Who should have access to linguistic data?
Related to yesterday's post about Breath of Life workshops, is an interesting discussion about balancing access and confidentiality in archiving current linguistic data, from a recent Linguistics in the Pub:
The early impetus for digital archiving as we know it was to save recordings which might otherwise deteriorate and be unusable for the benefit of researchers, speakers and their descendants. The image of rotting reel to reel tapes in an old suitcase in the garage was often evoked. Thankfully, those documenting endangered languages now have a range of functional digital archives where the material that they collect can be safely stored and accessed. Of course not all fieldworkers do archive their materials, but this discussion aims to put forward the viewpoint of those who do: a group of hard-working linguists who take seriously both their responsibilities to the communities of speakers that they work with and the community of academics that they work with.
The focus of digital archives, however, is now on making collections as accessible as possible. Archives of endangered languages allow depositors to select from a range of access options which typically include: unrestricted access (often referred to as open-access), access after clicking on an agreement that the materials will not be used in certain ways, access using a password, access only by request to depositor and closed access. While accessibility is one of the great benefits of digital archiving, field linguists are under increasing pressure to make online access to their collections fairly unrestricted. At least two digital archives have been regularly contacting depositors and request that restrictions on accessing their collections be reduced.
While the role of digital archives seems to have shifted, the kinds of material that linguists are recording has also changed. In fact the contemporary field linguist is now likely to create hundreds of hours of digital recordings during their career, rather than a box of tapes, mini-discs etc. Linguists are also likely to be recording in intimate settings in small communities, where anonymity of participants is not possible. The desire for more naturalistic data means that many linguists want to record more than just tellings of myths, word lists and elicited sentences. Increasingly they are interested in recording informal interactions between intimates: family members and close friends.
And also related is this post by another Australian, David Nathan, on whether Open Access is really the best aim for linguistic field data:
OA aims in the wrong direction. Current research and practice in language documentation and archiving is towards more – not less – source community and individual control over resources which they originated. While such community control is only recently acknowledged by (some) language archives, it has been part of language documentation and fieldwork theory, practice and training for nearly 20 years. As far back as 1997, the Indigenous workshop “The bush Track Meets the Information Superhighway“, while clearly recognising the benefits of new media, stated that the issue “of greatest concern to all communities … was the lack of moral rights and intellectual property protection for Indigenous Australians”. The most recent thinking supports originating community and individual curation, representation, and access moderation of resources.
Since both posts are from the blog of PARADISEC (Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), I should probably just recommend the blog in general.
