Introduction and request for assistance

[Language Laboratories and Archives]

>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

Alas no. It is mostly Yucatan and Southern Mexico. However, on the
off chance, can you give me a few language names for me to check?

Barbara

>----- 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
>>