Whereas some terminology of social work such as care management is easily translated from English into German (the German translation being identical), or from German into English (Lebenswelt is at times used in English as well), the need for professional dictionaries is still considerable. And while special purpose dictionaries for the terminologies of medicine, technology or law are numerous, only few paper-bound bilingual dictionaries for the jargon of social work exist, with many key words left untranslated.

DESA, the German-English Dictionary of Social Work, aims to provide a solution: an electronic dictionary that permits continuous updates. Edited by a team of experts from the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and Graz University, the entries themselves are authored by social work students of secondary and tertiary level institutions and by practitioners of social work. By this approach, we ensure that the dictionary actually meets the needs of its intended users. And we provide future and current social workers with a practice ground for further developing their professional foreign language and academic research skills.

With funds provided by the Office of the Provincial Government of Carinthia, an initial phase of the project established working routines and saw the completion of app. 500 entries. As a goal for the project period in the Sparkling Science framework (2010 to 2012), the completion of a further 1000 entries is envisaged.

This project has been completed.