Language collection rescue
Presenters: Robert McLellan, Ben Foley, Karan Manton, Alanga Gemma Nganbe,
Parlurn Rosaria Tipiloura
The Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) project aims to improve how people work with recordings, manuscripts, and other language material. During our long history with language documentation, research and archiving, we have seen collections suffer both physical and technological disasters. So many treasure troves of digital language materials are at risk of disappearing from old external hard drives, floppy disks and obsolete databases. LDaCA’s focus is to help language communities – which are the cornerstone of language collections – to hold their materials into the future, and rescue valuable items at risk of being lost. This session includes a case study of our work with Batchelor Institute Library to safeguard language materials in the *CALL Collection digital archive. Language speakers from Wadeye who are working in education will reflect on visiting the Collection to find language materials, guide protocols and be part of the journey to ensure future generations have meaningful access to the archive. What LDaCA has learned might help you keep your language material safe. If you have language resources you hope to access in the future or are holding material that is at risk of being lost, this is the session for you!