Using online databases for terminology searching

Online bibliographic databases would seem to be a promising source of multilingual terminology for translators, terminologists, and other language professionals, although not designed for this purpose. This paper will explore this hypothesis, discussing the types and degree of multilingualism in representative databases, the different information-seeking needs of language professionals, and describing search strategies which can be used for term look-up. Results of extensive trial searching and some in-depth examples will be used to assess the practical feasibility of this use of databases, with special attention paid to reliability. Results of trial searching were generally positive, although cost might prove prohibitive. Using bibliographic databases may be particularly useful in solving difficult terminological problems for which context information is essential. Annex 1 provides information on a selection of useful multilingual online databases; annex 2 lists addresses of selected online database providers.