College and Research Libraries By M E L V I L L E J. R U G G L E S Translations of Soviet Publications GR O W I N G INTEREST in developments within the Soviet Union in the past few years has stimulated unprecedented American desire to gain access to infor- mation printed in Soviet publications. T h e sense of urgency caused by Sputnik I caused a public outcry for large-scale translations of Soviet scientific and tech- nical publications. T h e flurry of de- mand resulted in the establishment of several programs for translating Soviet scientific and technical journals from cover to cover. Yet very little discussion has appeared in print about several as- pects of the problem of translating which make it a more complicated mat- ter than it appears to be at first glance. A good deal of confusion seems to surround the question of translations from the Russian. On the one hand there has been a loud demand for them. On the other hand actual use of those available has proved to be rather small. Librarians who more than anyone have to face daily demands for literature and at the same time to plan for the future are caught in the middle and are also distressed at the new and heavy burden threatening their budgets. T h e purpose of this article is to try to identify the principal aspects of the problem and to unravel some of the elements of con- fusion. If this could be done, rational planning would be easier. Translation is a more serious prob- lem for scientists and engineers than for social scientists and humanists. Printed material which is significant for scien- tists and engineers may appear in any language; to follow developments in Mr. Ruggles is Vice-President, Coun- cil on Library Resources, Inc. their special fields of interest scientists and engineers must either be polyglot or find some common means of commu- nication. Social scientists and humanists, however, are much more inclined to spe- cialize in geographical areas. Conse- quently the Russian language is only incidental to the study of natural sci- ence and technology, while it is likely to be an essential tool to any social sci- entist or humanist dealing with Russian affairs, and therefore a prerequisite to the pursuit of his studies which he will have acquired as a part of his training. On the other hand, social scientists and, to a lesser extent, humanists who are not specialists in Eastern Europe tend to be less interested in the scholarly work of their Soviet counterparts than are scientists and engineers. This differ- ence arises from the fact that the Com- munist Party cannot permit objectivity and limits creative thought in the social sciences, but allows considerable latitude in those sciences which do not deal with human behavior. Therefore the work of Soviet specialists in the former fields often has little intrinsic value (although as a reflection of Soviet policy such ma- terial can be very useful) while Soviet work in the natural sciences and tech- nology can be extremely worthwhile. These circumstances combined lead to the following situation: a large propor- tion of all U.S. scientists and engineers are interested in the content of Soviet publication in their fields, but only a small percentage of this large group can read Russian; conversely only a small proportion of social scientists and hu- manists are interested in following So- viet developments in their disciplines, but of those who are interested in get- SEPTEMBER 1959 347 ting at the content of Soviet publications a very high percentage can read Rus- sian.1 Despite the above generalizations which indicate an apparent greater need of natural scientists and engineers for translations from the Russian, there is nevertheless a rather heavy demand for translations on the part of faculty mem- bers and researchers in other fields. This demand is made particularly by those conducting undergraduate courses and by those not concentrating on East Euro- pean area studies. T h e need is felt partic- ularly acute in the fields of political science, belles-lettres, history, and eco- nomics. T h e apparent contradiction be- tween this statement and the observa- tion in the preceding paragraph is due to the fact that the demand for transla- tions is more often expressed by general- ists rather than by subject specialists. That is, a teacher giving a survey course on comparative government is likely to want to read translated material from Soviet books, periodicals, and newspa- pers whereas a specialist on Western European parliamentary government is less likely to be interested in consulting the works of Soviet specialists in his field. T h e interest of journalists and publicists in Soviet materials in translation also creates a certain demand for translations. University faculty members need trans- lated anthologies of Russian and East European literature, source books in his- tory and political science, and full trans- lations of Russian and Soviet classics in each of these fields. With respect to the latter, many faculty members are grate- ful for the translation program conducted by the American Council of Learned Societies for a few years after the war and would like to see it resumed. There is widespread praise for the Current Di- gest of the Soviet Press, and desire that its coverage be expanded. It appears that the needs of scientists 1 T h e same situation applies to the publications of other countries within the Soviet bloc. and engineers are currently being met much more adequately than the needs of those engaged in social studies. Vari- ous official agencies subsidize or other- wise assist translation and abstracting services for scientists and engineers. This effort is reflected by the list of the prin- cipal sources of translations as well as the list of the scientific and technical journals currently translated from cover to cover which appear in each issue of Technical Translations, an abstract journal of trans- lated articles published twice monthly by the Office of Technical Services of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Several organizations, both academic and official, are also financing, sponsor- ing, or otherwise assisting research on mechanical translation. In all probability mechanical translation will someday solve many aspects of the kind of prob- lem now facing the United States. But the state of the art in this field is at present not sufficiently advanced to offer any hope of assistance in the immediate crisis. Therefore, this fascinating field in which the knowledge and skills of lin- guist and mathematician are jointly en- gaged can receive only passing mention in any paper on practical and present problems of translation. While the work being accomplished by various organizations concerned with translating Russian materials is impres- sive, the potential users (as represented particularly by scientists and engineers) are, nevertheless, far from content. Their appetites appear to be insatiable, al- though, as we shall see, the demand is more intensive (representing a relatively small group) than extensive. T h e obvious need and the heavy de- mand for translations have tended to obscure some basic problems in gaining access to Soviet data which translations cannot solve, as well as some other seri- ous problems affecting the process of translation itself. T h e most serious literature problem confronting scholars in all fields today 348 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES is the mass of material published. Large scale translation of Soviet publications would add to the already unmanageable volume of printed matter which scholars presumably must peruse in order to keep up with development in their fields. Fragmentary evidence that is available indeed casts doubt on the assumption that a large scale program of trans- lations from the Russian would be ad- equately exploited by those for whom it was intended, or possibly even by many who now clamor for it. As of June 1959 there were approximately seventy-five Soviet scientific and techni- cal journals being translated into Eng- lish (about 90 per cent in the U.S., the remainder in Great Britain). Not one of these translated versions had a circula- tion of as much as 1,000, and the aver- age number of subscribers was between 200 and 300. Possibly real consumer de- mand might not justify investing more valuable man-years and thousands of dollars in a product which thus far may have been influenced more by newspaper headlines (especially in the few weeks between the launching of Sputnik I and Explorer I) than by actual requirements of potential users. As this is written only one scientific study exists which contrib- utes reliable data on actual demand by scientists for translations from the Russian language. Herner2 made an in- terview study in 1956 and 1957 of 500 medical scientists in fifty-nine medical research organizations in six American cities with the object of discovering their need for information from Soviet publi- cations and the best means for meeting the need. He found that whereas only 6 per cent of the group (i.e., thirty) could read Russian, nearly one half (240) had sought or obtained Soviet in- formation in the previous six months. Of these, fifty-eight had followed Soviet journals with some frequency, but of these fifty-eight only eight saw them in 2 S a u l H e r n e r , " A m e r i c a n U s e of Soviet Medical Re- s e a r c h , " Science, C X X V I I I ( 1 9 5 8 ) , 9-15. translated form. Herner also discovered that while 6 per cent of his sample could read Russian, only 3 per cent had read any Russian material in the original language within the preceding six months. T h e primary means used by the respondents for obtaining informa- tion from Soviet sources was through indexing and abstracting publications. T h e second most generally used method was through second-hand reports of Sovi- et developments which appeared in Eng- lish language studies and reviews. These data would seem to indicate that even when means were available for getting access to the full text (either by knowl- edge of the Russian language or by use of translations) the researchers preferred short cuts. T h e Herner study asked the medical scientists interviewed to recommend methods whereby accessibility to Soviet materials might be increased. T h e meth- od most frequently suggested was that existing indexing and abstracting publi- cations increase their coverage of Soviet literature. Some, though considerably fewer, suggested dissemination of trans- lated tables of contents of current Soviet medical publications. (Most Soviet schol- arly journals in all fields now include tables of contents and sometimes abstracts in the English language). W h e n asked specifically about translations, the largest segment of the group interviewed recom- mended "facilities for having translations made on request, with the individual scientist ordering translations of specific items as he needs them." This suggestion corresponds very closely with statements made by several scientists and engineers interviewed by the present writer: they said that the best means they had found to get access to Soviet literature was to have on their staff a member who knew both the Russian language and the sub- ject matter of their specialization, and whose duty was to disseminate to the others the relevant and important Soviet data he found. This person would syste- SEPTEMBER 1959 349 matically peruse Soviet publications, bring relevant data to the attention of his colleagues and, when appropriate, translate portions of articles or entire articles. T h e difficulty in finding competent translators is in fact one of the serious obstacles to any large scale program of cover-to-cover translation. A translator must know not only the Russian lan- guage but the subject matter as well. Most people possessing these two skills much prefer to spend their efforts in re- search rather than translating. Even the best translations are still in- adequate as means of communicating the ideas of Soviet researchers to their Amer- ican counterparts. Nouns of the scientific and technical vocabularies of all Indo- European languages tend to have com- mon antecedents in Greek and Latin and the meaning is likely to be precise and equivalent in all languages. Such equivalence is much less likely to occur, however, with adjectives and still less with verbs and adverbs. Yet these parts of speech define and indicate what the researcher believes is happening to the things designated by the nouns. Even very good translations, therefore, must necessarily fail to communicate some nuances of meaning and to reveal differ- ences of national style in performing re- search and experimentation. Translations fail completely to serve another very important means of com- munication among scientists: inter- change of ideas by tete-a-tete conversa- tions. Incidentally this fact tends to limit the circle of those scholars who have op- portunity to communicate directly with their counterparts in other countries, be- cause scientific organizations are inclined to send to international meetings repre- sentatives who can speak foreign lan- guages. Even if cover-to-cover translation of all important Soviet publications were an adequate solution to America's need for access to Soviet-produced data, it would be economically unfeasible. By rough estimate approximately one mil- lion pages of Soviet text which would be really interesting to American scholars are produced each year in the fields of science and technology alone. By a more accurate estimate, it costs about twenty- five dollars a page3 to produce translations of Soviet material (from the receipt by air mail of the original Soviet publica- tion to the deposit of the translated ver- sion in the mail box of the recipient). With $25,000,000 annually it would be possible to train, each year, between 75,- 000 and 100,000 Americans to read the Russian language. Libraries cannot afford to purchase all of the available translations of Soviet scientific and technical publications which are now available—and which hardly scratch the surface of Soviet out- put—even at the relatively low prices made possible by subsidies. Most of the seventy-five journals now being trans- lated cover-to-cover are heavily subsi- dized: the average subscription price is about one-tenth of the actual cost of production, and even lower rates are granted libraries by several of the jour- nals. Yet the total subscription cost of these journals, despite subsidies and spe- cial library rates, is well over $2,500 an- nually. This figure represents about one- half of the total annual budget for the purchase of all East European (not only Russian) publications in the original language of any one of the majority of our twenty largest university libraries, one-sixth of the same category in the budget of the four largest American uni- versity libraries, and one-eighth the an- nual expenditure for Russian publica- tions of the Library of Congress. Some libraries, once they have sub- scribed to English-language editions of Soviet periodicals, cease their subscrip- 3 One element in this high cost is the number of man hours required for translation—-a necessarily slow proc- ess. T h i s expenditure of human time presents an in- eluctable choice: either translation of the most impor- tant materials must appear very late a f t e r publication, or their cost must be very high. 350 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES tions to the original Russian language periodicals. This appears to be a retro- gressive policy, depriving both those who can read the original version and those who wish to learn Russian of the oppor- tunity of getting first-hand access to Sovi- et information. Several faculty members, both in the exact and the social sciences, emphasize the educative value of a re- search library's possession of materials in the Russian language which would stimulate and challenge scholars to learn enough Russian to extract value from them. Librarians interested in the con- tinuity of periodical files are also likely to calculate that original Russian publi- cations are obviously more stable than translated versions and will not permit subscription to or purchase of a trans- lated version of a Russian publication to supersede the acquisition of the original except in special circumstances. This wise, conservative policy, however, seri- ously affects costs of acquisition. One specific conclusion seems to emerge from the above: large scale trans- lation of Soviet materials is highly un- economical from several points of view. Nearly total dependence on transla- tions, it would therefore seem, must be considered a stopgap measure, pending an inevitable increase in the number of scholars in all fields who will be able to read and speak Russian. T h e long-range solution lies in the introduction of Rus- sian language courses into high school and college curricula. Experience in a few scattered schools indicates that par- ents and students alike are aware of the growing importance of Russian in the general cultural picture. Most of the courses offered thus far have been quick- ly oversubscribed and are already suffer- ing from a shortage of qualified teachers. Shorter-range measures are also feasi- ble, and can be carried out concurrently with the longer-range program. T h e most promising solution seems to be ac- celerated courses in scientific Russian which have mushroomed in many parts of the country in the last few years. These are either offered by a college or university as part of the regular curric- ulum, or contracted for by an individ- ual research organization, or conducted on a purely private basis by an interested Russian specialist. Typically, the course runs one or, less often, two semesters, concentrates exclusively on reading pro- ficiency, and specializes in the terminol- ogy of one subject field. Industrial firms often carry the cost of the instruction and release their employees from extra duties—such as business trips—during the four-month course. T h e reported re- sults have been encouraging: in twelve to fifteen sessions scientists have learned to read, with the aid of a dictionary, Russian articles in their fields of speciali- zation. Most universities require reading knowledge of two foreign languages by candidates for higher degrees. French and German are still being given pref- erence over other languages, probably because of strong tradition and because of the frequently privileged position of the French and German faculty members in the departments of language. Recent- ly, however, several institutions have per- mitted Russian to be one of the required languages— a trend which obviously will help to solve the problem of access to Soviet-published information. Several major research libraries have made dents in the language barrier by maintaining a roster of competent trans- lators to whom readers, once they have found needed material with the help of library's reference staff, are referred. T h e fee for translation is paid, of course, by the reader. Very often when translations are made on special request or for limited groups, the translated material remains in the files of a few individuals. Thus the same material may be translated by two or more persons independently, or at least translations which would probably be used by many people if available to them SEPTEMBER 1959 351 never come to their attention. Special efforts are now being made to reduce such duplication of effort or inadequate use of available resources. T h e Office of Technical Services of the Department of Commerce and the John Crerar Trans- lation Pool in Chicago are devoting par- ticular attention to this problem. It would appear from the above that translation from the Russian is not a simple question and that demand for translations cannot be accepted without question by those responsible for or af- fected by the costs involved.4 Officials of those agencies which are concerned with improving access of American scholars to Soviet publications are aware of the problems and limitations of translations, 4 Much i n f o r m a t i v e data on translations and other means of obtaining Soviet scientific and technical in- formation appears in P a r t 2 of the H e a r i n g s on the S c i e n c e and Technology A c t of 1958 (S. 3126 and S. 4039) held on J u n e 25 and 2 6 , 1958, before a subcom- mittee of the Committee on Government Operations of the U n i t e d S t a t e s S e n a t e . Officials of the principal U . S . government agencies which deal with biblio- graphical problems in the fields of science and technol- ogy testified on this occasion and inserted into the record much valuable additional i n f o r m a t i o n . and have been planning programs for better approaches to the problem ac- cordingly. W e seem to be entering a period simi- lar to the latter part of the nineteenth century when American scientists began to realize that foreign science and tech- nology (particularly German) was in an advanced state, and made the effort to learn the languages—-especially German —which would enable them to be in- formed about developments abroad. One difference is that in the middle of the twentieth century the recognition of the advanced state of Soviet science has lagged further behind fact than it did in the nineteenth century with respect to Western European science and tech- nology. Another difference is the urgency of time required to overcome the lag. T h e recovery of lost time will be quicker once the real nature of the many sided problem of getting access to Soviet print- ed data is fully understood. A C R L Grants for Research From funds given by the United States Steel Foundation to support A C R L ' s Grants Program for 1959-60 the A C R L Grants Committee will, in addition to mak- ing seventy-five to a hundred sub-grants to college and university libraries, make a limited number of grants to individual librarians for research projects directly concerned with college and university librarianship. Applications should be made by letter. (No forms are required.) Amounts up to $1,000 may be requested. Letters of application should state succinctly the pur- pose of the project, its present state of development, its proposed date of completion, the use planned for the funds granted, and the reasons why funds from outside the applicant's own institution are sought. Applications must be received no later than October 16. They should be mailed to Richard Harwell, Executive Secretary A C R L , 50 East Huron Street, Chicago 11, Illinois. In its first two years (1955) and 1956) the A C R L Grants Program included re- search grants to individuals. These grants have been at least partially responsible for such publications as Patricia Knapp's College Teaching and the College Li- brary, ALA's Catalog Use Study, and a number of worthwhile articles and reports. 352 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES