Clarification of Terms An Investigation of Librarians’ Translating Ability: A Case Study at an Indonesian University.

8

1.6. Clarification of Terms

To minimize possible confusion, the recurring terms are defined to refer to their specific meanings as follows. Translation refers to a message transferred from an ST to a TL. It deals with two different cultures at the same time with equivalence as the central issue. Equivalence is a procedure which replicates the same situation as in the original, whilst using completely different wording Vinay and Darbelnet in Leonardi, 2000. It is established at a text level Hatim and Mason, 1994, and is achieved either through equivalence-based theory or skopos theory. It is used here with the provision that although equivalence can be obtained to some extent, it is influenced by a variety of linguistic and cultural factors and is always relative. Librarians refers to professionals for the transfer of all types of stored information and for dealing with the important raw material ‘knowledge’ through processing books and non-books materials. Their tasks of collecting, managing, indexing and cataloging, and acting as intermediary for books and other media make them professional partners in the media and information fields. Already today, and definitely much more in the future, they are navigators in the data networks; they make electronic information accessible and ensure its quality and relevance Seefeldt Syre, 2003. University subject librarians, especially, assume the responsibility for establishing academic collaboration with faculty members by among others providing access to information in the form of Indonesian translated work on a specific discipline. 9 Translating ability refers to understandings of words, phrases, and sentences in their complexities, by which the ability and its components are reflected through the translations produced. Demands on the translators’ part include the ability to grasp all the complexities Schaffner, 2000:217 including, according to Nababan 2003:80, the roles the translators play reading the ST, translating the ST, writing the ST in the TT, and reading in the TT. These roles involve skills exercised and a degree of competency as reflected by the quality of the translations. Other than ability, terms like skill and competence might be possible to be used interchangeably. Journal refers to one kind of library collections written in English as an intellectual capital. The journal article in the field of Psychology Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation. Vol. 14 No.2, 2003 used in this study is scholarly in class and relatively recent in issues See Appendix 2 Text refers to the words of something written Johns, 1997. There are distinctions between texts “discourse without context” and discourse “text plus context” Connor, 1996. In this study, text and discourse are used interchangeably, referring always to what is written. The text, as defined here, is the focus of attention for the informants i.e. the ‘translators’, the librarians because it is the basic unit that carries meaning. The text chosen is the whole article of a journal. Translating the text, rather than translating languages, refers to the translator’s inside view that cuts through the formal differences and deals directly with the meaning of a text to be translated. The foreign words found in the text are transformed into concepts, and these concepts become 10 the basis for the translators in producing essentially the same meanings in another language Nida, 2001.

1.7. Organization of the Study