Living Archives: A Community-Based Language Archive Model

Mary S. LinnSam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

University of OklahomaLDLT3 Workshop on Language Documentation and Archiving

November 18, 2011

Goals Propose a community-based language archive

model, based on Czaykowska-Higgins (2009) Situate endangered language archives in

larger traditions of language research and memory institutions

Argue that such archives are on the forefront of the emerging role of participatory delivery of information that make all archives relevant today, and thus we have an advocacy role in defending the continued need for archives

Terminology Language archive

o Any holdings of primary and secondary language documentation materials of traditional memory institutionso libraries, special collections within libraries,

archives, and museums.

Archivisto Any person active in the collection,

arrangement, maintenance, or dissemination of these holdings.

Social Science Research

Czaykowska-Higgins (2009) situates linguistic field research within other social science research models that involve community engagement and responseo Participatory Research - community members

participate in the design of researcho Participatory Action Research - empowering

communities in the design of the research and the results

o Community-Based Research - Focus on community and equal roles of researcher and community experts

Language Research – 5 Levels

1 Linguist-focused modelo linguist comes to a community as the experto detached in the name of scientific objectivityo linguist is responsible for the veracity of his/her data

and analyses, and therefore primarily to the scientific community and not the language community (pp. 20-22)

2 Ethical Linguist-Focused Researcho centered on the language and its speakers as subjects

of researcho linguist works to minimize any damage or

inconvenience of their research or presence (p. 22-23).

Language Research3 Advocacy Research

o research is now on, but also for communities.

4 Empowering Researcho language research for and with the communityo research is embedded in community needso linguist may actively teach community members

in linguistics and language teaching methodology (pp. 23-24)

OKBOL Learning to Use Archives

Mentoring in Linguistic Training

Language Research5 Community-Based Language Research (CBLR)

o Research that is on a language, and that is conducted for, with, and by the language-speaking community within which the research takes place and which it affects

o Goal of CBLR in most endangered language communities is to help bring about community-driven social change through maintaining, revitalizing, or renewing language.

Audio and Video Training

Memory Institutions

Digital revolution is transforming memory institutions with the same transformational questions and implementation

Literally, a world of new userso Institutional website as portalso On-line catalogso Digital data available on-lineo On-line exhibits

Archives Participatory Archives (Theimer 2011: 9)

o Any organization, site, or collection in which people other than archive professionals contribute knowledge or resources, resulting in increased understanding about archival materials, usually in an online environment

Participatory Archiving

Participatory Archiving Model (Shilton and Srinivasan 2007)o Involve community in the creation of archives through involving

targeted members in what to collecto Build culturally relevant records repositories

Involve community at all stages of archiving:o Appraisal - choice of what is acquired and archived and what is not o Arrangement - organizing a collection o Description - the ethnographic/historical information and metadata

about the items

Appraisal Some archives have very little choice if they

rely solely on what is given to them Others have mandates to build collections

or fill in gaps with certain a particular focus, and some have acquisition budgets to do so. In these cases, the archivist shapes the record.

Appraisal in Language

Documentation What a linguist and speakers record together

becomes the record of the language (Mithun 2001). CBLR ameliorates by putting community in

control of what gets recorded. Our current need to document endangered

languages can be reframed as an attempt to address the gravest gap in shaping the historical and cultural record of humankind. Endangered language archives should be at

the forefront of this redress

Arrangement An archivist traditionally keeps original

order, labeling, and descriptions of the creator for provenance (linguist-centered approach).

New collaborative projects the order and description can and should make sense to the community

Legacy collections can do both with digital record keeping.

Description Adding to existing and legacy collections Beyond the harm to an archivist of lost

contextual knowledge and a consequently distorted historical record, marginalization of the dispossessed within traditional repositories of historical memory robs communities of their cultural identity (p. 89)

Participatory Archives

Participatory Archive (Huvila 2008)o Focus on archive as a whole, not just process

in collecting and creating

Decentralized Curation

Curatorial responsibilities are shared between archivists and the participants in an archive.

Not the individuals but the collective has the most in-depth knowledge about the records or items, their contexts, and uses

‘Information managers’ o maintain technical platformso provide tools for working with the archiveo have no greater role or claim to expertise than

anyone else

Radical User Orientation

Usability and findability is the highest priorityo Guides even appraisal and preservation choiceso ‘Oriented and reoriented to its users all the time’ (p.

26) Archivist Code of Ethics

o Promote the use of records is a fundamental purpose of the keeping of archives

o [Archivists] should observe faithfully and apply impartially all the agreements made at the time of the acquisition, but, in the interest of liberalisation of access, should renegotiate conditions in accordance with changes of circumstance. (International Council of Archives, Code 6, 1996: 2)

Community-Based Language Archives(CBLA)

Actively engages with the community on all levels of documentation, describing and contextualizing, maintenance of, and dissemination of information

Defined as an archive, or collection within an archive, that is on a language, and that cares for and disseminates documentation that is conducted for, with, and by the language-speaking community within which the documentation takes place and which it affects

Accessibility is expanded and achieved through community members as primary shapers and users of the archives with the goal of sustaining and renewing endangered languages.

Community-Based Language Archives

New Documentation and Archive projectso Archives should be involved at all stages: grant-

writing, designing what is collected, how, how it will be accessed

Legacy archives – transforming older collectionso Carolyn Quintero Osage Collection

CBLA is in keeping with the Protocols for Native American Archives (First Archivists Circle 2007).

Advocacy Michael Kurtz keynote address to the US

National Archives and Records Administration (2011) calls on leaders in the archival and preservation community to be able to articulate why archives play a critical role in society

We cannot take for granted that memory institutions will continue or the funding that backs language documentation and description, or really any social science research

Advocacy The role of archives has continuously changed to be

relevant with the introduction of new media, concepts of access, and changing user populations

Endangered language archives are positioned to participate in and articulate this shift most clearlyo We address a huge gap in the understanding of what it

means to be humano We bridge social science, science, and humanities (in

content and application of field)o Archives are the product of documentary linguistso We work with and serve communities directly

o Draw on the enormous pool of expertiseo Giving new voice (and new voices) of marginalized

communities to the wider public