Best Practices for Information Architecture, Organization, and Retrieval in Digital Language Archives within University Institutional Repositories

Abstract

This report presents a case study about building a working digital language archive in a hosted university institutional repository. Best practices in language documentation regarding information architecture, organization, and retrieval are considered in relation to university library commitments to resource acquisition/preservation and online cataloging/delivery systems. Despite challenges, findings suggest that constructing digital language archives in university institutional repositories may offer viable collaborative solutions for researchers unable to find suitable, pre-existing archives in which to deposit their language documentary materials. The report concludes that, in such situations, the ability to satisfy best practices may respond to the strengths/weaknesses of particular software implementations as much as it reflects the design team’s vision, as theory and method in language documentation increasingly become matters of library and information science.