The North Korean Dictionary of 20th-Century Arts and Culture gives users information on key concepts, theories, policies, organizations and their activities, and relevant facilities, as well as genre information on literature, art, music, performing a ...
The North Korean Dictionary of 20th-Century Arts and Culture gives users information on key concepts, theories, policies, organizations and their activities, and relevant facilities, as well as genre information on literature, art, music, performing arts and video arts. The aim of this project is not just to provide linguistic information on selected terms, but also to function as an online encyclopedia with comprehensive knowledge information. Another focus area is the South-North thesaurus on arts and culture, which is an attempt to take into account North Korean context and perspectives in cultural translation.
During the foundation phase of the first year, categorical research has been carried out. Editorial board conducted a research on existing publication and relevant data on North Korea's art and culture. After compiling basic research materials, subject experts were invited to form a category selection committee, which established a set of selection criteria and compiled the first entry list. Expert advisory meeting was formed to make further adjustment to the list and finalize the second list based on the keyword selection guideline. Experts also participated in advising the final list of terms to be included in the dictionary. Former North Korean artists who resettled in South Korea were also invited to publication process to give their advice on the status of North Korea’s artists, writers, art organizations, relevant agencies, and the arts education system. Linguistic differences between the South and the North have been reflected in how the entry words and their descriptions have been written. The entry words were recognized as North Korean proper nouns and through preserved the North Korean system of spelling. In contrast, the entry word descriptions were compiled using the grammatical rules for the standard South Korean language(pyojuneo), and were supplemented by thesaurus and lexicons.
The consolidation phase of the second year was put to analysis and systemization efforts. Based on the outcome of the first year, the project aimed at consolidating technology and contents. During the analysis stage, the writers completed their work on entry words and their descriptions, thesaurus and English translation. As for the systemization stage, technology was utilized to systematically connect the entries based on relevance. Based on a draft sample, the project assigned the writers to their tasks through two rounds of requests in the second and third year. Any problem in the draft sample was monitored and corrected at the writing stage. A standard writing guideline was finalized through an in-depth discussion. Editing work, which was originally planned for the third year, was further broken down so that the work could begin earlier in the second year. For completeness of the contents format, facet review and accumulation were carried out at the same time. The editors simultaneously worked on the submitted written work for the first round review.
During the completion phase of the third year, the project finalized the contents and fully established the database with enabling technology. The dictionary is not just text-based, but is expanded to include thesaurus, lexicons and keywords. Thus efforts were made to consolidate and upgrade the contents, to a degree that will be readily acceptable for users. The North Korean romanization system was applied, wherever possible, to bring consistency in standardization of the selected terms. In the third year, the entry words were activated in close connection to the thesaurus network. The contents were then reviewed for the last time by outside expert editors, who focused on ensuring completeness and objectivity in the written manuscript. Expertise and autonomy of the writers have been fully recognized, not only in terms of their positions on academic issues but also in their provision of cultural translation between South and North Koreas.
To establish database, the project planned development of the entry interface at the end of the first year. The entry words were put into database in a way that contents were put into a structured system based on contextual information that include thesaurus and other multimedia data. The second year technology plan was to complete development of the entry interface and plan for website development. The interface was fully developed in the early half of the second year, which gave the team time to put the written manuscripts into the system for error test and rectification. Plan for the website development was pursued ahead of schedule as the interface was stabilized earlier than anticipated. The dictionary contents were linked to programming technology in the third year. The database became fully functional, ready to launch on-line web service for data access. The technology team carefully monitored the website development and applied sophisticated technology to comprehensively adjust and correct thesaurus network and match the right multi-media data to the relevant entry words, for ease of access. Last but not least, a web-based on-line dictionary service was enabled to improve user convenience.