3-00 (September 2000) by Susanne Lervad by Lynne Bowker Special Aspects European Union

The European Association for Terminology (EAFT) was formed in 1996 and the first few years of its existence were largely taken up with organisational issues. Recently, however, the EAFT has become more active setting up a European Terminology Information Server (ETIS) and co-organising conferences. The EAFT has also established a number of special interest groups, including SIGs in terminology training and in minority languages.

The EAFT is a non-profit professional organisation that acts as an umbrella organisation to which national or regional terminology associations belong. Individual and corporate members are also welcome. The Board of the EAFT consists of six volunteer European experts in terminology, and they are assisted by an Advisory Council comprising eleven European experts from the education, language, industry and research sectors.

The general aims of the EAFT include furthering plurilingualism through terminology, providing a European platform for promoting and raising awareness of terminological activities, facilitating the exchange of terminological information, and liaising and co-operating with other organisations, institutions and associations that have an interest in terminology. One of the most concrete developments of the EAFT has been the establishment of the European Terminology Information Server (ETIS), which provides multilingual information about terminology (e.g. calendar of events, information on training, biographical, institutional and bibliographical information, and links to terminology databases, etc.).

In addition, the EAFT has helped to organise a number of conferences on terminology, including a "Conference on Co-operation in the Field of Terminology in Europe" held in 1999 and a "Conference for a Terminology Infrastructure in Europe" in 2000. A Terminology Summit is scheduled to take place in Strasbourg in 2001.

New members are always welcome, as are ideas for collaborative terminology activities or suggestions as to how the EAFT can further address the needs of terminology and related disciplines.

For more information about the EAFT and its activities, please contact eaft_aet@unilat.org.

 

See also:

http://www.unilat.org/dtil/aet/indexaet.htm, for information about EAFT
, for information about ETIS
http://www.unilat.org/dtil/conference.htm [broken link as of 06 Nov 2001 - AvO], for information about the 2000 Conference for a Terminology Infrastructure in Europe  

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"