LINGUIST List 2.271

Thursday, 6 June 1991

FYI: Sentence Processing, Aboriginal Studies

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Johnd Moyne, CUNY Sentence Processing Conference
2. , Material on Aboriginal Studies

The tentative dates for the next meeting of the annual CUNY Sentence
Processing Conference are March 19-21 or March 26-28, 1992 at
New York City. If any of you know of any other meeting which
may in conflict, will you please let me know.
Thanks, John Moyne: moygccunyvm.bitnet

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Studies now holds computerised material relating to Aboriginal
Studies.

The archive is available to researchers, subject to deposit and
access conditions and currently holds material of the following
types:
	% Dictionaries of Aboriginal languages.
	% Texts in Aboriginal languages.
	% Graphics for use in literature production.
	% General texts relating to Aboriginal Australia.

In addition the archive has software and can provide information
and advice about use of Macintosh computers.

What is the function of the archive? The ASEDA provides a service
to researchers in the field of Aboriginal Studies. By accessing
information in electronic form researchers can engage in
comparative linguistic work, can locate references that are not
available by keyword searching of catalogues, and can 'add value'
to existing work (by producing various forms of output from
existing data files).

The archive offers long term storage and maintenance of electronic
versions of texts.

It also arranges for the production of infomation in electronic
form from paper texts, using optical scanning technology.

How is the data stored? The archive is currently stored on a
Canon Magneto-Optical Disk (MOD) with a capacity of 250 mb per
side of each removable disk.Data is imported from non-Macintosh
formats, and stored in its original form, where possible.
Structured data is also converted into a 'text-only' file. This
facilitates exporting to other media, and reading the data using
various software. It is not possible to mark-up all of the data so
that it conforms to a standard format. Documentation of the coding
conventions used in particular texts are available from the
archive.

What restrictions are there? Normal copyright restrictions apply,
and there are additional restrictions placed on items in the
archive by the depositors. Deposit and access forms accompany each
item, specifying what access is allowed.

Many items are freely available for the use of researchers.

How can I use the archive? In two ways. Firstly, you can deposit
information with the archive. Any information that you produce or
have produced on disk can be deposited. Any information that would
normally be deposited with the AIATSIS in a hard copy can now also
be deposited in electronic form.

Secondly, you can request information from the archive. You will
then be sent a copy of the data, subject to the access
restrictions placed on it by the depositor.

**Note that the ten Raa/Woenne Green Research Dictionary of the
Western Desert is now formatted and accessible (~1200kb on Mac
disk)

[End Linguist List, Vol. 2, No. 0271]