Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, November 2001

Welcome improvements to RAPID

Changes have recently been made to both the search interface and content of the RAPID database at http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh/. In addition to the full text press releases and speeches from the Council and Commission, the database has widened its coverage to include press releases from a range of other institutions and agencies. Court of Auditor press releases (document reference code ECA), some dating from 1995 are now available as well a back run of Court of Justice material which previously formed part of the content before the database's last facelift. Other new documents mainly dating from 2001 are the press releases of the European Ombudsman (EO), and the Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). The Economic and Social Committee (CES), Committee of the Regions (COR) and Eurostat (STAT) are also represented. Midday Express texts (MEX) are included too though they are not listed in the document type menu. Though the database is not yet a single access point for all press release material, the key omission being the Parliament, nevertheless the position is much improved.

As well as content development, changes have been made too to the search mask to ensure better results. Until now, without reading the user guide for search instructions, it was not clear that a search for the phrase 'social exclusion' was interpreted by the database as a search for either the word 'social' or the word 'exclusion' - resulting in some odd hit lists. Double inverted commas were essential to phrase search. To combine terms the '+' symbol had to be used. Now the database offers a drop down menu after the text field with the options 'Any term', 'All terms' or 'Exact match' so that you can specify clearly how the terms should be combined. Instead of a separate title field, the default is now a text search with a check box if you want to restrict the search to title only. Automatic truncation still applies in the text field, thus a search for 'telework' will also bring up 'telworking', 'teleworker' and 'teleworkers'. The exact match option seems to work satisfactorily except when the search is restricted to the title only. Similarly on the occasions tested the reset button appears to have a bug as it simply reports an error message. However these are minor issues which will no doubt be resolved.

Profiles stored against a username do not seem to show at the moment on the main page, but can still be retrieved through the create/edit profiles page. The Keywordsfeature is not any more user-friendly than before but the search button at both the top and bottom of the page has returned, so much unnecessary scrolling is avoided. One of the main reasons for welcoming the changes however is the revised presentation of the results list: once again we have the document reference as well as the date. With guidance on the originating institution and type of document it is simpler and faster to select appropriate references from the list. In long hit lists, the 'Next 20' button seems to throw an occasional blip reporting the message 'Search too general'!

Despite these minor niggles at the time of testing, the changes will make it simpler to search efficiently and retrieve good results.

Eurodicautom moves

Eurodicautom, the Commission's multilingual terminology and abbreviations database has moved to http://europa.eu.int/eurodicautom/login.jsp/ but remains freely available. It also has a new look with a number of new features. The simple search is the default option and it automatically extends the search from an exact match to a partial match until it comes up with results. The search screen is very straightforward and requires just the entry of the term, the selection of the source and target languages and a click on the Search button. It is in fact now possible to search any source language plus any target language rather than just a single one, but this is a complex and lengthy search which is not recommended. There are three display options: the default is the bare hit list while at the other end of the scale all fields gives all available information for the results. If the results are not satisfactory, you can click on the Extend button to view more matches. The system will extend the search for variations in word endings and partial matches.

If you frequently use the same preferences you can set up a personal profile, and it is through this route that you get access to the Manual query option rather than having to rely only on the default search. This enables you to tailor searches more precisely to your requirements. You can for example check the morphological variants box to retrieve inflected forms of words so that you pick up masculine, feminine and plural endings.

The search is not case sensitive and there is no need to enter diacritics except for German and the Scandinavian languages. Even there the alternative is to spell it out, eg a vowel with a German Umlaut could be entered as ae. Further developments are in hand. These will include the full display of all characters and diacritics, and internal and external hyperlinks. Meantime some useful web links for translators are offered, including CORDIS, EUR-Lex, EU glossary and the electronic version of the Interinstitutional style guide. Also on the links page is the European Parliament's terminological database EUTERPE, supported by the company TRADOS.

EUTERPE, running on MultiTerm Web Access software, is directly accessible at http://muwa.trados.com/ie/asp/QueryPage.asp?DBName=Euterpe/. The search interface is again very simple but hides more complex possibilities. From menus you choose your source language or the abbreviation option, then enter your term. A list of results comes up in the left frame. Click on the required one to display the details in the right frame. The default layout for the display is bilingual but it is possible to show all languages or, in the full layout, to include definitions and authority sources.

Though the search function looks simple it is in fact possible to choose from five search options explained by the Help guide. In the simple search the database brings up the nearest alphabetical matches, but you can enter wildcards (? for a single character, the asterisk for several - either at the beginning, within the word or at the end); search on a character range by using [ ]; conduct an exclusion search using the ^ character; or use fuzzy searching by entering # before the search term.

When looking for information on terminology it is worth remembering also the Council's terminological database TIS at http://tis.consilium.eu.int/utfwebtis/frames/introfsEN.htm which was discussed in a previous column. Once again it is a case of having to look in more than one place but no doubt users will develop their own favourites.