Improving linguistic equality in national infrastructures

Abstract

The National Library of Finland (NatLibFI) has launched a project to improve support for Northern Sámi in its digital services Finna, Finto and Kotoistus. Digital infrastructures in NatLibFi are maintained for Finnish and Swedish, the official languages of Finland. Up until now, there has been no support for Sámi languages despite their status as official regional languages. At the core of the project are the permanent national infrastructures maintained by NatLibFi: 1) the search service Finna, 2) the terminology and ontology service Finto, and 3) Kotoistus, the service promoting the use of ICT products and services in the native language of the user. Creating support in Nothern Sámi to these services enables more correct and clearly defined description of the Sámi resources. Organizations, including museums, libraries, and language communities, can use the results of the project in their work. The key partners are the Sámi Parliament of Finland, the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida, the libraries in the Sámi area, the Giellagas Institute for Sámi Studies, the language authority Sámi Giellagáldu, and UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. In the future, the services will provide persistent support for the Nothern Sámi through relevant cooperation networks.