8. Staffing and organization

The structure and management of an archive will be dependent on the scope of the recording programme, in financial backing and on the availability of suitable staff. At the very least an archive will need a research section and a technical section. Within the archive four major functions can be distinguished: research coordination; cataloguing/auditioning; clerical and typing work; technical duties. It would be an advantage to have a separate staff member for each function although it might be possible to reduce staff by sharing some of the functions.

In the archive there should be a linguistic research coordinator whose main responsibility would be maintaining an overview of research. In addition he or she could advise researchers in the field, answering linguistic enquiries from researchers or the public, and perhaps train field researchers. It would be desirable for the research coordinator to be carrying out at least some field recording to maintain familiarity with the special problems to be found in the field.

A cataloguer/auditioner would devise the format for documentation of the tape archive in consultation with the research coordinator. Ideally this staff member would audition tape recordings, cross-referencing them to full or partial transcriptions held in the archive or compiling lists of contents with timings. To give an example of what an auditioner might achieve, the relevant staff member at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies processes from 300 to 400 archive tapes (which would amount to around the same number of recorded hours) per year. This involves producing a fairly detailed list of contents with timings for each tape. More detailed auditioning will reduce the number of tapes processed in a year while a greater yield will obviously be possible with less documentation. At the time of writing the rate of tape auditioning at AIAS does not even keep up with the incoming tapes to be archived. It is a matter of policy to maintain a certain standard of documentation even though this means the backlog will keep increasing unless more auditioners can be employed. Each archive will need to arrive at its own policy on such matters.

Another essential staff member would be a technician who would see to the selection and maintenance of recording equipment, ensure optimal storage for the archive collection and make preservation or working copies of the recordings.

Finally a clerk/typist would maintain files, type up correspondence and documentation and perhaps handle non-linguistic and non-technical enquiries from the public.

Depending on the size of the archive additional staffing might be warranted. An administrative officer could handle many tasks which would otherwise have to be carried out by the research coordinator and technician, thus releasing them for their more specialized duties. Ideally there should be one or more research fellows/ collectors on staff to carry out research projects designed specifically to meet the needs of the archive, whether filling gaps or expanding areas already entered on.

At least some of these staff would require specialized qualifications. The research coordinator should at least have a first degree with a specialization in linguistics but preferably a higher degree and certainly should be experienced in the field. The cataloguer/ auditioner should have similar qualifications but could be less experienced than the research coordinator. The technician would need to have appropriate technical qualifications to be able to maintain and select the equipment used by the archive and have up-to-date knowledge on recording, copying, storage and preservation. The clerk/typist would require experience and appropriate qualifications in clerical duties and typing. Provided he worked closely with the research coordinator there would be no need for the administrative officer to have special expertise beyond general administrative experience.

Overall policy making is particularly important in an archive's management. Policy can be decided on internally but it may be appropriate to have a board or committee for this purpose which includes non-staff, regional experts. Representation from the linguistic groups being studied in such a policy structure is highly desirable, not only so that the subjects of study have some control over the research being carried out on them, but also so that harmonious relations can be maintained. If relations between researchers and their subjects should deteriorate it would seriously affect the ongoing role of the archive. Such a board would oversee the archive's structure and management, policies on collecting programmes, the documentation, control and assessment of data and perhaps investigate methods of gaining additional funding from outside bodies.