Multilingual needs of cultural heritage Web site visitors: A case

study of Tate Online

Jennifer Marlow, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Paul Clough, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Katie Dance, Tate Gallery, United Kingdom

Abstract
As the Internet extends its global reach, language can remain a barrier
preventing people from being able to fully explore material of interest.
Tate Online, the Web site for Britain’s Tate art galleries, serves as a
good case study for exploring the issue of meeting international site
visitors’ multilingual needs. The site contains a great deal of material
that is of international interest; however, much of this is currently
accessible only in English. The present study used a variety of methods
to gather a set of requirements and recommendations for providing
enhanced multilingual content on Tate Online. These included a
competitor analysis, on-line survey of 457 Tate Online visitors, log file
analysis, machine translation resource evaluation, and basic user test.
Findings from this preliminary study provided information about users’
main activities on Tate Online. They indicate that many individuals
would appreciate having more content available in their own language,
either due to necessity or out of preference. However, the best means of
providing this content depends on a variety of factors, including the
pragmatic consideration of resources available for translation. Insights
gathered here can also apply to other cultural heritage organizations
looking to expand the amount of multilingual material on their own Web
sites. The means by which this is accomplished may involve striking a
balance between that which fulfills site user needs and that which is
feasible for the organisation to implement.
 Keywords: cultural heritage Web sites, multilingualism, localisation, user
needs, translation, Tate Online

Introduction

Many international organisations with a web presence recognise the need to offer

multilingual content in order to reach a wider and more diverse audience. For cultural

heritage Web sites in particular, “the audience for the material goes beyond linguistic

and national boundaries,” so the greater the audience reached, the greater the value of

the site (Minerva Project, 2005).

The World Wide Web is a useful tool for the dissemination of cultural heritage-

related material because it frees users from the constraints of physical location, allowing

them to access information from all over the world. However, associated with this wide

range of sources are language barriers which may prevent people from being able to

access or understand the desired information.

To help address this issue, the MultiMatch project aims to create a vertical search

engine focused on the cultural heritage domain that will, among other things, provide

automatic query translation and cross-language retrieval tools to help users search for

and access content across language boundaries. However, little is currently known

about the multilingual abilities and needs of individuals who are likely to access cultural

heritage Web sites.

Tate Online provides an excellent case study for expanding knowledge on this

topic because, as the official Web site for the UK’s Tate art galleries, it is a popular and

heavily-visited on-line resource with global appeal. However, most of the site’s content

is only available in English, thus potentially excluding part of its would-be audience.

2
 The aim of this study was to gather a set of requirements for increasing

multilingual access to Tate Online. Expanding the multilingual content available on this

(or any cultural heritage organisation’s) Web site has the potential to benefit both site

visitors and the organisation itself. By considering both of these parties’ needs and

desires, an effective and mutually acceptable strategy for enhancing multilingual access

may be developed.

Languages and the Internet

Although the World Wide Web and the Internet can theoretically be accessed by any

person from any location at any time, in reality the number of Internet users (and the

languages spoken by these users) is not equally distributed across the globe. This is a

continuously evolving area: for example, in 2000, 51% of all Internet users spoke

English as a first language (Graddol, 2006), but by 2007 this figure had decreased to

29% (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm).

Whether or not an individual possesses functional English language abilities,

research indicates that they will still prefer to operate within their native language if the

opportunity is available (Cleary, 2000.) Therefore, it is increasingly evident that web

users prefer to be addressed in their native language (Eurescom Project, 2000), either

because it is necessary or because it is more comfortable.

With regards to language content of cultural heritage sites in particular, a 2006 EU

survey found that 97% of cultural Web sites in the UK were monolingual English sites

(Minerva Project, 2006). Therefore, any organisation that offers multilingual content

can differentiate itself and thus obtain competitive advantage.

3
 Translation Tools
Making multilingual content available on Tate Online will inherently involve

translation. However, the nature of the content to be translated will determine the

approach taken. There are a variety of tools and resources that the Tate could use for its

translation needs.

In general, it is widely accepted that trained human translators should be

responsible for translating permanent content that will appear on the top-level pages

(Eurescom, 2000) because permanently displaying a flawed machine translation could

detract from the overall prestige and image of a site (Guyon, 2003). However, machine

translation can be employed in instances where it is considered acceptable for the reader

to get the main idea of the text, or for frequently-changing and updated content.

Machine translation may also be used for translating queries in a cross-language

information retrieval situation. Furthermore, it must be employed in cases where pages

are dynamically generated.

Cross-language information retrieval is a means by which an individual can

retrieve information in a language other than that which is used to conduct the search. It

incorporates both elements of machine translation and traditional monolingual

information retrieval techniques (Clough & Sanderson, 2006), and there are a variety of

processes by which it may be implemented.

The Tate Galleries, Tate Online, and Multilingualism:

Background and Context

4
 Tate Online is designed to entice people to physically visit the galleries but it is

also becoming an on-line destination in its own right. In 2005, more people visited Tate

Online than visited all four of the offline galleries combined (Rellie, 2006).

Two primary goals for UK museums on-line in 2006 were increasing audiences

and improving access (ibid). One important way of achieving this is to make Web site

content available in many languages. The benefits of doing so would extend to the Web

site visitor but also to the Tate, as “the localization of products and services based on an

awareness of and response to linguistic, cultural and technical differences is seen to

bring a substantial return on investment” (Parry & Arbach, 2005).

In its present state, Tate Online offers basic information about planning a visit to

each of its offline galleries in 12 different languages. This information includes opening

hours, directions to the galleries, and other details that would be useful for prospective

visitors to know.

As the Tate aims to increase the scope of its multilingual content, the Collection

section of the site has been identified by Tate staff as the area of greatest interest for

translation. It is composed of various subsections: those which are most often used

include Artist A-Z (an alphabetical listing of all artists in the Collection along with

biographical information) and an illustrated glossary of art terms. Not only does it

represent the core of the galleries (the artworks), but it receives roughly one-third of all

site traffic.

Additionally, the Collection site offers the possibility of searching Tate’s

collection of artworks using either a controlled vocabulary (“Subject search”) or a free

text search for artist name, artwork title, or subject.

5
 Analysis of Multilingual Functionality of Tate Online and
Similar Sites
Tate Online is unique in that it is the only site dedicated solely to providing

information about the Tate galleries and their collections. However, there are similar

sites that can be classified into three groups: other museums and galleries in London,

other popular modern art museums worldwide, and general art and culture-related sites.

A summary of their language offerings and multilingual functionalities can be seen in

Appendix A.

As a brief analysis reveals, there is a fair amount of heterogeneity between the

localisation approaches taken by the various sites. Tate Online is similar to many of its

London museum counterparts in terms of structure and degree of multilingual content

offered. However, the question is whether it can or should expand upon this basic

offering. One of Tate’s distinguishing characteristics is the breadth of languages

covered. However, it will be burdensome to add an equal amount of new translated

content: completeness comes at the cost of linguistic diversity. Therefore, some

languages should be identified as priorities, and these will most likely relate to the

demographics of visitors that access the site most frequently.

Assessing Needs and Requirements for Multilingual Access

to Tate Online – Study Methodology
Given that users of Tate Online who speak languages other than English will be

the audience that stands to benefit from increased multilingual content, it was therefore

logical to consider their needs and involve them in the planning process. As a result, a

user-centred design approach was employed, which involved consulting actual site

6
visitors and using their input to evaluate a series of prototypes (Petrelli et al., 2006).

This approach can help create a design for an efficient, effective multilingual Web site

that is satisfying to use.

Different data collection techniques were used at each stage to gather both

qualitative and quantitative data. This approach, known as triangulation, is

advantageous because it enables one to build a holistic view of the myriad issues at

hand. Each technique yields information from a certain perspective which can help to

corroborate findings (Preece et al., 2002).

Therefore, the first step in the process was to assess user and usage needs or

requirements. This was achieved through analysing responses to an on-line

questionnaire. Tate log file analysis also helped to give an idea of the types of basic

tasks and searches carried out on Tate Online. An evaluation of machine translation

resources was conducted with bilingual individuals.

The results of these three investigations provided information on users, their

behaviours and their requirements. This information influenced preliminary design

ideas, following which a basic usability study was conducted with native and non-native

English speakers. This was all that was possible to accomplish in the time available;

however, results and observations from all stages influenced and were incorporated into

the final recommendations for future design and testing.

Gathering user requirements – User questionnaire

In order to ascertain user needs and requirements regarding multilingual access

to Tate Online, it was important to consult actual end-users of the Web site. Areas of

particular interest for investigation were:

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 • User characteristics (where are international visitors located and what

languages do they prefer to use when surfing the Internet?)

• Task analysis (why do these visitors currently use the Collection

site, and what do they do there?)

• Requirements (what type of increased multilingual functionalities do the

site users need or want?)

However, it must also be noted that the end-users are not the only ones

whose needs must be considered throughout the requirement-gathering process: “the

concept of ‘user’ should be defined to include everybody whose work is affected by the

product in some way” (Nielsen, 1993). Therefore, the Tate’s needs should also be taken

into consideration, and an important initial step in doing so was to assess:

• Demand and feasibility (is there really a need for more multilingual

content on Tate Online, or do most users possess adequate English-

language skills to satisfactorily navigate the site?)

To provide insight into these and other questions, a questionnaire was designed

to gather information regarding languages spoken by Tate Online users and to assess

their preferences in order to prioritise the aspects and areas of the Collection site that

could potentially be translated.

Questionnaire results

A total of 457 people responded to the questionnaire, which was made available

through two links on the Tate Web site. Based on IP address, 31.2% of respondents

were located outside of the UK, in 40 different countries.

Language skills

8
 When users were asked which language they preferred to use when searching

and browsing the Internet, the top ten results were as follows:

Language Percent

Spanish 34.4

English 26.4

Italian 18.2

French 13.1

Portuguese 2.7

Dutch 1.3

German 0.9

Japanese 0.7

Turkish 0.4

Welsh 0.4

Table 1 – Preferred language

The predominance of Spanish, English, Italian, and French is not surprising,

given that these were the languages in which the survey was available. Regarding self-

reported secondary language skills, the percentages of people who said they could

perform at an intermediate level or above in a foreign language were:

Language Skill Percentage

9
 English Reading 39.6

Writing 33.7

French Reading 21.0

Writing 17.9

Spanish Reading 11.8

Writing 9.2

Italian Reading 10.9

Writing 8.5

Table 2 – Respondents’ foreign language skills

The relatively high proportion of respondents with intermediate or higher

English language skills is not surprising, given that Tate Online’s content is

predominantly in English. What is unknown is the number of people who would like to

visit Tate Online but have been hindered from doing so by a lack of English ability.

Uses of Collection site

53% of respondents had visited the Collection site before. Of these, 69% had

done so out of personal interest, while 27% were motivated by academic or research-

related objectives.

Regarding primary objectives for using the Collection site, roughly 60% of

respondents used the site to browse the Tate’s holdings without looking for something

specific, or to prepare for a visit. The relative frequencies of all tasks were:

10
Task Percentage

To browse what the gallery has (without 33.8

looking for something specific)

To prepare for a visit 26.2

To view or download an image of a work 10.0

of art

To look for information on a specific artist 8.6

To look for information on a specific work 8.6

of art that you knew the name of

To look for information on a specific work

of art that you DIDN’T know the name of 5.2

Other 4.3

To look up the definition of an art-related 3.3

term (glossary)
Table 3 – Primary objectives on Collection site

Respondents whose preferred language was not English rated the amount of

content currently available on Tate Online in their preferred language as follows:

Response Percentage

Fair (more would be helpful) 40.3

Adequate (no need for more) 27.1

Poor (more is definitely 21.4

necessary)

Not sure 8.8

Too much 2.4

Table 4 – Rating of amount of non-English content

11
Overall, 76.4% of those who did not prefer to view Web sites in English stated that they

would be more likely to visit the Collection site if it were translated into their preferred

language.

Areas of priority for translation

Area Percentage

Artist Biographies
35.9
General instructions
(i.e., how to use the 22.4
subject search)

Search (the ability to

enter search terms in a 22.1
language besides
English)

Glossary 18.1

Titles of artworks 15.1

Categories (in subject 12.4

search)

Artist names
7.6

Table 5 – Most important aspects of Collection site to be translated

Most of the above areas (besides “Search” are static content and thus could be translated

manually; however, the problem is the vast amount of potential content.)

Other revealing attitudes were expressed in the section for general comments and

suggestions. In general, people praised the English version of Tate Online, while

indicating they would appreciate the ability to view the pages in different languages.

12
 Justification for Translation

The results of the initial survey suggest that providing more multilingual content

would be appreciated by international users, some of whom already expect such

provisions from an institution of the Tate’s caliber. Furthermore, it appears as though

offering enhanced multilingual content would attract more visitors to the Collection site

and presumably to Tate Online in general. Therefore, the value of doing so is

reinforced; however, the specifics of how and what to translate must be ascertained in

order to guide the design phase.

Quality of Translation Needs

The high degree to which the Collection site is used out of personal interest

suggests that professionally-done translation may not be necessary; users may be

satisfied with machine translations that allow them to get the gist of the information.

However, one issue to consider regarding reported use of the Collection site is

the time period in which the data was collected (during school summer holidays.) It is

possible that this affected the results, as presumably fewer people would be using the

site for academic purposes. It is possible that machine translation may not be acceptable

for academic research purposes depending on the level of information required.

Priorities and Implementation Issues

Regarding the most popular candidates for translation (biographies, general

instructions, and search,) the means of translating should be considered. Given the vast

number of biographies (approximately 3,000) and the fact that the pages are all

dynamically generated, it is not feasible to provide human translations of everything.

13
One possible compromise could be to provide professional translations for biographies

of the most popular artists and then to provide a means for automatic translation of the

rest.

Task Analysis – Log file Analysis

Another way to obtain information about what visitors to Tate Online do whilst

visiting the site is by examining the server log files. An analysis of log files for one 24-

hour period was able to yield some basic data regarding the types of search queries

entered and the aspects of the Collection site which were the most visited. Although

more in-depth and long-term analysis of log files would be necessary to provide a more

accurate picture of overall use patterns, this 24-hour sample gave some insight into what

types of tasks are most typically performed.

Using the log file, it was also possible to extract search queries entered into the

Tate Online main page site search. Although these were not specifically from the

Collection site, they give a general idea of some typical queries. Overall, 2010 queries

were submitted in the 24 hour period, 933 of which were unique. Of these, only three

were in a foreign language. 85 of these unique queries were submitted five times or

more, and they can be classified as follows:

Category Number of queries Percentage

Proper names 49 57.6

Single words 26 30.6

Phrases (2+ words) 9 10.6

Name and title 1 1.2

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 Table 6 – Search queries by category

With regards to the idea of query translation, a large majority of searches

conducted (i.e. most artist names and the single words) would be unproblematic to

automatically translate. However, the remaining categories might cause some

difficulties (i.e. proper names or phrases with multiple meanings.)

It is difficult to ascertain whether the dearth of foreign language searches exists

because all users are able to formulate queries in English, because people assume they

cannot even try to enter foreign language terms, or because foreign language speakers

access their information via a different route (i.e. navigating through the site pages.) In

any case, it does not appear as though creating a CLIR-based search functionality for

Tate Online should be a primary need, at least initially.

Design consideration - Machine Translation Testing

Since not all content can be manually translated, one option would to be to give

users the possibility of using a MT system in cases where a professional translation is

not available. It may be that when it comes to non-English content, having something is

better than nothing, and people will be happy with simply getting the gist of an

automatic translation.

Possibly the easiest and cheapest way of producing an instantaneous translation

is to use an on-line resource to translate an entire URL. Clearly, the advantage of this

approach is that it is fast and can accommodate several languages. Perhaps most

importantly in the context of the Collection, this method can be used to translate

15
dynamic web pages whereas other approaches (i.e. human translation or a software

program) cannot.

Most on-line MT systems are accessible by typing in a URL or entering text at

the system’s Web site. However, this requires extra effort on the part of the user and

interrupts the browsing experience. A more user-friendly approach is to use a

functionality provided by some companies (SYSTRAN and WorldLingo) to obtain

instant translations through a language toolbar that can be added onto all desired pages.

In order to get a broader feel for general comprehensibility and acceptability of

MT output texts, it was necessary to survey a group of bilingual individuals. Study

participants were given a packet of texts and questionnaires to read and complete. The

texts were randomly selected from the Tate Collection site: one was a painting

description and the other was an artist biography. These texts were translated into each

participant’s native language using one of two freely available MT systems (SYSTRAN

system and WorldLingo.) Also included in the packet were the original English texts;

participants were able to consult these if they wished but it was not mandatory.

Participants were asked to read the first translated text and then to answer some

questions evaluating its comprehensibility, its acceptability, and its fidelity to the

original (if applicable.) They were also asked if they were able to learn something from

the text and if it would be a useful resource for writing an academic paper. This

procedure was then repeated for the second text.

System Understanding Acceptability Fidelity to original

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 SYSTRAN 4.00 2.80 3.61

WorldLingo 4.00 3.11 3.78

Table 7 – Mean ratings for the painting text (1 is the most positive, 5 is the most negative.)

System Understanding Acceptability Fidelity to original

SYSTRAN 4.10 3.00 3.94

WorldLingo 4.00 3.10 3.89

Table 8 – Mean ratings for the artist text (1 is the most positive, 5 is the most negative.)

If a mean rating of 3 or lower is considered to be the minimum for MT to be

valuable, then responses for categories (except acceptability) did not meet this criterion.

For both the painting and the biographical text, acceptability received a lower (more

favourable) mean ranking than comprehensibility, suggesting that people were

somewhat willing to accept a text even if it was difficult to comprehend. Nonetheless, it

must still be noted that on average, respondents felt that both texts required “a definite

effort to understand the meaning.” Whether the use of free online systems is an

acceptable level of service for the Tate to provide is certainly questionable. It is

possible, however, that paid, “professional” machine translation systems would provide

higher quality output.

17
 This brief exploratory study seems to correspond with findings by Guyon (2003),

which cast doubt on the benefits of providing permanent machine-generated translation

content on a Web site: if readers perceive the texts as not being very serious, then the

Web site’s reputation could suffer.

Nonetheless, “even in contexts where automatic translation is not currently

feasible, other forms of computer support are worth considering” (Connolly, 1996).

These could include giving users with moderately good language skills links to on-line

dictionaries or thesauri, which could provide fast and convenient means to help clarify

unknown words. The potential benefit of using “other” forms of support may be

investigated in the future.

User Testing

According to Nielsen (1996), “the ultimate international usability engineering

method is international user testing,” having real users perform real tasks with the

system without receiving help. User testing was conducted to compare the performance

of non-native and native English speakers on the existing version of Tate Online.

In total, 14 participants aged between 16 and 35 took part in the study. Seven of

these were non-native English speakers who were visiting Tate Modern. Seven native

English speakers were chosen to serve as a control group: three of them were recruited at

Tate Modern and the other four were British university students. Overall, this group had

roughly the same age and gender balance as the non-native English speaking group.

Participants were brought to a public access computer room on the ground floor

of Tate Modern. None of the participants were frequent visitors to Tate Online; all had

either never visited it before or done so only once.

18
 Following an initial site familiarisation period, participants were given three

tasks to perform, each of which was related to a specific scenario. The first was to

locate five paintings currently on display at Tate Liverpool, the second was to find and

read a description of an artwork, and the third was to locate and read the biography of

Francis Bacon. These tasks were chosen to represent some typical browsing or free-

searching behaviours that site visitors might perform. Upon completing the three tasks,

participants filled out a short post-test questionnaire asking them to rate the difficulty of

using the Web site and also asking for any specific comments or suggestions they may

have had.

Quantitative measures taken included the number of tasks unsuccessfully

completed, the time elapsed before a participant either completed a task or gave up, and

the overall ranking of the Web site’s degree of difficulty to use.

Group Task 1 mean Standard Task 2 mean Standard Task 3 Standard Mean Standard
time deviation time deviation mean time deviation difficulty deviation
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes) rating

Non-
English 4.031 2.417 2.617 2.400 2.446 2.542 3.14 1.952

English 2.257 0.956 1.184 1.373 0.631 0.606 3.00 1.915

Table 9 – Quantitative results from user test

Although these results were not significantly different between the two groups at

a level of p<.05, the differences in time taken to complete the tasks is striking.

Nevertheless, some participants in both groups accomplished the tasks quickly and

easily, while others required more time. However, none of the native English speakers

19
gave up before completing any of the tasks, while some of the non-native English

speakers did.

Qualitative results came from observing participants’ behaviours and noting

comments they made. Some general trends and common patterns of difficulty became

evident (for example, using the site search was often problematic, as many of the top

search results were irrelevant.) Some of these problems affected all participants and

were related to general site design or structure.

Preferences

At the beginning of the study, participants were asked what language they

preferred to use when viewing Web sites. Six of them mentioned their mother tongue

(Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish/Galician, Spanish) and one chose English.

At the end, when asked, “Given what you have experienced here, would you

prefer to use Tate Online in English or in another language?” nearly half of these

participants (three out of seven) indicated that they would prefer to use Tate Online in

English. It should be noted that these individuals performed all of the tasks with very

little difficulty. Therefore, it makes sense that they would feel comfortable with the

English site. The other participants had more trouble with the tasks, and their preference

to use another language could indicate that they may have attributed part of their

struggle to language difficulties.

20
 Participant suggestions

The final question on the post-test survey was, “Do you have any other

suggestions or comments about how Tate Online can be improved for people who speak

languages besides English?” Suggestions included:

• (4 people) - Make it easier to find the other language information (so

people know it is possible to visit the site in other languages.)

• (2 people) – More visible language buttons on sub-sites too (not just the

home page, since people may be directed to Tate Online by a search

engine.)

• (1 person) – Have a home page in other languages to help guide people to

where they can find the information they are looking for (even if the links

lead to English-only sites)

• (1 person) – Translate the Tate Online home page

The user study was a valuable way to gather information about paths people

typically take to navigate and find information on Tate Online, and to witness their

pitfalls and frustrations (or lack thereof.) However, it has its limitations due to the small

number of participants and the fact that Tate Modern visitors may not be a completely

representative sample of Tate Online users.

Therefore, testing with a wider range of people, particularly those whose English

is not particularly strong, would be necessary to provide a more accurate picture of the

degree to which such individuals have difficulty using the Web site. Nonetheless, many

of the observations noted and suggestions made could help to make Tate Online more

user- friendly for all visitors.

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 Summary of Key Findings

As previously stated, the objectives of the present study were to investigate

several different elements that could play a role in influencing a strategy for enhancing

multilingual access. Relevant findings in these four areas will now be discussed.

Competitors

Many art and museum-related Web sites that are similar to the Tate in content

and scope have a roughly similar degree of foreign language material available, and this

is limited to visiting information. It is clear that providing more content beyond this can

be logistically difficult and potentially expensive. These reasons in part are probably

why many organisations do not offer extensively localised sites at this time, even if they

would like to do so.

User Needs and Preferences

Clearly, some languages will be spoken by more site visitors than others and will

therefore be more of a priority than others. Therefore, in choosing languages for added

content, a good place to start would be to focus on what are known as the FIGS

languages: French, Italian, German, and Spanish. These are typically rated the easiest

languages for localisation (Yunker, 2003), they were the most frequently featured across

all the competitor sites, and these four languages were also chosen when the Tate offered

translated content related to a past exhibition. In addition, many site and gallery visitors

speak these languages, into which Tate has already translated some guidebook content.

The on-line survey, log file analysis, and 2004 visitor survey all reinforce the fact

that many people use Tate Online for general browsing or for visiting information. Log

22
file analysis and the user study suggest that people very rarely type in specific artwork

titles, so for this reason, implementing a query translation system is probably not a top

priority.

Translation Resources

Most academic multilingual access research focuses on localisation or the

technical issues involved in creating more accurate machine translation systems.

However, the needs and interests of an organisation like the Tate are more business-

rather than research-based. The following resources are most likely to be useful to the

Tate:

• Human translators (for any permanent or top level content, i.e. on the

foreign language homepages, descriptions, etc.)

• Bilingual dictionaries (some users did take advantage of the subject

search; a bilingual dictionary could be used to translate the words or short

phrases in the controlled vocabulary.)

It may require further testing or evaluation to decide if the benefits of providing

instantaneous machine translations outweigh the financial costs of doing so, and if the

quality of the output is of a high enough quality to be worthwhile. Alternatively, the

Tate pages could include a link to an external automatic translation site, thus making it

clear to the visitor that the sub-par automatic translations are not directly associated with

Tate Online. This could then potentially reduce the risk of the translations having a

detrimental effect on the Tate’s reputation.

23
 Conclusion

Overall, it is likely that no matter which course of action is pursued, the addition

of any multilingual content beyond what is currently provided will be welcomed by

international visitors to Tate Online. Some individuals will require such content in order

to use the site, while others will simply find it makes their experience more comfortable

and enjoyable.

The information obtained in the present study is a good preliminary step in the

development of a multilingual access strategy. Future work progressing from this

foundation may include the design and testing of new interfaces, as well as a larger

evaluation of translation resources as they relate to Tate content, for example.

The implications of this study also extend beyond the context of the Tate. For

example, knowledge about the characteristics of common queries in an art-specific

domain can help to inform the design of effective focused translation systems. More

broadly, the findings of this study can be applied to the MultiMatch project (or any

cultural heritage Web site with a global scope) by reinforcing the notion that the

provision of multilingual access and support would be welcomed by people who wish to

interact with content in languages they do not speak fluently. It may also need to be

customizable in order to cater to varying levels of language proficiency and different

media types.

The Tate is an internationally renowned organisation that has a great deal to

share with the world. Increasing multilingual access to this (or any other cultural

heritage) collection means that more people can take advantage of the extensive and

unique resources offered. However, as the present case study has revealed, the means by

24
and degree to which such multilingual support can be provided will ultimately depend

on the financial, technological, and human resources available to a Web site’s creators.

Acknowledgements
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26
Appendix A – Analysis of competitor sites
Language offerings of Tate Online and similar sites

PORTUGSE
JAPANESE
GERMAN
ENGLISH

RUSSIAN

CHINESE
SPANISH

ITALIAN
BASQUE

FRENCH
ARABIC

POLISH

WELSH
DUTCH
GREEK
BSL
Tate z { { { { { { { { { { { {
Online
British z € € € € €
Museum
National z { { { { {
Gallery
V&A z { { { { { { { z
Museum
Natl. z { { { { { {
Portrait
Gallery
Louvre z z

Guggenheim z z z z
Bilbao
van Gogh z € € € € € z
Museum
Rijks- z € € € € z
museum
Centre z z z
Pompidou
MoMA z { { { { {
Met, z { { { { { { { {
New York
Guggenheim z
New York
24 Hr z €
Museum
Easyart.com z z z z z z

TOTAL 15 2 1 1 10 12 13 1 10 8 3 1 2 3 1 4

z- complete site or almost completely localised version

€- not completely localised version, but more than just visiting information
{- visiting information only

27
 Functionalities offered by Tate Online and similar sites

Welcome Multilingual. CLIR (query Controlled Free-text Easy to Easy to

pgs for f.l. search of site translation) vocabulary Search switch return to
(if more (can locate languages original
than one material language
page written in
available) other
languages)

Tate z { € € { {
Online
British z z { € € z {
Museum
National { { € € { z
Gallery
V&A z { { € z z
Museum
Natl. Portrait z { € € { z
Gallery
Louvre z z € Lafayette z- z z z
database
{ Atlas Kaleidoscope
database
Guggenheim z { { { { { {
Bilbao
van Gogh z z { z { € z
Museum
Rijks- { € z z { {
museum
Centre z € € z
Pompidou
MoMA z { { €
Met z { { € z z
New York
Guggenheim { { € €
New York
24 Hr € € { { z { z
Museum
Easyart.com z { z z z {

z - multilingual offering
€ - only in main language
{ - not offered

28