Below are the results. Thank you very much to everyone who helped out! I am also including some attachments that were sent to me. One of them was done by a former co-worker who did a little digging on Gemini (which I found extremely interesting!). Happy reading! Shannon The TBS Scanning Station which includes a rudimentary translation application. You can scan a document in and it basically runs OCR and Google Translates the text into whatever language you need it. I think that the cost is about $7k one time purchase? -Plymouth ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My experience on this has been that this is a difficult transition to make. Be prepared to have to pursue a number of avenues and expend a good deal of resources on this issue. When I have used companies it is quite costly- it cost us $380 for two pages a few years ago. I have gone with doing this in house wherever possible, with staff we have and pay them per hour to translate documents when they can. That is just the documentation costs. We translate signs, posters, web documents, keyboard layouts, computer homescreens, etc. Also many current avenues of cataloguing are very poor when it comes to multilingual resources, depending on the language. For Arabic there is a distinct lack of Arabic language specialists in the library field. One of our staff has to add her own translated text and do cataloguing herself for Arabic resources here. We also use book vendors that provide MARC records with their books where we can. Last year we even had some ads on popular Arabic radio stations. So depending on the language you are looking to expand into and what translation you are planning on doing, you may need to look into help wherever you can find it. Be open minded, flexible and be prepared to adapt. -Dearborn Heights ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Language Line Services, Inc -Delta ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MADL has investigated about 5 translation companies, and we are about to partner with Language Line. I've attached their payment model and the rep's info below. It works just like Hoopla... the more it's used, the more you pay. No set up fees, no equipment fees (if you own a couple iPads or have an extra phone line, you're set). If nobody uses it, no bills. It's the winner by far against all the demos we've participated with. -Muskegon Area District Library --------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have used University Translators, https://univtrans.com and found them to be excellent, reasonably priced, thorough, and timely in getting the services complete. They cover so many languages too! Their cost is generally per word, usually .33/word but you can see a breakdown here, https://univtrans.com/written-translation/ I also just found this information about free translation services for non-profits via UofM, https://lsa.umich.edu/lrc/translation/languagebank.html but we wanted a certified translator not volunteers so this wouldn't work for us. They do have a list of professional translation services on this site as well that may be worth further investigation. Ann Arbor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As one who has done translation and who has used Google Translate, I'm curious about what you're asking. If you're asking about unofficial translations of various texts, Google Translate does a very good job. I'm bilingual in French and have been impressed with the quality of the translations for unofficial purposes. I also did translations of official documents in my last position, In this case, a human who has translation ability would need to sign the document and verify the accuracy of the translation. Though I was an individual, I do have a PhD in French and no one ever questioned my ability to translate the documents whose official nature made the translation easier. -WSU ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We have used a company local to us, 7C Lingo and have been very happy with them. The Ingham Intermediate School District has used them too. I’m not sure about pricing, but it is by the project and if it is an update to something they already have done for us they will sometimes charge less just for the updates. We have had our library card applications and new membership brochures translated into Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. 7C Lingo - Making Global Local <https://7clingo.com/> -Capital Area District Library _-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here at the Dearborn Public Library, we use Bromberg and Associates, and have for many years. They are responsive, professional and do a fantastic job in translating. I believe they charge per project, but I think it is a reasonable price. -Dearborn