[news] The Vietnamese encyclopedia - a century's project

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

The Vietnamese encyclopedia - a century's project

The compilation of Vietnam's first encyclopedia is currently being
completed. This is considered one of the important scientific
projects of the country, attracting the attention and interest of
many people.

More than 1,300 associates are involved in this project; 335 of them
are those who directly compile, edit and lay out the encyclopedia.
At the moment, the first draft of the volume has been completed,
comprising four books (the first was published in 1996) with about
40,000 entries (selected from 52,000 recommended entries)
introducing fundamental, universal and modern knowledge of 40
subjects of natural sciences, technology (50% of the total entries),
social sciences, literature and arts (50%).

Different from some other countries, Vietnam advocates the
compilation of a multi-subject encyclopedia before making
single-subject ones, serving the average readership, especially
those with junior high school education and above.

As one of the country's eight "century" projects, compilers are
wrestling with many difficulties. For example, no consensus has so
far been reached over the standardization of spelling, the
transcription of foreign names and technical terms, as well as the
regulations on the compilation of encyclopedia, and the selection
and arrangement of entries in the encyclopedia.

In 1997-1998, the last three books of the Vietnamese encyclopedia
will be published. About 40 encyclopedias on single subjects such as
politics, Vietnamese history, geography and culture; and those on
localities such as Hanoi and Thanh Hoa will also be prepared.

Many scientific studies and seminars will also be held to help
standardize the Vietnamese language (characters, spelling,
transcriptions of foreign names and technical terms), thus
contributing to the perfection of the Vietnamese encyclopedia, which
will offer a comprehensive view of Vietnamese civilization and
intellect.