December General Meeting Recaps ATA Conference Highlights
by Amy Russell
The General Meeting held on December 4 featured presentations by NCTA members who attended the annual ATA conference in St. Louis. Three NCTA members gave short talks on a session they found especially useful or intriguing. They also provided handouts from the session so that members could use the material for reference or find out more information.
Alan Gleason described “National Geographic’s International Editions: Around the World in (At Least) Nine Languages Every Month.” He explained the procedures National Geographic uses to ensure consistency and accuracy in translations that occur simultaneously around the world for every monthly issue.
Michele Morainvilllers attended a session titled “Stumped? The Answer May be on the Net ,.. Somewhere,” which she found very helpful for doing research to find terminology on the Internet. Michele provided handouts showing sample search engine results and how to contact the presenters of this session.
Juliet Viola reported on a session that combined the extremely practical topic of SI units with the symbol of St. Louis, the Gateway Arch. [SI is the international standard for metric system units. -ed.] The seminar “Units of Weight and Measurement in Translation” included authoritative information on how to present SI units correctly. The detailed handouts included an exercise called “Converting the Gateway Arch to SI Units,” which showed how the English and American units used by the engineers to construct the arch would be converted to SI units.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the handouts for the December meeting, please contact the NCTIA administrator at 510/845-8712. Audio cassette tapes of the 1999 ATA conference are also available for purchase from Network Communications. Contact the NCTA administrator for an order form.
