Identifying (indirect) translations and their source languages in the Finnish National Bibliography Fennica

Problems and solutions

Authors

• Laura Ivaska University of Turku

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61200/mikael.129304

Keywords:

bibliography, indirect translation, metadata, paratext, source text

Abstract

Containing information on translations, bibliographies like Fennica, the Finnish National Bibliography, offer a great basis for translation studies research. However, the metadata on translations' source languages/texts is often wanting. In this article, I discuss reasons for this and suggest how bibliographical metadata could be made more reliable. This article builds upon a case study in which the (indirect) Finnish translations of Modern Greek novels and their (mediating) source languages are determined. A list of translations and information on their source languages/texts is retrieved from Fennica. Then, the list is compared with other bibliographies to make sure it is complete, and paratextual material is analyzed to ascertain the (mediating) source languages of the translations. The study shows that the information on the (mediating) source languages/texts in Fennica may be incorrect because there are coding errors in the metadata, or incomplete or missing because the books themselves have inaccurate title/copyright page information. Also, the mediating languages are reported in the bibliography in an inconsistent manner. The situation could be ameliorated by standardizing title/copyright page information, by using a specific field for the language of the mediating translation in the metadata format, and by collectively gathering and implementing amendments into the metadata.