A look at the role of ...

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I started working at exact! as a professional translator (Diplom) in August 2010. Soon after joining the company, I took on the role of head of terminology management.


And what does that entail?

Terminology management is one of the central tasks of translation service providers. First and foremost, I’m responsible for ensuring that the terminology resources provided by our customers in various formats are available in our terminology management system. This has the advantage that all translators can directly and efficiently access this information while translating texts. They therefore don’t have to look things up manually, which minimises the risk of information being overseen. That also benefits our customers.

All kinds of formatting and conversion tasks are necessary in order to make these terminology resources available in our system, and we also have to determine the best way to structure the terminology database, or termbase. This sometimes involves long-term planning and consultation, but in some urgent cases we need to quickly create a termbase to provide basic information.


Many sources, one storage location

In 2010 we undertook a huge internal project to integrate terminology data from varying sources (e.g. Multiterm 5, Termstar, spreadsheets etc.) into Across, which was our main translation system at the time.

During my two years of parental leave, my colleague Andrea Rietmann then oversaw yet another “move” of our terminology data to Multiterm Server. Since returning to my role as head of terminology management, I’ve had the pleasure of overseeing termbases for approximately 90 customers – and rising.

We at exact! oversaw a particularly interesting terminology project for ZF Friedrichshafen AG from 2017 to 2020. ZF recognised the advantages of professional terminology management and decided to review, organise, refine and finalise their terminology database with our support. You can read more about this project in our Success Story.

 


Certified terminology experts

It goes without saying that continued training is also vital in this area. One organisation offering relevant training is Deutscher Terminologie-Tag e.V. (DTT), a leading forum for terminology experts in Germany. Although the 2020 DTT-Symposion could not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was finally able to obtain the DTT terminology certificate in 2021. The exact! team therefore now includes two certified terminology experts, since Andrea Rietmann is also a certificate holder. We regularly seek out training to learn about new tools and terminology best practices in order to stay at the cutting edge for our customers and continually expand our terminology management expertise.

I thus look forward to tackling many new challenges in my role as head of terminology. Maybe I’ll soon be preparing terminology resources for your company!


Picture credits: SideLarbi Hadj Amar

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