BCS: DELAMAN 3: The Third Annual Meeting of the Digital Endangered Languages and Musics Archive Network

想象一下，如果没有人想到保存《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》，或者《贝奥武夫》，或者《薄伽梵歌》的副本，在它们所用的语言灭绝之前。世界将永远失去一些最伟大的文学作品。当今世界上有许多伟大的口头文学作品正面临失传的危险，因为它们所使用的语言正在消亡，因为最后一个使用它们的人会变老、死去，而他们的孩子会采用其他语言。 在目前使用的大约5,000种语言中，预计只有一半能存活到下一个世纪。语言学家和人类学家正在与这些濒危语言的使用者合作，在为时已晚之前尽可能多地记录他们的口头文学、历史、神话、传统音乐和其他形式的知识。他们在各种各样的媒体上制作了数量惊人的记录信息。这些录音必须全部转换成标准的数字格式，并保存在数字档案馆中，以便为后代安全地保存，并供今天的演讲者，学者，数字濒危语言和音乐档案网络是一个全球性组织，致力于汇集创建和管理档案的方法和技术，保护这一无价的语言遗产。该网络的成员每年举行会议，协调努力，确定战略，以改善世界各地濒危语言档案的安全和可查阅性。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Joel Sherzer博士将于2005年11月在奥斯汀的得克萨斯大学主持该网络的第三次年度会议。该网络目前正在努力制定更好的方法，管理敏感材料的获取，如圣咏或个人历史，以便这些资源的创建者能够放心地将其存档。该网络还在研究设计和战略，以便更容易建立濒危语言数字档案，从而增加网络成员。该网络还在设计“小档案”：向特定社区（如少数民族语言社区）提供本地化成套资源的小型档案渠道，有本地化界面，但没有长期保存资源的昂贵负担。

Imagine if no one had thought to preserve copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey, or Beowulf, or the Bhaghavad Gita, before the languages they were composed in became extinct. The world would have lost some of its greatest works of literature forever. There are great works of oral literature in the world today that are in danger of being lost, because the languages that they are composed in are dying, as their last speakers grow old and die and their children adopt other languages. Out of some 5,000 languages currently spoken, only half are expected to survive into the next century. Linguists and anthropologists are working with speakers of these endangered languages to record as much as possible of their oral literatures, histories, myths, traditional musics and other forms of knowledge before it is too late. They are producing prodigious amounts of recorded information on a wide range of media. These recordings must all be converted into standard digital formats and preserved in digital archives, where they can be securely maintained for future generations and also be used today by speakers, scholars, and students for a variety of research and educational activities.The Digital Endangered Languages and Musics Archive Network is a global organization dedicated to pooling methods and technologies for creating and managing the archives that are tasked with preserving this priceless linguistic heritage. Members of the Network meet annually to coordinate efforts and determine strategies for improving the security and accessibility of endangered language archives around the world. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Joel Sherzer will host the third annual meeting of the Network at the University of Texas at Austin in November, 2005. The Network is currently working on developing improved methods of managing access to sensitive materials, like sacred chants or personal histories, so that the creators of these resources can feel secure about archiving them. The Network is also working on designs and strategies that will make it easier to establish digital endangered language archives and thus add members to the Network. The Network is also working on designs for "archivelets": smaller archive outlets that offer localized sets of resources to specific communities, like a minority language community, with localized interfaces but without the expensive burden of preserving the resources over the long term.