Using existing metadata standards and tools for a digital language archive: a balancing act

Abstract

Purpose Building a digital language archive requires a number of steps to ensure collecting, describing, preserving and providing access to language data in effective and efficient ways. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) group has partnered with the University of North Texas (UNT) Digital Library to build a series of interconnected digital collections that leverage existing UNT technical and metadata infrastructure to provide access to data from and for various language communities. Design/methodology/approach This paper introduces the reader to the background of this project and discusses some of the areas important for representing language materials where both University of North Texas Libraries (UNTL) metadata and CoRSAL metadata practices were adapted to better fit the needs of intended audiences. Findings We discuss a workflow for standardized language representation (the Language field), defining roles for persons related to the item (Creator and Contributor fields) and including subject representation for language materials (Subjects and Keywords fields). Practical implications Although further work is needed to improve language data representation in the CoRSAL digital language archive, the model adopted by the team and lessons learned could benefit others in the language archiving community. Originality/value This paper is a significantly extended version of the presentation made at the 1st International Workshop on Digital Language Archives in 2021.