The DLBT project

Translators and translations have always played a central role in the transfer of knowledge and have therefore been a relevant subject of study. While individual case studies were prioritised in research for a long time, technical developments have mainly made it possible to analyse a much larger number of translations using quantitative methods. 

Printed bibliographies and online databases of fictional and non-fictional literature in translation have several limitations: they tend to focus on translations from or into one language; they often collect metadata without making the source and target texts available; and they are limited to a certain time frame that aligns with specific research questions. These circumstances make it difficult to conduct research that transcends strict national categories and to search for, access and analyse the rich context of reception through secondary sources. 

The Digital Library and Bibliography for Literature in Translation and Adaptation (DLBT) is a research infrastructure that stores, manages, analyses and archives translations and their reception documents. Since its establishment at the University of Vienna in 2015, around 50,000 translation-related datasets and over 20,000 reception document-related datasets in more than 100 languages have been created (see here for a detailed overview). 

As an open-access infrastructure, the DLBT is not subject to any time-, space- or language-related restrictions. The DLBT offers an innovative, centralised system combining a digital library of primary (translated) literature with a collection of digitised secondary sources and other assets. It also provides bibliographic metadata and additional links and tools for visualising full texts, metadata and statistical overviews. 

The DLBT also has an AI-based application called iConTxt which creates translations and summaries of source texts and compiles information about authors and texts. This application is based on existing databases, web knowledge and the DLBT knowledge database. 

The DLBT's digital infrastructure links a repository, a bibliographic information system and a web-based information and research tool.