DICTIONARY SOCIETY
of NORTH AMERICA
The Dictionary Society of North America was formed in 1975 to bring together people interested in dictionary making, study, collection, and use. Our 500 members who live in 42 countries around the world include people working on dictionaries, academics who engage in research and writing about dictionaries, dictionary collectors, librarians, booksellers, translators, linguists, publishers, writers, collectors, journalists, and people with an avocational interest in dictionaries.
The only requirement for membership is an expression of interest in language, in words, dictionaries and lexicography, or any combination of these.
Members receive a semi-annual newsletter that gives information about the Society and its members, dictionaries or lexicographic research in progress or recently published, lexicography courses and workshops, and recent or forthcoming conferences of lexicographic interest. Once a year they also receive the journal Dictionaries, containing forums on issues in lexicography; articles or notes and queries on the making, critique, use, collection, and history of dictionaries, including sketches of lexicographers; descriptions of significant dictionary collections; reviews of dictionaries and books on lexicography or closely related topics; and bibliographies on various aspects of lexicography. A membership directory is published every few years. Other occasional publications are issued. Members are entitled to free classified advertising in the newsletter once a year. Memberships are for the calendar year, January through December.
Current annual dues (calendar year 2008) for regular members or
institutions
in the United States, Canada, and Mexico are $40, non-North
America
$50;
for students and retired members in North America $30, others
$40.
See our Membership Form and Dues Schedule.
New members (non-institutional) receive a Directory of Members and
current
issues of the newsletter and journal. We invite you to join
us!
We meet every other year to make or renew acquaintance with other lexicophiles and to present and hear papers about dictionaries. We have met in Terre Haute, Indiana; Urbana, Illinois; London, Ontario; Cincinnati, Ohio; Newark, Delaware; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbia, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Madison, Wisconsin; Berkeley, California; Ann Arbor, Michigan (in connection with the celebration of the completion of the Middle English Dictionary, the first fascicle of which was published in 1952); Durham, North Carolina; Boston, Massachussetts; and Chicago, Illinois. The next DSNA Biennial meeting will be held in 2009, in conjuction with Indiana University in Bloomington. See below for more information as it becomes available.
The Dictionary Society of North America was founded by participants in a colloquium entitled "Research on the History of English Dictionaries" held at Indiana State University, in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 20-21, 1975. As stated in its handbook, "The purpose of the Society is to foster scholarly and professional activities relating to dictionaries" (defined as lists of words or other vocabulary items, with information about their meaning or other linguistic properties). "The Society shall carry out its stated purpose by promoting the exchange of information and ideas among members through meetings, research projects, publications (such as a newsletter, a journal, bibliographies, directories) and any other means it may deem appropriate."
The DSNA is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies, whose mission is "the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences and the maintenance and strengthening of relations among the national societies devoted to such studies."
Suggestions for reading on lexicography, dictionaries, and the
makers
of dictionary can be found in our Suggested
Reading List.
EURALEX,
European Association for Lexicography
AFRILEX,
African Association for Lexicography
AUSTRALEX,
Austalasian Association for Lexicography
Sealex,
Southeast Asian Lexicography
American
Dialect Society
Dictionary
of American Regional English
Linguistik
online (This site has an issue on lexicography, 2/99. All
papers
in German.)
ArtLex
Dictionary of ArtBarnhart Dictionary CompanionBurger's
Wordtree, a reverse dictionary
Centre
for Lexicography, University of
Aarhus, Denmark
Cordell
Collection of Dictionaries
DIMAP
- Dictionary Maintenance Programs
Dictionary
of Newfoundland English
Dictionary
of the Scots Language
Dictionary
Research Centre, University of Birmingham
English
Consulting and Language Reference Services
Geiriadur
Prifysgol Cymru/Dictionary of the Welsh Language
Lexical
Database of the Torwali Dictionary
My Word
Sandro
Nielsen, List of Publications
Online
Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho) - English Dictionary
SHARP,
The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing
Training
Workshop in Lexicography and Lexical Computing
Lisa Berglund, DSNA
Executive Secretary
Buffalo State College, Dept. of English
Ketchum Hall 326
1300 Elmwood Ave.
Buffalo NY 14222
Telephone: 716 878-4049
Fax: 716-878-5700