Dr. Ben Foley1, Moises Sacal Bonequi1
1University Of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Biography:
Moises is the lead software developer for the Language Data Commons of Australia at the University of Queensland. He has worked in the eResearch sector for more than 15 years, as a software developer, DevOps, and system administrator. He has worked developing databases, front-end apps, mobile apps, automatic sampling in the harsh Australian environments, and implemented data management applications.
Ben's work in language resource development over twenty years has resulted in apps and websites galore, including iltyemiltyem.com, an Indigenous sign-language site; and gambay.com.au, an Indigenous languages map. Recently, Ben developed speech-recognition systems, and now works with the Language Data Commons of Australia and Indigenous language centres, to maintain long-term access to their collections.
Abstract:
For long term access to language material, it is important to ensure that data is well described by metadata, identified with persistent identifiers, and that shared services with good governance are in place to store interoperable data. By doing so, data can be findable, and appropriate access controls can be provided.
The Protocols for Implementing Long-term Archival Repositories Services (PILARS) are a set of protocols to guide the design and implementation of data storage services, aimed at IT practitioners, archivists, librarians, researchers and infrastructure managers. The protocols are intended to be complementary to the existing practices and principles of those disciplines, and support the FAIR and CARE research principles. The PILARS protocols could form the basis for design, evaluation or procurement of archival repository-services, and also allow for data custodians to begin organising data in a format ready for archiving and digital preservation.
The Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) will present PILARS, along with case studies of the preparation of existing collections. One case study is the Batchelor Institute CALL Collection, a nationally significant archive of physical and digital works in and about Indigenous languages, containing thousands of items and representing hundreds of languages. The archive includes texts, audio and video resources, contributed over the past 50 or so years. LDaCA is working with Batchelor Institute to backup and reformat item record information, copying metadata from an ageing database into RO-Crate metadata format, and embedding cultural protocols to ensure long-term and appropriate access to this significant collection.