It's true!
I am asking around on different mailing lists to gain some insight into the archiving habits of linguists who use lexical databases. I am specifically interested in databases created by tools like FLEx, ToolBox, Lexus, TshwaneLex, etc.
Background Story
Hugh Paterson III, in cooperation with Jeremy Nordmoe of the SIL Language and Culture Archive, is investigating the trend among lexical database users to archive their work. In their poster presented at ICLDC3, it was claimed that less than 1% of SIL projects archive lexical datasets. Hugh and Jeremy want to know if this is common among all lexical database users or just SIL users of FLEx & ToolBox.
Preliminary Results
N=59 (based off unique data sets across the respondents)
The chart above plots total respondents by SIL/Non-SIL distinction. The taller columns indicate total responses. Lower numbers in the chart represent those respondents who indicated that they have archived their content at an institutional repository.
Communities invited to participate
We are open to having more communities participate. So far we have posted notices on the following mailing lists:
| Community invited to participate | Date Sent |
|---|---|
| ANU Austronesian Mailing List | 16. November 2013 |
| Yahoo! Lexicography List | 17. November 2013 |
| RNLD list | 18. November 2013 |
| SIL-LDL | 15. November 2013 |
| SIL-Survey | 15. November 2013 |
| ALGONQUIANA on Linguist List | 18. November 2013 |
| ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L on Linguist List | 18. November 2013 |
| FLEx Users Group | 25. November 2013 |
| Various University of Oregon Linguistic Department lists | 27. November 2013 |
| SIL-UND FaceBook Page | 28. November 2013 |
| ToolBox Users Group | 28. November 2013 |
| lingtransoft | 09. December 2013 |
| SEALANG-L on Linguist List | 09. December 2013 |
| TIBETO-BURMAN-LINGUISTICS on Linguist List | 09. December 2013 |
| SALON | 11. December 2013 |
| Wycliffe Nigeria | 12. December 2013 |
| SIL Lexicography Service Group List | 13. December 2013 |
Next
- SSILA
- ALT
- DELAMAN
It would also be nice to contact archives like TLA, ELAR, AILLA, LACITO, and PARADISEC, to see if they can provide data for the lexical databases they do have. I am sure that such data would also help us understand more holistically the lexical database archiving trends. (Necessary data would be: Tool of database production i.e. FLEx, ToolBox, etc., Date of accession, Researcher/Creator, ISO 639-3 code of content language, Were there derivative published works? Y/N). More on engaging Archives here.
Want to share the questionnaire with your community of linguists? Click here for more info on how.
Take the Questionnaire
It is an open questionnaire; anyone can fill it out. We plan on releasing more specific results (as appropriate) at a later time.
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