LibraryThing in other languages, soon

So, LibraryThing is going to start rolling out versions in other languages, and soon. (I'm going to announce it at the Frankfurt Book Fair, October 6. Is anyone going?)

In keeping with the spirit of community-driven content, the pages are going to be translated by translated wiki-style, as has been done by sites like Bookmooch and RemembertheMilk. This feature is largely done. The major issue is getting better library coverage, and character-set fidelity.

We're going to roll out the languages in batches, according to interest, mostly, but starting with Latin-alphabet languages. We want to eventually go well past the "majors." If there are enough users who want LibraryThing in Welsh—and LibraryThing has been at least been blogged about by ?four Welsh speakers—we'll help you make it happen. Estonian, Basque, Breton—great! But we draw the line at Klingon. (Since Abby and I share only bad French we've been testing out the functionality by translating the site into Pirate. "These tags be hearties—Arrr!")

For each language we want to make sure a MINIMUM amount has been translated before we open the doors all the way--the tabs, for example, "submit" buttons, and directives like "correct this translation."

So, who's interested in helping with this first part, and for what languages?

This is great news. Great news indeed, I mean. For a while now, I have been thinking about starting myself a topic on this matter, proposing multilingual fonctionality for LT indeed.

I suppose LT will be providing schemes for what is wanted. Count me in for having a look at the Dutch language part of it.

With e.g. IrfanView--once a marvelous image tool, but now a maior viewer, too--different language modules are available, even with different tastes for one language, this you can pick your taste and choice.

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter. Me too, that is.

<sidestep>
Hmm, Frankfurt. You mean Frankfurt /Main, I suppose of course, because Frankfurt /Oder is about 400 km East of the former. I am living about 400 km West of Frankfurt /Main. Americans might think this is very close, but thinking European measures and distances, generally, it is thought of as quite a distance though. Hmm Friday 6th of October (am Freitag, 6. Oktober, Frankfurter Buchmesse). Hmm.

Die Bahn lernt mir tells me that by catching at Antwerpen Centraal the 05.22 (ough!) for Brussels (train R 3275) and changing to IC11 at Brussel-Noord, one can arrive at Frankfurt(Main)Hbf--Frankfurt /Main Hauptbahnhof (Frankfurt(Main) Central Train Station, that is means, but railway station names are not to be translated, never)--at 09.58. That 's quite a journey, methinks : more than 4 1/2 hours by train. About just in time to have a run meet/hear you there at the Messegelände, Forum Wissenschaft, Halle 4.2 B420

Revolution im Karteikasten: Bibliotheken & WEB 2.0 (11.30-12.30) -- for the latter is what you are talking about (and at), I suppose?


Veranstaltung
Diskussion

Revolution im Karteikasten: Bibliotheken & WEB 2.0

Kollektiv katalogisierte Systeme wie Wikipedia, YouTube oder LibraryThing stellen Bibliotheken vor neue Herausforderungen. Wie wird Wissen künftig organisiert? Folgt auf WEB 2.0 die Bibliothek 2.0? Und wie können wir sie nutzen? AbeBooks lädt zur Diskussion mit Internet-Vordenkern und Bibliotheksexperten.

(AFAIK this text was/is available in German only.)

Sounds interesting, though we might not learn that much on that kind of presentation event, for we have hands on experience! Then still, about 10 hours journey by train... that 's a long way. Hmm. One might read a book while traveling by train. Hmm.
<sidestep>

Tim sez:
>But we draw the line at Klingon.

jIyajbe'....
I'd be willing to help with the German language version though.

You know what they say of Americans and Europeans: Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long way! I'd love to be in Frankfurt on Friday, but I will be in Kiel that day, and there's no way to get into Frankfurt before 21.00 hrs that night... (5hr train ride, even with direct-connection highspeed ICE).
I am thinking about the weekend (but generally the Fair is so packed then, that it isn't really fun).

I am ready to help with the german version as well, if any more help is needed.
Regards
andreas

Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long way!

I love that.

OTOH, passing by at Frankfurt--Frankfurt am Main, because Frankfurt an der Oder would be about the double--implies a journey of about 10 hours by train for me, too : 400 km there, and 400 km back again. And I do know Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein) is about 600 km from Frankfurt /Main--single journey, that is. Americans might think all this is peanuts, indeed, then again, TMMV.

I 'll see whether I can make arrangements to hear and meet Tim over there, for it would be great to have and attend at a kind of LT Party Dinner at Frankfurter Buchmesse indeed: Tim (& Co ?) meeting with the European Branch. Hmm. Stay connected.

By then, LT is expected to have more than 6,000,000 books cataloged. That's huge.

Anyone else--I mean LT people Thingamabrarians--going at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, too?

Tim, are you speaking in German over there?

I can help to translate into Swedish

I wanted Klingon, too.

I can help with the Japanese translation -- I'm a bit out of practice, but this'll help sharpen my skills.

How about Quenya or Sindarin? No more practical than Klingon, but more appropriate for the site!

Don't forget that in the U.S. (or most of North America) there's a difference between 100 miles in the midwest vs. 100 miles on the east coast.

In the midwest it can take a full day to travel from one end of a state to the other while out east it can take just a few hours. The distance between major cities also is further. According to google NYC to Boston is 219 miles whereas Minneapolis to Chicago is 409 miles. Luckily a Minneapolitan doesn't need to go to Chicago for the basics of culture and civilization. But consider Rapid City, SD to Denver, CO is 406 miles and it's the closest place you can get many cultural basics.

German: No. Apparently it's in English. My German consists of a summer cramming it to pass a reading exam. I can do der die das die, des der des der and that's it.

German will actually be the first language, so I'll be sending you the link soon, Andreas and Ms. Ipanema. Many thanks.

German's the first, but it's a real problem, as there are no good German libraries with (open) Z39.50 connections. I feel a bit odd telling Germans that we've got a lot of German books from Swiss libraries.

Book fair: I think it's very expensive and you probably need to be officially "in publishing." That's how the ABA was, anyway. There are so many free books on offer that if they let normal people in, it would be a catastrophe. Book people reach a point where books are basically free anyway.

Re: Distances in the US
At our house we often speak of distances in units of time rather than length. Thus it takes me about 15 minutes of driving during normal traffic to get to work, the grocery, etc. However it 's an all day drive to my father's house - probably about 6 hours of actual driving plus about three or four stops along the way. We drive because the airport that actually has a direct flight to Nashville is about 2 and 1/2 hours away through horrible traffic with another 20 minutes of horrible traffic at the other end. There are very few convenient rail and bus routes in most of the US so that's not an option for most destinations either. My experiences of Britain and Europe are that it is easier to get from A to B there than it is here.

hailelib:
>My experiences of Britain and Europe are that it is easier to get from A to B there than it is here.
Looks like it (I have only owned a car for one year out of 18 with a license). I just don't think it's worth my money and the hassle if I can get from A to B by train. And read while travelling (right now Baldacci's Christmas Train, appropriately). I think Mr. Baldacci must love travelling by train, it's spot on.
GFI, train lover.

> German's the first, but it's a real problem, as

you still can't search for äöü.


edit: saw your post in the blog now - looking forward to solved character set issues, then. :-)

Tim Spalding wrote:

"So, LibraryThing is going to start rolling out versions in other languages, and soon."

Really? Does that make sense? I mean, LibraryThing is now practically useless for books in other languages than English (and a few other that only use ASCII characters).

"So, who's interested in helping with this first part, and for what languages?"

I'm not interested as things stand right now. Get search for non-ASCII characters working first, then we'll see.

Tim in the blog:
"I'm tasked with the push toward internationalization. That will go a long way toward solving character set issues which have made people's life miserable. "

Tim in the 'Communication' thread:
"We're going to do internationalization--which includes (...) an overhaul of the character set issues"

I have to agree that fixing character issues in import and search functions (se for example this recent thread: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=2172issues ) probably would be a lot more important to the average foreign user than translations of the site.

>16 Elpenor:

Broken link. Better try and use this one instead : Recommend Site Improvements : Adding books in non-english languages....