PRESERVATION OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY: RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE Moscow 2008 Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Program Interregional Library Cooperation Centre Preservation of Linguistic Diversity: Russian Experience Moscow 2008 UDC 81'1(470+571)(082) BBC 81.21(2 рос )я43 p91 Financial support for this publication is provided by Russia’s Federal Agency of Culture and Cinematography and UNESCO Moscow Office Compilers: Evgeny Kuzmin and Ekaterina Plys English text edited by Andrei Svechnikov and Maria Sergeeva Preservation of Linguistic Diversity: Russian Experience – М.: Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, 2008. – 120 p. ISBN 978-5-91515-015-7 The book Preservation of Linguistic Diversity: Russian Experience was prepared for the international conference Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace (Yakutsk, Russian Federation, July 2-4, 2008). It cites practical examples to present the picture of diversified multi-level activities to preserve and develop multilingualism in the Russian cyberspace. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. © Interregional Library Cooperation Centre CONTENTS From the Compilers ............................................................................. 5 Part I. Language Policy in the Russian Federation ................................. 8 Report by the Russian Federation to the General Conference on Measures Taken to Implement the Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace (translated by Tatyana Butkova, Erik Azgaldov and Elena Malyavskaya) ............................................................................. 8 Support and Development of Multilingualism in Russia .............. 8 Language Policy in the Republic of Yakutia ................................ 13 Language Policy in the Republic of Buryatia ............................... 19 Multilingualism in the Cyberspace ............................................. 22 Access to Socially Significant Information: Current State, Legal Support, Challenges. .................................. 24 Improvement of Access to Networks and Services ....................... 29 Open-code Software Development ............................................. 30 Information Literacy Progress as Means to Popularize It and Win Public Confidence in ICT ......................................... 32 Reaffirming the Equitable Balance Between the Interests of Rights-Holders and the Public Interest ................................... 35 3 Language Policy in Certain Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation (translated by Tatyana Butkova) ............................ 37 Republic of Dagestan ........................................................................ 37 Republic of Karelia ........................................................................... 45 Republic of Tatarstan ........................................................................ 51 Chuvash Republic ............................................................................. 59 Part II. Some Aspects of Development of Multilingualism in Cyberspace in Russia (translated by Tatyana Butkova) .............................. 65 Development of Multilingualism on the Internet as a New Field of Activity of the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Program and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre ............................. 65 Activities of the National Library of the Republic of Karelia to Promote Regional Languages in Cyberspace .................. 86 Documentation of Minor Languages: Research and Technical Aspects ....................................................................... 97 Fonts for Languages Spoken in Russia, Which Have Recently Acquired a Written Form ............................... 106 About the Authors ............................................................................ 115 4 From the Compilers This book continues a series of publications by the Russian Com - mittee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (Russian IFAP Committee) and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre (ILCC) as a part of their partnership to develop multilingualism on the Internet. We have previously published: Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace: Russian and Foreign Experience – a collection of analytical materials, translation into Russian of two UNESCO books – How to Guarantee the Presence of Language in Cyber - space? and Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Internet , translation into Russian of the European Commission book Human Language Technolo - gies for Europe , a collection of communications made at the seminar Representation of the Languages of Russia and Other CIS Countries in the Russian Segment of the Internet, organized by the Russian Commit - tee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme and the ILCC dur - ing the international conference EVA 2007 Moscow. We are finishing preparation of the collection Multilingualism in Russia: Regional Aspects . The book Preservation of Linguistic Diversity: Russian Experience has been prepared for the international conference Linguistic and Cultural Di - versity in Cyberspace (Yakutsk, Russian Federation, July 2-4, 2008). The Russian IFAP Committee and the ILCC took up the prob - lems of multilingualism rather recently, after they prepared, at the bor - derline of the years 2006-07, the national report of the Russian Federation On Measures Taken to Implement the UNESCO Recommenda - tion concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace under the instruction of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO . The Recommendation * was adopted by the 32 nd session of the UNESCO General Conference in October 2003. The basic international document for the development of linguistic diversity on the Internet, it *The English-language version of the Recommendation can be downloaded from the UNESCO website: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php URL_ID=13475&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html, and the Russian-language one from the Russian IFAP Committee website http://www.ifapcom.ru/ru/387/425/ 5 analyzes four interconnected aspects : development of multilingual con - tent and systems ; facilitating access to networks and services ; develop - ment of public domain content ; reaffirming the equitable balance between the interests of rights-holders and the public interest . The Recommendation is well known in Russia. The Russian IFAP Committee published its Russian-language version twice in a total 3,000 copies to dispatch them to all major Russian public and research libraries. It was repeatedly discussed at representative conferences on in - formation society development and placed on the Russian Committee website http://www.ifapcom.ru . The impact of the pivotal ideas of the Recommendation on the views and activities of Russian cultural activists, researchers and educa - tionists is evident. Opening the present collection, the national report of the Russian Federation On Measures Taken to Implement the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace is arranged in conformity with the guidelines which UNESCO forwarded to all its member countries on the necessity to offer detailed infor - mation about the activities to implement all provisions of the Recommenda - tion. This is why the report analyzes not only the support and development of multilingualism in Russia but also the guarantee and improvement of ac - cess to socially important information, Internet networks and services, the development of open-source software, public information literacy and a just balance of interests of right -holders and the public interest . Part One of this book also contains official materials prepared specially for it and reflecting the Russian federal- and regional-level policy for the preservation and development of multilingualism on the example of several constituent entities of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Buryat Republic, the Republic of Dagestan, the Republic of Karelia, the Republic of Tatarstan and the Chuvash Republic. All these are multiethnic regions with areas densely populated by particular ethnic entities. The development of multilin - gualism in cyberspace and elsewhere is extremely topical there, related problems similar and largely typical of all constituent republics of the Russian Federation, and regional policy interesting, indicative and in - structive. 6 Part Two offers examples of the activities of government cultural and educational institutions, nongovernment organizations and the pri - vate sector connected in some way or other with the problems of preserv - ing and developing linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace. In particular, the book tells about a new field of joint activities of the Russ - ian IFAP Committee and the ILCC to promote multilingualism on the Internet. The material by the head of Department of Communications and Information Technology of