Communications du Bureau exécutif

Abstract

Simultaneous interpreting had started at Sofia (1963), and the Bulgarians had paid for it entirely. In Rome (1964) the Italians, who had received a large government grant, provided English, French and Italian and paid for it; the participation fees were paid back to IFLA; the USSR Library Council sent Russian interpreters. In Helsinki (1965) less money was available. English and French had been provided by the Finns, but the participation fee was used to cover part of the cost; the USSR Library Council sent Russian interpreters again, but their hotels were paid by the Finnish secretariat. At The Hague, the Finnish example was followed approximately, except that German was added, and the Verein Deutscher Bibliothekare paid for this. IFLA had no precise system of budgeting for this, and it was legitimate to demand enough money from the participants to cover the cost. One problem was the very high cost of professional interpreters. More economical help was given by voluntary librarian-interpreters, but they were not trained to interpret unprepared speeches. The best solution might possibly be to employ one professional interpreter for each language, with help from librarian-interpreters.