On May 17-19, 1999, the European Association for Terminology (EAFT) organised a Conference on Co-operation in the Field of Terminology in Europe in co-operation with the various national and regional terminology associations existing at the time. These were: Aeter (Spain), Ass.I.Term (Italy), BriTerm (United Kingdom), Danterm (Denmark), DTT (Germany), Eleto (Greece), NL-Term (Flanders/The Netherlands), ProTLS (France), TermRom-Bucarest (Romania), TermRom-Moldova (Moldavia), Termip (Portugal). This Conference took place in Le Palais des Congrès de Paris. It was attended by over 200 people from countries all over Europe and beyond. It was the first large scale conference organised by the EAFT and it was aimed to reflect and put up for discussion some of the essential objectives of the association which are:

• to provide a European-wide platform for the promotion and co-ordination of terminological activities and to promote the professional character of terminology;
• to create and raise the awareness and relevance of terminology for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Language Engineering (LE) application;
• to actively liase with other organisations and institutions in the terminology sector at a national, European and international level.

The EAFT was established in 1996 in Kolding, Denmark, as a non-profit professional association and was officially registered as a non-profit association in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 1999. During its early existence, the association occupied itself mostly with supplying information to its members and affiliated institutions and organisations for the promotion and professionalisation of the discipline of terminology. This was considered a core activity since the discipline itself, even though activities had been performed in the field for decades on various levels, was still relatively unknown even among language experts. The users of terminological resources were varied and therefore their requirements were difficult to define. However, in the course of time, some changes in the field slowly became apparent. The importance of the discipline of terminology to the effective management of communication and information came to the attention of the management of companies and industry. The methods and procedures of terminology management came to be considered as an essential part of the procedures that are being developed for the organisation of knowledge management.

As a consequence of these surfacing changes, beside the association’s objective to inform interested parties about ongoing activities, the need arose to find ways to monitor and record these changes and to find ways to adapt terminological methods and procedures, tools and guidelines, etc., to newly developed activities and to consider new topics for research and development in the field on a systematic basis. The inevitable result was the growing need for a fundamental discussion between a large spectrum of professionals in the field from various linguistic, technological and language backgrounds on how to keep track of the developments in the field; how to analyse the consequences and how to disseminate this information to the interested parties on a regular and systematic basis.

This situation resulted in the discussion between the EAFT and the national and regional terminological associations on the possibility of creating a European network of co-operation for the discipline of terminology. The mutual feeling was that by co-operating and networking systematically, the requirements and interests of the field would best be served.

The Conference on Co-operation in the Field of Terminology in Europe was meant to serve various purposes. First of all, it was meant to bring together professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds to discuss the changes and developments in the field and to inform each other of new tools, resources, methods and procedures, (ways of obtaining) information and documentation, training and education, developments in the terminology profession, and forms of co-operation.

Secondly, the aim of the conference was to discuss the outcome of the topics mentioned above and to reach conclusions on the roles, tasks and responsibilities of the national and regional associations and those of the EAFT. It was hoped that the discussion would lead to ways of creating optimal co-operation strategies in Europe. Therefore, in the context of these objectives, a plan of action was prepared describing a number of key activities which were to be carried out in a period to be determined after the conference, and a strategy was drafted for building up working relationships inside and outside of Europe. Furthermore, an “exchange of ideas” market was organised which was co-ordinated by members of the board of the EAFT where people could meet, discuss topics of interest and share experiences.

From the outset it was clear that the conference fulfilled a basic need of professionals active in the field. Not only was the conference attended by more than 200 people, the scientific committee received nearly 100 papers from all over Europe and beyond on a variety of topics. Since the conference was aimed at discussing forms of co-operation in various areas in the field, the scientific committee had decided to split up the conference into a number of sections. These sections were:

A. The discipline of terminology

1. Training
2. Information and documentation
3. Resources (terminological, human, financial)
4. Software tools
5. Harmonisation and standardisation

B. The status of the terminologist and his profession

C. Co-operation in the field of terminology (national, regional, european and international)

D. Special topics

Originally, the topic of software development and related research and development projects was also included in the section in the main programme. Because of the influx of papers, the scientific committee decided to incorporate the papers on software and tools in the concurrent programme in the adjacent meeting room. The authors of papers on software, tools and related projects were enabled to display their software and discuss their papers during the entire duration of the conference. These articles are included in these Proceedings in section A4 as was originally planned for the conference. At the same time, a number of interesting posters were presented in the concurrent programme (unfortunately, the papers that were presented at the conference but were not received by the editorial committee for publication could not be included in these Proceedings).

Each section was thematically introduced by a representative of one of the national or regional terminology associations and was then discussed in-depth by a keynote speaker and specialist on the subject in question.

After receipt of all the papers, the scientific committee faced a tremendously complicated task. The papers were of excellent quality and the time allotted for the conference was not enough to accommodate all the papers in the main programme. After careful consideration, it was decided to extend the conference by one half day to allow more time for discussion on the results of the conference and future actions.

Before the conference, a questionnaire was sent to a large number of terminology professionals asking to describe their activities and the problems and needs they were facing during their terminological activities. On the basis of the response to the questions, the programme of the conference was drafted and the sections were established. The scientific committee based its evaluation of the papers received both on relevance to the nature of the response on the questionnaire (which frequently not only provided the answers to the various questions but also indicated on which topics more information was required and co-operation was sought) and on the quality and completeness of the information provided on the subject.

It is with pride and honour that I may present to you the Proceedings of the Conference on Co-operation in the Field of Terminology in Europe which is the result of three excellent, stimulating and interesting days. It is my sincere hope that while reading these proceedings some new ideas, prospects for the future and perhaps a few challenges will come to you and that you will find your way to the national and regional associations or to the EAFT to look for support and help in carrying out these ideas.

It is also my profound wish that the ideas and plans that were launched during the closing sessions of the conference will come to fruition. At the end of the conference, a co-operation agreement between all national and regional terminology associations and the EAFT was signed. This unique event was recognised as a symbol for continued future co-operation and a first big step forward towards a joint effort in solving the problems that the field is currently facing. I hope that the continued co-operation between all organisations that are responsible for the promotion and furthering of the field of terminology in Europe and beyond will lead to a theoretically and practically well-developed and structured discipline on the basis of which the professional status of terminologists will be recognised and acknowledged.

Amstelveen, January 2000
Helmi Sonneveld