Reviewed by Taras Shmiher, Ivan Franko National University

John Benjamins Publishing Company has started an innovative encyclopedic project in translation scholarship under the series title Handbook of translation studies. Among various genres of    academic writing such as academic and popular books, textbooks, articles, reference literature, and online databases, this book is itself located at the crossroads of different aims. It shares the task of a reference aid (encyclopedic description), a manual (didactic use), and a bibliography (a selective presentation of contemporary information flow).

The compiling principles differ from the Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies (1998 and 2008 editions guided by Mona Baker) and Übersetzung – translation – traduction: Ein internationales Handbuch zur Übersetzungsforschung (Mouton de Gruyter, 2004–2007), whose objectives are strictly academic and directed at the fullest representation of all of the primary concepts involved with translation and interpreting. The editors oriented this book to a broader audience of students, lecturers in translation/interpreting, and experts from other disciplines. This edition has been generated in conjunction with another John Benjamins project, the online Translation studies bibliography (http://www.benjamins.com/online/tsb/), which has been available since 2004. As the editors state, they must constantly develop and adapt topical and conceptual maps of translation and interpreting research (1). The bibliography provides ample space and opportunities to categorize existing sources and prognosticate further development, and since the Handbook is available both in print and online, contributors are able to keep their entries up to date.

Seventy-three authors worldwide were invited to work on this reference book.   Eight universities boosted the project: University of the Free State in Bloemfontein (South Africa), University of Graz (Austria), University of Oviedo (Spain), University of Oslo (Norway), Institut Supérieur d’Interprétation et de Traduction in Paris (France), Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, University of Namur and Lessius University College in Antwerp (Belgium). The edition was also strongly supervised by the International Advisory Board, consisting of experts in Translation and Interpreting Studies from nine universities in Europe, Asia, and North America.

This book contains seventy-four topical articles, peer-reviewed and written by specialists in different subfields. The coverage is multi-faceted, including, in addition to issues in translation and interpreting theory, localization, machine translation, and the Internet. Some topics are chosen extremely successfully, taking into account their freshness and brevity (e.g. networking and volunteer translators, self-translation, transfer studies). The length of the articles is relatively brief and fluctuates between 500 and 6,000 words, each with a limited reference list; in the online version, a list of further essential reading will not be limited. The book also encloses an index of subjects.

Translation and interpreting research is abundant. The institutionalization of translation and interpreting studies shapes and contributes to this abundance by way of academic curricula, national and international conferences, and policies of publishing houses. It, however, faces particular challenges in the changing world of information supply, and this project is a valuable aid for both readers and researchers.