The material of the language and culture archive of Ecuador is mainly provided by researchers and native speakers. All the material is kept for free in the archive, and therefore there is no fee to have access to it. Although all the archived material is completely donated by contributors, the name of the contributor is recorded, as well as the project, the institution, etc.

There exist some reasons to archive the material:
Share the work with other people in a rapid way, via an Internet connection.
Ensure long term preservation of the material in a secure digital way, avoiding any loss through process of time or any hazards: thefts, fires, floods, electric discharges, hardware damage, etc.
Share field work information for academic, educational, social or cultural purposes, among others.
Provide accountability to the community that contributed to the work, and to the institution funding the project.

Material that can be archived

The language archive accepts all types of material related to indigenous languages and nationalities of Ecuador. We aim at offering various collections including audios, videos, images, texts and bibliography. This material can have different sources: audio and video recordings performed during field work, educational material, photographs, literature, etc. It is not necessary for the material to be published or edited.

Intellectual property rights

If you are not the only person involved in the creation of the work you wish to deposit, you need an authorization letter from all the parties involved: speakers, translators, researchers, etc., in order for the material to be archived and subsequently used in the language archive. Then, the availability of the material will depend on your consent to determine a public or restricted access.
For more information contact: flacsoandes@flacsoandes.org

Concerning the material cataloguing: metadata

Metadata is the minimal information required to identify a resource. Metadata refers to any descriptive information on: the quality, condition or characteristic of a resource, object or data, in order to facilitate its recovery, authentification, evaluation, preservation and/or interoperability. In the archive we will use the IMDI EDITOR program to create metadata. Go to the user guide.