the Library, and in particular the Library’s Facilities Manager, Mr Fred Farrow, for his help with these arrangements.

At around the same time, the University agreed to take a lease on the National Library’s Lodge to accommodate additional staff and new research students. The building was linked to the Centre building using new fibre-optic cables with the willing assistance of Library officers. It was realized that these two locations could be used for servers to backup all the Dictionary’s data (and the entire Centre’s data). The advantage of this is that the data is now in three secure independent locations some distance from each other and on different electricity circuits. This means that we can ensure very high levels of security for all Dictionary and CAWCS data. Aberystwyth University has agreed to provide space for our data security servers in the Visualization Building, and we are grateful to staff of the Information Services Department for their advice and assistance. The advantage of keeping all the systems in Aberystwyth is that the data can be copied very quickly from one system to another using internal links rather than using the Internet which is both slower and less dependable.

Planning and finance

A great deal of time was spent at the start of the academic year preparing a detailed plan for the next phase of work, namely re-editing the letter C, based on past projects and two pilot projects specially designed to assist the planning process. A business plan was prepared for the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales for 2011–23 as part of a major funding bid. Financial projections were prepared for the period 2011–16 with the invaluable assistance of Mr Ian George and Mr Richard Bullen from the University’s Finance Department.

HEFCW has now informed the University that it is prepared to support the Dictionary for the next three years, but that it will subsequently review the situation in light of cuts to its budget.

We have started to investigate additional sources of income and will pursue these vigorously where possible. We feel that it would be very unfortunate for scholarship in general and for the population of Wales as a whole if the University were forced to charge for electronic access to the valuable resources of the Dictionary, but it could be necessary for us to reconsider licensing models should there be any further cut in the grant received.

Personnel

There has been no change in staff during the year. Two members of staff have had surgery but it is a pleasure to report that they have now recovered fully. We had hoped to create additional posts for an Assistant Editor as well as a half-time Editorial Assistant to balance the workload but we realize that this would not be possible in the current economic climate. However, the hours of the current half-time Editorial Assistant (D. Alwyn Owen) were increased by 2½ hours a week for some 18 months. Alwyn is thanked for his detailed and diligent work preparing materials for the Assistant Editors and checking the accuracy of the Dictionary’s citations against original texts. It is good to see that the additional hours are already improving the flow of work.

The business plan was prepared on the basis of a higher level of staffing. Because of the Senior Editors’ substantial work this year on the Dictionary’s data before their transfer to EMP for conversion to XML, there was enough work already drafted to keep them busy the whole time, but in future an additional appointment must be considered if possible.

Benefactors

Once again the Dictionary has benefited enormously from the work of the dedicated volunteers who read the proofs, including Dr Morfydd E. Owen, Emeritus Prof. Gruffydd Aled Williams, Mr Tegwyn Jones, and also the Director Prof. Dafydd Johnston, the Consulting Editor Emeritus Prof. R. Geraint Gruffydd, and the Editorial Consultant Mr Gareth Bevan. Thanks are due to those who offer comments on etymology, particularly Prof. Peter Schrijver and Prof. Stefan Schumacher. Additional contributions to our collection are also invaluable, and particular thanks are due to Dr Bruce Griffiths and Ms Ann Corkett, and to Mr Duncan Brown and the Llên Natur team for their many contributions and suggestions, not forgetting all the people who reply to numerous email enquiries from staff and specific enquiries on specialist subjects. Our neighbours in the National Library reading rooms have given specialist and professional assistance, and this year more than ever Mr Fred Farrow must be thanked for all his technical assistance and also the staff of the Information Services Department of Aberystwyth University. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the willing assistance of Dr Angharad Elias and Mrs Nia Davies from the Centre who helped us particularly this year in purchasing the computer equipment, and all our other colleagues at the Centre. As a team we feel privileged that the Dictionary has never lacked benefactors who are prepared to share their time and expertise to improve the work. All assistance is much appreciated.

The Future

As a result of the work done during the year, the new editing system, the XML schema for the Dictionary in its new form, and the data from C onwards, as well as the necessary hardware, should all become available during the coming year. We can receive training for the new system and start to experiment with drafting and editing articles before completing the work of editing the end of B. This will facilitate the change from one system to the next without leaving too much of a hiatus.

The coming year will be crucial to the future of the Dictionary as we draw all the different systems together to enable us to provide a digital service for our users and to edit the Dictionary in its new electronic form for the first time. We ask our users to be patient: as has already occurred this year, these preparations as well as our efforts to find future funding for the project will inevitably lead to a temporary reduction in the flow of editorial work, but we hope that these changes will safeguard the long term future of the Dictionary in a digital age that will be much more challenging.