ELAR has a richly articulated approach to managing access to deposits through a system we call “protocol”. Each deposit item is assigned an access value chosen by depositors from the following options:
- U – “User” – available to all registered users
- R – “Researcher” – available to users registered as researchers
- C – “Community” – available to users endorsed as members of relevant language community
- S – “Subscriber” – items are available to users who have been given individual access rights for that resource
The protocol system is used throughout the archive and is a fundamental component of the ELAR web interface. When users browse or search the archive website they can see for all listed materials what their access rights are; depending on the user’s status, available materials will be shown in green while unavailable resources are highlighted in red. Look at this example:
This shows that for the particular logged in user there are 155 resources available (as U) and 5 which are not (as S).
If a user wants t0 access these files, s/he can click on a link to apply for Subscriber status:
The user types the nature of his/her request in a dialogue box. The archive system then emails the request, together with basic information about the person requesting (which was supplied at first registration) to the depositor who can then approve or deny access to the relevant deposit materials. The depositor can also send back a message to the applicant explaining the decision, or indeed with any other relevant information. In over 95% of cases the result is approval to access.
Most requests for access include some reason or justification, as the following examples from recent applications illustrate (for privacy reasons quotes have been anonymised). Firstly, there are language documenters who want access to comparable collections:
“My name is xx and I’m also a documentary linguist of signed languages. [I am] very interested in looking at the other sign language corpora … to see the approaches sign linguists have taken in annotating their work … knowing what other sign linguists are doing may allow a development of a more standard system of annotation, which can lead to productive cross-linguistic research in the future …”
or to collections that might have related information:
“… I am interested in co-speech gesture in West Africa and wondering to what extent video recordings in ELAR can be informative of gesture usage … I hope you can grant me access to some of your video files (and perhaps point me to clips you feel might be rich in gesture).”
More general interest might be the prompt:
“I am interested in Tanzanian Bantu languages and would like to have a look at the ABCD material. I am not looking for anything in particular, but would use suitable data for research and teaching. Here is more about me: [link to website]”
or sometimes users are just curious:
“I’m xx. I’d like to learn Bislama language, but never heard what it sounds like. Am very curious “
Occasionally, students request access to restricted materials so they can prepare for their own project work:
“I am currently doing my masters in Linguistics and I’m researching on an endangered language in Malaysia. I would like to see a sample of the data from the fieldwork since I’m not used to this yet. I hope that I can gain more understanding in carrying out the fieldwork.”
As noted above, the vast majority of requests are approved, but occasionally depositors give rejections, but always with some justification:
“Dear xx,
I am sorry we cannot give you access to this deposit. The ABCD community has asked us to restrict access to community members. With best wishes, [depositor]“
What is particularly interesting however, is that depositors sometimes start a conversation with the requesting user, and offer to help them:
“Please let me know if you’re looking for any specific materials or if you have any questions.”
or give further information and even offer to meet with the user in person:
“Hi xx
I’ve approved your access to this collection, but you should know that there is an update in the material I’ve just deposited, with much more information on both music and texts. I’d be happy to give you access to that when it is processed. Next time I come to London (October or November this year) I’d be happy to meet up if you would like to discuss.”
Like social networking platforms such as Facebook, Google Plus and Linked In, ELAR is providing a place for people to connect with each other, exchange ideas and materials, and engage in conversations. This is a result of the design of ELAR as a Social Networking Archive, supported by an infrastructure and an interface that enables and highlights sharing and exchange between depositors and users (who may themselves be actual or potential depositors). It also makes ELAR a rather different place than other archives.