Archive of the Indigeneous Languages of Latin America
Heidi Johnson
University of Texas at Austin

The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a
web-accessible database whose holdings are primarily audio recordings of
naturally-occuring discourse, usually accompanied by text transcriptions
and translations.  AILLA has two primary goals: to preserve irreplaceable
materials, such as fragile analog audio recordings; and to render these
materials accessible to a wider audience by means of a web-based interface.

The metadata scheme used by the archive to describe our resources is an
extension of the Open Languages Archive Consortium (OLAC) metadata.  Our
system will also comply with the OLAC metadata harvesting protocol.  The
web interface used by contributors is designed to elicit detailed
information about the resource, while the interface used by researchers is
designed to support a variety of perspectives on the data.  Our metadata
scheme particularly provides rich description in the areas of Content and
Intellectual Property rights.

I will demonstrate the state of the art of the AILLA system, and present
our metadata design in some detail, to serve as a point of reference for
discussion of this issue.  The archive is undergoing intensive development
this fall, but I will be able to give conference participants a preview of
the range of uses that will be possible.