Best Practice in a Nutshell

Here is a quick overview of best practice recommendations for archiving linguistic data:

• Make an archival copy in a format which offers LOTS (i.e., it is Lossless, Open Standard, Transparent, and Supported by multiple vendors).
  • For textual material, use txt format with XML markup, and encode the characters in Unicode.
  • For images, use TIFF grayscale format.
  • For audio, use WAV format.
  • For video, minimize compression: see Classroom: Video
• To ensure long-term intelligibility, link terminology to a common ontology, e.g. GOLD
• For language identification, use Ethnologue / OLAC language codes.
• Create metadata for the resource in a standard format, e.g. OLAC.
• Make the metadata available to a general search engine, e.g. the OLAC harvester (even if the resource itself is not available online).
• Place archival copies in a stable online linguistic archive that will:
  • Maintain a constant URL.
  • Migrate data to new formats.
• Maintain clear documentation of rights, terms of use, and access restrictions.

For more information, see What are Best Practices? and Why Follow Best Practice?