Guidelines for the translation of standards of the Committee on Descriptive Standards

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES

CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL DES ARCHIVES

Guidelines for the translation of standards of the
Committee on Descriptive Standards

Adopted by the Committee on Descriptive Standards

Multiplication of this publication is free if due acknowledgement is made.

1. General principles applied to the translation of ICA/CDS standards

The following four principles for translation of standards apply universally to all translation standards. They were applied to the translation of ISAD(G) into French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. They should be applied to all other translations of ICA/CDS standards issued by the ICA under its logo.

1.1 Any citation occurring remains in the language and script in which it appears in the original form⁽¹⁾ of the standard. That is, a citation to a Chinese publication or document that appears in Chinese in the original form of a standard, remains in Chinese in any translation of the standard. Thus, cited titles of archival fonds, series, files, or items (whether in English, French, Swedish, or Spanish) stay in the language in which they appear in the original form of the standard in which they are cited.⁽²⁾

As a general principle, it is preferable to add examples in the language of the translation rather than attempt to translate or substitute for examples included in the original form of the standard.

1.2 In general, names (i.e., proper names of persons, corporate bodies or families, and geographical names) are not translated from the language in which they appear in the original form of a standard. If, however, an official form of the name exists in the language and/or script of the translation, then the translated official form may be used. For example, the National Archives of Canada and the Archives nationales du Canada are both official forms of the same name.

1.3 Numbers are language neutral; translation considerations are thus irrelevant.

1.4. Codes are language neutral; translation considerations are thus irrelevant.

(For examples of a combination of numbers and codes, see the examples in the ISAD(G) element 3.1.1 Reference code(s)).

2. Specific guidelines

2.1 Statement regarding the translation and relationship to original

All translations of the ICA/CDS standards and guidelines, e.g., ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF), must carry a statement (usually on the verso of the title page) in the language of the translation, that the original is in the English language and that the translation is for reference purposes only. For example, the French translation carries the following statement:

Toutes les traductions du présent document doivent contenir l'énoncé suivant dans la langue de traduction. L'original est en anglais. La présente traduction n'est qu'un document de référence. Ce n'est pas un document officiel.

It is recommended that the above form of the statement (in the language of the translation) be used in all translations of standards and guideline documents issued by the ICA/CDS.⁽³⁾

In addition to the above statement, a statement may be added in the language of the translation that gives information about the translator and/or agency responsible for the translation. For example, the French translation of the ISAD(G) [1^st edition] carries the following statement:

Version française établie

par Christine Nougaret et Christine Pétillat

2.2 Financial contribution statement, if any

If there is, or was, any financial contribution from an organization other than the ICA involved in the development of the standard or guideline, the statement such as Developed with financial contribution from ... [or of ...] should be translated into the language of the translation. It appears on the verso of the title page of the ISAD(G) [1^st edition].

2.3 Citations to ISO standards

The ICA/DDS and ICA/CDS documents cite several ISO standards (for example, ISO 690, ISO 2788, ISO 3166, ISO 5963). The titles of these ISO standards may be given in the language of translation if the title exists officially in the language of translation and has been published as such by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or under its auspices. Otherwise, they are given in either French or English or the language best understood in the country of the language of the translation if the title of the ISO standard officially exists in that language.

However, if an international ISO standard has been adopted or adapted as a national standard of the country of the translation, its title may be cited instead of, or in addition to, the international ISO standard. For example, for a Swedish translation, ISO 690 is adapted as the Swedish national standard:

SS 038207 Dokumentation - Bibliografiska referenser - Innehell och utformning

and ISO 5963 as:

SS-ISO 5963 Dokumentation - Indexeringsprinciper

2.4 Examples

The principles of translation are most commonly misunderstood when applied to examples used to illustrate a standard. Therefore, specific cases, which are taken from the Second Edition of ISAD(G) (Ottawa, 2000) and from ISAAR(CPF) (Ottawa, 1996) are given below.

In general, examples are cited and remain in the original language as given. Examples are presented in the form of the content itself (i.e., the example proper), and may be followed by an explanation in parentheses in italics and, at the end on a separate line, the source of the example, also in italics. Finally, there may be an explanatory Note at the very end to clarify an aspect of the example. See the example from ISAD(G) 3.1.3 Date(s) in Figure 1.

No translation of the content of the example should be made. All the explanatory material may be translated, except for proper names usually found in the source line of the example

Below are two sets of in-text examples from ISAD(G), the first set from the translation into Spanish, the second from the French translation. Note that the explanatory material has been translated but not the content of the examples.

First set:

(From ISAD(G) 3.3.4)

Ejemplos:

The original order of the fonds has been maintained and arranged into five series which reflect the major activiites of the creator over the years (Fonds)

Canadá, York University Archives

(From ISAD(G) 3.4.1)

Archives publiques communicables conformément à la loi n° 79-18 du 3 janvier 1979, article 7 (délai de soixante ans à compter de la date du document). Cependant, même pour les documents déjà communicables en application de la loi, le très mauvais état matériel des documents ne permet pas d'assurer leur libre consultation; pour cette raison et dans l'attente d'un microfilmage, il reste nécessaire de déposer une demande d'autorisation. (Fonds, sous-fonds)

Direction des archives de France

And for the second set:

(From ISAD(G) 3.1.2: Intitulé / analyse)

Exemples :

Châtelet de Paris (Fonds)

Parc civil (Sous-fonds)

Actes faits en l'hôtel du lieutenant civil (Série organique)

Suppliques au lieutenant civil (Sous-série organique)

Demandes de création de curateur à succession, vu la renonciation des héritiers à celle-ci (Dossier)

Succession Guérin (Pièce)

France, Centre historique des Archives nationales

(From ISAD(G) 3.1.3 Dates)

Gli originali dei documenti in copia sono datati ago. 1914 - feb. 1919 (con prevalenza di documenti del 1914-1915) (Sous-dossier)

Italie, Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Toscana

Note: Dates des documents originaux contenus dans le sous-dossier du dossier don't les dates de constitution figurent à l'exemple précédent.

NOTE: The examples illustrate the rules and are not necessarily part of the rules. The standards would benefit from additional examples in other languages and in particular in the language of the translation.

Full examples in Appendixes

Names of elements of description in both ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF) should be translated. The content of the examples (the examples proper) follow the same rules as the in-text examples.

Examples in the language of the translation may be added. The examples in the language of the translation may be placed first in the Appendix, followed by the other examples.

2.5 International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and Cataloguing in Publication information (CIP)

Except for the English and French versions of both the ISAD(G) and the ISAAR(CPF), which were published in Canada, the imprint should be changed accordingly, if it is planned to publish the translation in the country of the translation. Use [City of publication, Year of publication], for example, The Hague, 2001 if the translation was in Dutch and the document published in the Netherlands. Also, the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and the CIP (Cataloguing in Publication) information must conform with policies in place in the country in which it is published. In accordance with international conventions, the national bibliographic agency or its equivalent or substitute agency in each country furnishes the CIP information and that information must then be printed together in the publication. In most countries the ISBN and CIP information may be obtained from the same agency.

Alternatively, the ICA publication officer, (contact ICA Headquarters) may be asked for an ISBN of the ICA, but in that case, the imprint has to be Paris and the CIP has to be obtained through the ICA publication officer or the national bibliographic agency of France.

To obtain permission for translation and related information from the ICA Publication Officer information contact:

Secretary- General, International Council on Archives

ICA Secretariat, 60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois

75003 PARIS, FRANCE

2.6 Copyright Statement

The content of the ICA standards is the intellectual property of ICA and its constituent bodies. Copyright of this content and all of its translations remain with ICA. Therefore, the Copyright Statement which appears on the original documents on the verso of their title pages, i.e,

Multiplication of this publication is free if due acknowledgement is made.

must be copied as is. However, the word "Copyright" and the phrase "Multiplication of this publication is free if due acknowledgement is made." may be translated into the language of the translation.

If the translation country/agency wishes to separately copyright its contribution, for example, the addition of its examples in the language of the translation, it may do so on (a) separate line(s).

2.7 Use of ICA Logo

The ICA logo may be used only on officially approved ICA publications.

[Ottawa - 1995, rev. Jan. 1996, rev. Feb. 1997, Draft generalized draft for ICA Web posting, October 2000; Amsterdam - October 2000, kmh editorial comments/revisions, Further rev. by Hugo S. 2000-10-30]

1. The term 'original form' means the ICA/CDS original document as developed by the ICA/CDS in the language in which it was developed. All other forms are translations.

2. In general, the examples in the ICA/CDS standards documents are supplied by members of the ICA/CDS for material in their countries/archives. As such they do not form part of the text of the rules of the standard per se but are included to illustrate those rules. Examples are not mandatory in form or structure.

3. The working language if the ICA/DDS and the ICA/CDS up through 2000-2004 was English. Thus, the documents created by the Commission/Committee were created in English, all other language versions being translations. It is highly recommended that any translation be made from the original English versions of the documents as these were the documents which were approved by the Commission/Committee.