Future directions

The Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) can head in a number of directions in the next few years. We look to several existing archives as models, in particular ASEDA and AILLA. We have an annual target of >500 hours of digitisation (the estimated current backlog is at least 2,600 hours, which is the result of a brief initial survey, this will increase as we investigate more collections of analog media).

Providing a clearinghouse for relevant data, both content and support material. Content refers to papers, dictionaries, theses, grammars and so on. Support material includes those kinds of documents that are generic and can be used in a number of contexts. For example, if a researcher has keyboarded a questionnaire for their own purposes, they can deposit it so that others can have access to the same questionnaire for their own purposes.

Development of working relationships with cultural organisations in the region.

Developing an understanding among practitioners that the repository managed by PARADISEC is a shared resource that they want to deposit data in for safekeeping and access.

Development of methods for densely linking between ethnographic records using XML and controlled vocabularies.

Streaming data as timecoded points within large data files.

Establishment of audio-digitisation services in each partner university.

Running training courses for linguists, musicologists, anthropologists and others who need to know about recording and archiving techniques.

Development of an SQL dataset for metadata that can be remotely edited and queried.

Development of techniques for archiving video material.

Establishing and developing links with similar archives through DELAMAN and OLAC and similar networking initiatives.