[Web4lib] Language Translation on website

[Michael L. McEvoy]

Accuracy isn't really high, but at least it's readable in other languages with Babelfish.

I developed an Apache SSI trick to tag Babelfish to every page through universal footer files. You can find the description this process online at: http://mcspoo.com/?page_id=6

This was developed for The Library Network hosted sites, but is quite adaptable to any web host with Apache and SSI capabilities. I'm working on an adaption for PHP as well.

Michael McEvoy
mmcevoy at northvillelibrary.org
Electronic Services Support
Northville District Library
http://www.northvillelibrary.org

Remember, Technical Solutions to Social issues are inherently flawed!


---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:41:23 -0400
>From: Thomas Dowling <tdowling at ohiolink.edu>  
>Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Language Translation on website  
>To: Sharon Logan <slogan at henrico.lib.va.us>
>Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
>
>On 7/3/2007 4:06 PM, Sharon Logan wrote:
>
>> We are interested in providing translated pages on our website.  We
>> would like to use several languages.  Those I have talked with have used
>> actual staff to translate their pages for them.  I am wondering if there
>> is reliable translation software out there for accomplishing this task.
>> 
>
>
>We offer translation links on our ETDs to users who present a preferred
>language other than English.  As Mike Taylor already posted, the quality
>of translation you get from automated services is not what you get from
>a good human translator, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
>
>Babelfish and Google are the two most prominent services for online,
>automated translation.  I've heard speakers of a couple other languages
>say that Babelfish translations are a little less stilted, but it's a
>lot simpler to link to Google.  If they handle the language you want,
>you just need to grab the two-letter ISO codes for the original and
>target languages (say, "en" and "es" for English to Spanish) and plug it
>into:
>
>  http://translate.google.com/translate?
>  u=[URL of page to translate, hex-escaped for inclusion in a URL]
>  &langpair=en%7Ces
>  &hl=en
>  &ie=UTF-8
>  &oe=UTF-8
>  &prev=
>
>
>[Line breaks added for readability.]
>
>
>If you already have translations on hand, Apache has a built-in way to
>serve up the version in the user's preferred language with the
>AddLanguage and LanguagePriority directives.
>
>Re: translated library pages.  As part of a talk on user-centered site
>design, I once set my browser's preferred language to Spanish and ran
>through the public library home pages in the 25 U.S. cities with highest
>per capita Spanish-speaking populations.  Not a one of them came up in
>Spanish and precious few even showed a link to a Spanish version.  But
>Google and Google Scholar automatically came up in Spanish.
>
>
>-- 
>Thomas Dowling
>tdowling at ohiolink.edu
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