Transliteration & Translation
Transliteration ~ This is when you are not changing the language, but changing the text from a different alphabet or character set to the Latin alphabet. So, the language is still the other language, but the character let is one readable for the purposes of searching for or requesting them item from systems that do not interpret other Alphabets, for example: Interlibrary Loan. This is sometimes also called Romanization.
Examples:
Cyrillic: Зоологический журнал transliterated is Zoologicheskiy zhurnal
Japanese: 動物学雑誌 transliterated is Dōbutsu-gaku zasshi
These both mean Zoological Journal in their respective languages.
If you wanted an article that was in one of these publications, you would still want the name of the journal to be in its original language - not translated, because that is how it will be cataloged. But you don't want it in a different alphabet. So, you transliterate it into the Latin Alphabet.
Google Translate - This can be very helpful in transliteration for references in other Alphabets or Character systems such as Cyrillic, Japanese, or Fraktur. In the Google Translate left pane choose the option "Detect Language," paste in the text you want to transliterate, choose English for the right hand pane & press enter. For example: Крашенинников, С.П. (1755). Описание земли Камчатки. Санкт-Петербург: Императорская Академия наук is a reference to an 18th century work of Natural history in Russian. Here's what we get when we put it into Google Translate.
Now, we have the publication info in a form that we could request the book via Interlibrary loan. The book would be in Cyrillic, but you could still dechipher some information and see figures and plates.
For Cyrillic - Sometimes using Google Translate may not be available, because you don't have the ability to cut and paste the text, for example. For it, you can use the Library of Congresses Romanization Table and do it by hand.
Cyrillic Russian Romanization Table - From the Library of Congress
2012 version
Translation ~ Though you do not want to translate references for searching catalogs or using Interlibrary loan, there are other times when you want a translation just to understand a bit about what is being or to find a particular section in a document, etc.
For this you can also use Google Translate. Again, this for your reference, you should not use Google translation for quotes or for use in a paper, unless there is no alternative, and then you want to be clear as to where you got the translation. You can not rely on the results as being totally accurate.
Type #1 - English > Foreign language - When you want to know a word in another language, so you can search a document or catalog in another language to find the right section.
1. Set the left pane as English
2. Type in the English word
3. Set the right pane to the language you want - such as German or Italian.
Example: You are in the BHL online looking at a German text on your Velella, and you want to see if there is a section talking about predators. You could use Google Translate to find the German word for predators - and then search the text for that term or root.
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Type #2 Foreign Language > English - if you need to translate a phrase, a caption beneath a figure, etc. You can cut and paste (best) or type - the text into Google Translate.
1. Set the left pane to Detect Language
2. Paste or type in the phrase you want to translate
3. Set the right pane to English
Example: You were looking at this picture:
And undneath is the caption: "Janthina jantkina mit dem Floß, die Unterseite nach oben gekehrt schwimmend" Google translate would tell you this meant "Janthina jantkina with the raft, swimming upside down"
Type #3 Translate an Entire Paper. This can be done, but it will be a rough translation and the grammar won't be correct - but it will often allow you to understand what is being said. Translating text within illustrations and figures is sometimes not possible.
Step#1 - Get a PDF
A. If it is an online text - download or save as PDF
B. If it is a print text, scan it using the book scanners in the library. Note: Be aware of copyright.
Step #2 OCR the PDF
A. Open the full Adobe Acrobat program (not the PDF yet)
B. Open the PDF using the Open command within the program and then pointing to the PDF. Do not open by double clicking the PDF itself - this will often just open it in the Adobe Reader, which cannot do the OCR
C. Click on "All tools" - Then "Scan & OCR"
D. When the Scan & OCR Menu comes up - Click on "in this file" - Change the Language from English to the one you want, and then click "Recognize Text"
E. WAIT - it will take some time to scan & ocr each page - Wait till it is done
F. Pull down the File menu and choose SAVE to save it with the OCR.
Step #3 - Create Images of the Pages, Copy & Paste into Google Translate using the Image option.
A. Open the OCR'd Document in Adobe Acrobat.
B. Click on the Page outside the text, so that the whole page is selected and turns blue - and a little Recognize Text dialog box appears - In that box Click on the Copy Icon
C. Then, with that on your clipboard - Go into the Full Google Translate, Select the Image option and then put your cursor in the "Drag & Drop" section and do Ctrl-V to paste that image there.
D. It will say "Translating" and then your Translation will appear. Click the "Download Translation" button and it will save that page.
You can save each page, and then use Adobe Acrobat to re-assemble into one PDF. There will be errors, but it is usually good enough for you to read the text.
Note: Google Translate is supposed to be able to allow you to upload a whole document and translate it in one go, but I cannot get this to work. If you can, let me know : )
