Language Archive Survey Results


1. Name and Location

Archive Name: SIL Language and Culture Archive
Archive URL: http://
Host Institution: SIL International
Country: USA
Contact Person: Joan Spanne
Email Address: Joan_Spanne@sil.org


2. Catalog

2.1 If the archive has a catalog in a standardized format, what fields does it contain? If not, what contextual information about the resources are collected? What other information would you like to collect if you could?
AUTHOR.SURNAME AUTHOR.SUPPLEMENTARY.NAMES AUTHOR.FUNCTION ENTRY.TYPE TITLE TRANSLITERATED.TITLE GLOSS THESIS.LEVEL DEGREE.GRANTING.INSTITUTION PARENT.ITEM.TITLE VOLUME.EDITOR SERIES.NAME SERIES.NUMBER PUBLISHER.PLACE PUBLISHER PAGINATION JOURNAL.NAME JOURNAL.VOLUME JOURNAL.ISSUE YEAR.OF.PUBLICATION ISBN SUBJECT.CODE COUNTRY.CODE LANGUAGE.CODE TRANSLATION.DESCRIPTION CATEGORY.VERNACULAR.MATERIAL COMMENT DATE CONFERENCE SENSITIVITY URL MICROFICHE.NUMBER RECORD.DATE USE.RESTRICTIONS FILE.TYPE RELATED.FILES STANDARDORSOFTWARE.VERSION These metadata reflect the historical concentration on published items, but the collection focus is shifting to include unpublished manuscripts and data files in digital formats. The metadata for this information is not yet tested in actual use.

2.2 If the electronic catalog conforms to some standard, please tell us the name of the standard.

2.3 To what extent have the archived materials been cataloged electronically?
a significant amount

2.4 If there is an online public access catalog, please give its URL.
http://www.sil.org/acpub/biblio/ [THIS WILL SOON CHANGE]


3. Holdings

3.1 What geographical regions and languages are covered?
Main Regions Covered: Africa Americas Asia Oceania
Approx Number of Languages: 1200
Main Languages:

3.2 Please give impressionistic estimates of the archive holdings for each of the data types.
DATA TYPE NON-DIGITAL DIGITAL
Texts: small small
Wordlists, Vocabularies, Lexicons, Dictionaries: large small
Field Notes, Correspondence, Misc files: small small
Descriptions (Grammars, Phonologies, etc): large small
Audio Recordings: small small
Video Recordings: none none

3.3 Please list any other data types which are not included above, or any other comments on the archive holdings:
Pedagogical materials for literacy, mathematics, health, etc.-- a large non-digital collection of these. Translated books of the Bible--a large non-digital collection of these, growing digital collection Historically, the collection contains mostly published materials, but the quantity of unpublished manuscripts and data files is growing.

3.4 What proportion of the holdings are unique to the archive and not available elsewhere?
a significant amount


4. Electronic Publication

4.1 To what extent are the archive holdings published electronically, where "published" means that there is a well-defined procedure such that anyone at all can get a standard copy of the data, either on digital media or over the internet?
a small amount

4.2 To what extent are the archive holdings accessible over the web?
just some samples

4.3 Is permission required before materials can be accessed?
sometimes

4.4 Is there any fee for materials?
often

4.5 How are author and/or editor defined for the electronic publications? Is there a bibliographical citation method?
SIL Electronic Working Papers: masthead information:http://www.sil.org/silewp/masthead.html citation format:http://www.sil.org/silewp/citation.html SIL Electronic Survey Reports: masthead information:http://www.sil.org/silesr/masthead.html Workpapers of SIL University of North Dakota Session: general information:http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/linguistics/wp/wphome.htm

4.6 Do the electronic publications have ISBN numbers?
no

4.7 What plans are there to expand the electronic publication of archive holdings?
Intentions: yes. Specific plans: none


5. General Issues

5.1 Who is the legal owner of archived materials?
In most cases, SIL is the owner of the intellectual property rights associated with our holdings. In some cases, the language community or a specific member of it holds those rights. The collection also contains materials published by other publishers, who hold the rights of reproduction, distribution, production of derivative works, etc.

5.2 Beyond legal ownership, are there any asserted or perceived moral rights concerning archived materials? Do the holders of the archive see the original speakers or their representatives as controlling publication?

5.3 In cases where no electronic publication is planned, why is this so? (e.g. funding, licensing, technical know-how, lack of interest).
Some material will remain restricted at request of language community, until requested otherwise. Much of the material is not of interest for scholars, and is not useful in electronic puplication format for its intended audience. (pedagogical materials)

5.4 Is any of the data in a proprietary format (e.g. MS Word)? If so, are there plans to transfer it to an open standard (e.g., XML)?
A considerable amount is in proprietary formats; currently the strategy is to migrate these materials to new versions, until transfer to open standards becomes more feasible.


6. Do you have any other comments about digital archives of language material, or on this survey?
Your questions about ownership and moral rights might better be directed towards ownership of intellectual property rights, as these would govern what could be converted to new a new medium and/or "published" (distributed without restriction) via the web.



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