Resources

Minimal Checklist for the Preservation of Digital Language Documentation Materials  

This checklist, which is published at http://hdl.handle.net/10125/55829 and copied here for easy access, was developed by DELAMAN to serve as a guide to the minimal level of digital data preservation that is generally accepted by the professional standards of language documentation. It should be noted that going above and beyond this baseline level of preservation is desirable, encouraged and even compulsory​ by granting agencies, particular archives, and/or professional expectations.

  • Materials are deposited with a digital repository with an institutional commitment to long-term preservation and access (e.g., a DELAMAN archive or an institutional repository). Furthermore, deposits are made on a regular and frequent basis, as materials are created.
  • Materials are in digital formats that are recommended by the international archival standards (e.g. IASA). This typically means they are non-proprietary, well-documented, and/or open source.
  • Materials are described using standardized metadata (e.g., OLAC, IMDI, Dublin Core, MODS).
  • A description of the deposited collection has been included in the collection.
  • A significant portion of the collection is public access, or a clear procedure for requesting access is indicated. If public access is impossible, a statement about why should be included in the collection description.

Publications

Report of the DELAMAN Costing Case Study

Budgeting for archiving in NSF DEL proposals

“The cost of not archiving”, presentation at the INNET workshop 2014 by Nick Thieberger.
Minimal Checklist for the Preservation of Digital Language Documentation Materials , same as above.

DELAMAN Award, Collection Guides

Franjieh, Michael. 2019. The languages of northern Ambrym, Vanuatu: A guide to the deposited materials in ELAR. Language Documentation & Conservation 13: 83-111. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24849

Useful links on:

Help and general information

AILLA Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America You Tube Channel
You Tube channel with videos in Spanish and English about AILLA, archiving practices, meta data and other issues that pertain to endangered languages and cultures around the world.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AILLAArchiveoftheIndigenousLanguagesofLatinAmerica/featured

Archiving for the future
Training course designed to teach language documenters, activists, and researchers how to organize, arrange, and archive language documentation, revitalization, and maintenance materials and metadata in a digital repository or language archive. The entire course can be completed in approximately 3-5 hours developed by the staff of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America at the University of Texas at Austin.
https://archivingforthefuture.teachable.com/

Documentation of Endangered Languages (DOBES) Information about the DOBES program and also information about language documentation in general.
http://dobes.mpi.nl

Endangered Languages Archive Blog
A blog about linguistic documentation, fieldwork, technology, language maintenance and education, and issues that pertain to endangered languages and cultures around the world.
https://elararchive.org/blog/

Endangered Languages Archive
A collection of help sheets on meta data creation, file naming, using ELAN and issues that pertain to archiving of endangered languages recordings and annotations for ELAR
https://elararchive.org/blog/

Endangered Languages & Cultures Blog
A blog about linguistic documentation, fieldwork, technology, language maintenance and education, and issues that pertain to endangered languages and cultures around the world.
http://www.paradisec.org.au/blog/

Ethnologue: Languages of the World
From Summer Institute of Linguistics International.
An encyclopaedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,912 known living languages.
http://www.ethnologue.com/

The Language Archive, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics – Nijmegen
Information about archiving, software and services related to language resources.
http://tla.mpi.nl


Software for linguists

Transcription software
Elan (transcription, annotation, and alignment of texts with audio & video recordings)
https://archive.mpi.nl/tla/elan

Lameta (meta data creation)
Versions for Mac, Windows
https://sites.google.com/site/metadatatooldiscussion/home

Lexicography software: SIL Fieldworks
Successor to Toolbox
http://fieldworks.sil.org/

Praat (phonetic analysis)
Versions for Mac, Windows, Linux.
http://www.praat.org

Audacity (audio editing)
Simple and free program for digitizing, editing, and converting audio data.
Versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Intellectual property rights, ethics

World Intellectual Property Organization
http://www.wipo.org/

American Anthropological Association
http://ethics.americananthro.org

Metadata and Standards Organizations

Open Language Archives Community (OLAC)
http://www.language-archives.org

International Standards for Language Engineering
http://www.mpi.nl/IMDI

Component MetaData Infrastructure (CMDI)
http://www.clarin.eu/content/component-metadata

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
http://dublincore.org/

Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/

International Standards Organization
http://www.iso.org


Digital archives information

Open Language Archives Community (OLAC)
http://www.language-archives.org

Virtual Languages Explorer (VLO)
https://vlo.clarin.eu