AILLA:The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America

1. AILLA:The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America Heidi Johnson / The University of Texas at Austin

2. AILLA is a joint project of: • Anthropology: Joel Sherzer • Linguistics: Anthony C. Woodbury • Digital Library Services: Mark McFarland

3. www.ailla.utexas.org • Pilot site launched March 2001. • Permanent site launched January, 2003. • Parallel sites in English and Spanish; someday, we’ll add Portuguese. • Audio, video, digital text, scanned manuscript text, photos. • Genres ranging from chants to grammars to photo galleries.

4. Infrastructure • Archive housed on library computers, maintained by UT digital librarians. • MySQL database; PHP interfaces. • Intake & processing done in AILLA’s lab on PCs and Macs by graduate students. • Analog media returned to depositor or sent to the Indiana Archive of Traditional Music (http://www.indiana.edu/~libarchm/)

5. Fun facts • Collection is now > 500 G • ~ 90 languages from 15 countries • 1430 registered archive users • 917 resources comprising 5391 files; • average resource contains 5-6 files • all bundles inc. format variants, eg mp3, pdf • ~ 20% of files are password-protected

6. IMDI-esque metadata • Resource = a bundle of files, e.g. recording + annotations, in multiple formats • Information about: • Depositor: contact info, languages • Project: sponsor, contact info. • Participants: role, demographic data, languages • Resources: orig. media, digi specs, lgs, description • Content: genre, content type, description • References: related publications

7. Bundles, aka resources, aka sessions • Sets of related files • Critical for sharing resources: • things that belong together must stay together • access restrictions/conditions likely to apply to all files in a bundle • metadata describes the set – the whole resource – as well as each component

8. DELAMAN todo list • Define Relations for IMDI & OLAC. • NOT mathematical relations; documentary linguistics ones: • primary_text (e.g. a recording) • translation/transcription/interlinearization • illustration • commentary

9. Access management • Restrictions are set for individual files • Two levels of access: • 1: free public access • 2: restricted by password • To be added: • 3: time limit • 4: contact info for controller • 5: reference/link to license and/or recorded agreement governing the resource

10. Restricted files at AILLA Who restricts access & why? • Students: thesis research in progress • Other depositors: • pending permission from speakers; • recordings include e.g. gossip that needs to be edited out; • still uncertain about the whole access issue.

11. Pros of this simple method • It’s EASY: • to implement • to operate • for controllers to share access • It’s safe enough for our purposes. • Passwords, etc. are part of the metadata – in the database – so it should be easy enough to pass on to another archive.

12. Cons of the simple method • Depositors can be VERY hard to reach. • There has to be a time limit and/or phase-out plan, ala the Rosetta protocol. • Assume that nearly everything will ultimately be under the archive’s control – what’s the 50-year plan?

13. Low tech federation We could define a small set of standard “access packages”, implemented via our existing metadata mechanisms: • student special: good for 5 years only • renew-on-request: expires in 5 years unless you respond to the archive & renew • archivists’ discretion: could require e.g. a faxed letter from an indigenous organization; getting that letter is the users’ problem.

14. www.ailla.utexas.org Comments gladly received at ailla@ailla.utexas.org