World Oral Literature Project Media & Outreach
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Item Restricted Lecture discusses world language preservation(The Dartmouth, 2013-02) Connolly, SeanArticle published in The Dartmouth featuring Mark Turin and the World Oral Literature Project.Item Restricted Our language in your hands Podcast with La Trobe University(La Trobe University, 2012-12) Smith, Matt; Turin, MarkA La Trobe University podcast.Item Restricted Yale anthropologist hosts 'Our Language in Your Hands' on BBC(Yale News, 2012-12) Baker, Dorie; Yale, NewsIn “Our Language in Your Hands,” a series of three programs being aired on BBC radio, Yale anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin conducts a tour of endangered languages in three very different locales.Item Restricted Our Language in Your Hands: New York City(BBC Radio 4, 2012-12-17) Turin, MarkThis BBC Radio 4 series sees anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin visit Nepal, South Africa and New York to explore the fate of the world's endangered languages. In this final episode, Mark travels to New York City where a multitude of languages are spoken.Item Restricted Our Language in Your Hands: South Africa(World Oral Literature Project, 2012-12-10) Turin, MarkThis BBC Radio 4 series sees anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin visit Nepal, South Africa and New York to explore the fate of the world's endangered languages. In this second episode, Mark travels to South Africa, where he gets to grips with the country's complex language politics and policies.Item Restricted Our Language in Your Hands: Nepal(BBC Radio 4, 2012-12-03) Turin, MarkThis BBC Radio 4 series sees anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin visit Nepal, South Africa and New York to explore the fate of the world's endangered languages. In this first episode, Mark travels to Eastern Nepal, where Thangmi is now spoken by only a few thousand people.Item Restricted A New Voice for Dying Languages: ABC Radio National interview with Mark Turin(ABC Radio National, Australia, 2012-03) Anon.Yes, the overall picture for indigenous language preservation is pretty bleak. But some highly driven people using modern technology are refusing to let some languages die. We’ll hear about the work of the World Oral Literature Project, which started in Nepal. And also Miromaa—a software program developed in Newcastle which is being used by indigenous communities around the world. For the whole programme, see URL accessed week of 12/03/2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/a-new-voice-for-22dying22-languages/3886306Item Open Access Preserving Endangered Languages and Oral Literature(Yale University, 2012-02-20) Turin, MarkResearch Scholar Mark Turin discusses his work with the World Oral Literature Project, which seeks to collect, preserve and disseminate records of rare languages and oral traditions that are becoming extinct. He also talks about his Digital Himalaya Project, which is specifically concerned with the languages and cultures of the indigenous people of Nepal and the broader Himalayan region, including ethnic groups in Bhutan, India, and Tibet. Both projects aim to digitize and catalogue records of diverse materials, from audio and video tapes to written reports and maps, that already exist in libraries, universities and other collections around the world.Item Restricted Collect: Protect: Connect - The World Oral Literature Project(International Society for Folk Narrative Research, 2012-02) Wheeler, Claire; Wilkinson, Eleanor; Turin, MarkAn article published February 2012 by the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR). URL accessed week commencing 13/02/2012 http://www.isfnr.org/index2.html. Details the aims and objectives of the World Oral Literature Project.Item Restricted 頼れる記録の器求めて(Asahi Shimbun, 2012-01) Naoki, KimuraArticle featuring the World Oral Literature, published in Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Japan, Jan 2012. Rough translation to English: Reliable record-keeping: is digital archiving the answer? In Weimar, central Germany (population 60,000), a fire broke out one night in 2004. It started in the Anna Maria Library, a UNESCO World Heritage Library founded in the 18th Century. Among the 50,000 books burnt were rare volumes and manuscripts by Copernicus. 28,000 books were partially burnt and are under restoration. The weather is very cold at Cambridge University, where a female member of staff is quietly working at a computer in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. A conservation project for endangered oral culture was founded three years ago. Fieldworkers around the globe are sending materials (audio and film recordings and electronic data) to the project, where the staff archive them to a geographical map on the website. Accessing anthropological cultural data used to mean a visit to the host country, because archives could not be placed on the internet, so were put in a drawer and forgotten about. “Losing traditional culture means losing one’s identity. Digital recording helps to save historical records and makes our jobs easier’, says Professor Alan Macfarlane, University of Cambridge. “We have been able to record materials twice as fast using digital methods. Ten years since the beginning of digital recording, we are targeting over 100 cultures to be preserved in this way. The communities themselves are able to see the recordings and pass these historical records to the next generation.” As demonstrated by the fire in the Anna Maria Library, the preservation of books and film in physical form is unreliable. UNESCO reported that in the 20th Century, over 100 libraries were damaged or destroyed by fire or war. This situation has recently been improved by digital recording. Immediately after the Kobe earthquake, Mori (the property magnate) sent his urban research group to Kobe to film and survey the land using GPS, creating a precise record of the damage just nine hours after the quake. The huge amount of data passed on to the emergency services included statistics on damage to buildings, refugee centres, and food and dust mask stores. The data remains useful long after its collection. The paradox of museums is that, when you are collecting data, you don’t know what will be most important. Professor Hirose, Tokyo University, says “The way that digital recording can keep everything dispels the paradox of the museum. Material deemed unimportant and not recorded later becomes important, and through digital recording everything can be kept”. Professor Takano of the National Data Research Group created the search engine SOU in 2006 that uses a single word to find information, using searches in the same way as a human brain: one word cascades to multiple links and connections in the search, so that individually created records connect to each other. National cultural monuments or old books and art gallery collections can be viewed on a single database. For example, using the search term ‘vase’ results in national treasures, books about vases and museum prices displayed on the site. Previously, records were collected and then abandoned. The connections between these records can be surprising. This heightens the interest for the records.” On the other hand, digital recording can also be unreliable. “People are once again considering film as a system for making long-term records. 63,000 cinema films are now stored at the Tokyo National Modern Art Museum film centre”, says the Chief Research, Mr Tochigi. The centre’s warehouse keeps these films under specially controlled atmospheric conditions. The style of digital data filing, recording formats and playback system is changing all the time so one cannot see the previous data, and it is possible to accidently delete it. Digital data should be used as a back-up of the original data and format, rather than a replacement”. At the Anna Maria Library, staff are now scanning and recording their data and transforming it to a digital format, but only since the fire. They are also working to restore original material that has been burnt and to re-collect books that were lost completely. The original book binding and the layout of the book itself (such as photos) are an important part of the author and publisher’s original concept. We conclude that we still cannot tell the best way to keep records.Item Restricted The MacMillan Report: Guest: Mark Turin(Yale University, 2011-12) Turin, MarkDr Turin is an anthropologist and a linguist. His scholarly focus is on the Himalayan region, in particular Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and cultural Tibet. His research interests include the documentation of endangered languages and mapping global cultural diversity; language policy and the role of native tongue instruction in education; and issues relating to the electronic access and ownership of anthropological materials from ethnographic museums. We talk with Dr Turin about his involvement in the World Oral Literature Project.Item Restricted Digital Anthropology: Projects and Platforms(PLOS Blogs: Neuroanthropology: Understanding the encultured brain and body, 2011-11-28) Lende, DanielArticle published 28 November, 2011. The article reports presentations given at the American Anthropological Association meeting. The article includes a review of Dr Mark Turin's presentation, entitled: 'Multimedia Archives for Anthropology of the Himalayan Region'. URL accessed week of 07/12/2011: http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2011/11/28/digital-anthropology-projects-and-platforms/Item Restricted My Year on the Ice(The Observer, 2011-10-30) Leonard, Stephen PaxArticle published 30 October, 2011, by Stephen Pax Leonard. URL accessed week of 03/11/2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/30/life-greenlands-polar-desert?INTCMP=SRCH 'Stephen Pax Leonard spent the last year studying the language of the Arctic Inugguit. He was ready for the months of darkness, brutal cold and finally the all-day light. What he didn't anticipate was his creeping horror at the way the rest of us live'Item Restricted From A to B(Yale Daily News, 2011-10-24) Ahmed, Akbar; Sisgoreo, DanielArticle published 21 October, 2011, featuring Mark Turin's Linguistic Survey of Sikkim. URL accessed week of 24/10/2011: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/oct/21/b/Item Restricted Letters from the Arctic(Illustration, 2011-07) Anon.Nancy Campbell explains how a residency in Greenland inspired her book 'How to Say "I Love You" in Greenlandic: An Arctic Alphabet'. Copyright: Illustration magazine. Summer 2011, pages 42-45.Item Restricted RTÉ Radio 1(RTÉ Radio 1, 2011-03-19) Anon.Dr Mark Turin interviewed about the World Oral Literature Project.Item Restricted Collect, protect, connect: documenting the voices of vanishing worlds(Liaison magazine, University of Cambridge, 2011-03) Anon.Dr Mark Turin interviewed about the World Oral Literature Project.Item Restricted Mind your language! Save dying 100(The Telegraph, Calcutta, 2011-03-03) Mohanty, Basant KumarArticle on the World Oral Literature Project and endangered languages in India.Item Restricted Half of living languages face extinction(The Guardian, 2011-02-21) Tobin, LucyArticle on the work of the World Oral Literature Project in protecting endangered languages.Item Restricted Bid to document endangered languages(The Hindu, 2011-02-23) Tobin, LucyArticle on the work of the World Oral Literature Project.