Introduction and request for assistance

[Paula Meyer]

Does your collection contain languages from Baja California, Mexico?
If it does (outside chance), I can write about the need here to have
recordings from the 30's and 50's.
Paula Meyer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Language Laboratories and Archives" <language-labs at UCHICAGO.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 1:15 PM
Subject: Introduction and request for assistance


> Greetings! My name is Barbara Need and I am a manager of the
> University of Chicago Language Laboratories and Archives (LLA). I
> have been an interested eavesdropper on this list from some months
> now, being both computer support and archivist for the Labs. Part of
> the LLA's collection is nearly 350 hours of recordings of
> Meso-American languages done in the 1930s and 1950s. Much of this
> material is on open-reel tapes, which, of course, are deteriorating.
> Last year the LLA submitted a proposal to the NEH to digitize this
> material and make it available on-line to researchers and interested
> members of the communities where the recordings were made. Our
> proposal was turned down, but we are trying to revise it to submit
> again. I am hoping that this community can assist me with addressing
> some of the concerns expressed by the reviewers.
>
> 1) One of the concerns expressed was the lack of letters of support
> from outside the University. If any of you would be willing to write
> such a letter, please let me know. I can certainly provide you with
> more information about the collection
>
> 2) Another concern related to the fact that we have no field notes
> (or none that I know of--I have some queries out) accompanying the
> recordings. one reviewer asked how researchers unfamiliar with the
> original interviewer make use of "often highly personal" interviews
> fifty years (or more) after they were done. Our PI will be addressing
> this from the perspective of a phonologist/phonetician, but if any of
> you have any suggestions, it would be much appreciated.
>
> Barbara Need
> Manager (LLA)
> University of Chicago
> Language Laboratories and Archives
>