How to use ELAR

Registering for an ELAR user account will give you access to the widest possible range of materials. While many materials in ELAR are available as Open Access, most materials require users to register and be logged in in order to view, stream, and download them.

Click on Register in the navigation bar at the top of the ELAR webpage. Fill in the form with your information and accept the terms and conditions and data protection statement. After you submit the form, the responses will be reviewed by ELAR, which may take up to two working days. Upon approval, you will receive an email from Preservica (our archiving system) to create your account password, which will allow you to log in to ELAR.

Click on the Log in button at the top right of the ELAR webpage. Please note that users are automatically logged out after a period of inactivity. Make sure to log in each time you use the archive.

ELAR accounts are deactivated if they have not been used for over 6 months. If you have not used your account in a long time, you will need to register again to reinstate your account.

Contact us by email at [email protected] for help resetting your password.

The archive is organized into a series of individual collections. A collection consists of bundles and each bundle contains a group of files. Files are bundled together in this way because they are all related to one particular event, whether they are pictures, transcriptions, and/or translations of recordings.

Visit the collections page and type the language name into the drop-down menu under Language to find collections that contain materials in that language. If you have trouble finding a particular language, try any alternate spellings or alternate names.

To find a collection archived by a particular person, type the person’s name into the drop-down menu under Person. If you are looking for recordings of a particular person, see how to find recordings with a particular person.

Click on the collection you are interested in. This will take you to a collection summary. Follow the link to see the collection’s landing page – a webpage with key information characterizing the context and contents of the collection.

Use the ELAR Map. Click on a place marker to open a collection summary. Follow the link to see the collection’s landing page – a webpage with key information characterizing the context and contents of the collection.

You can also find collections by location via the collections page. Use the continent filters on the left hand side to see a list of collections from a particular continent or use the Location drop-down menu at the top to search for particular countries of interest.

Visit the collection’s landing page, a webpage that contains key information about the history and context of a collection, details about the project(s) that contributed to the collection, as well as descriptions of the ethnolinguistic group(s) represented and of the types of recordings and other materials in the collection. The landing page also has information on how materials from the collection should be cited and acknowledged.

Click on the button “Access Collection” at the bottom of the page to see the file bundles that make up the collection.

Access the collection, then click on tags in the left-hand side bar to narrow the list of bundles to a particular person, a particular topic or keyword, or a particular type of file (for example, videos or documents). This will display a list of bundles corresponding to the tags you have selected.

Double click on a bundle to learn more about it and see what kinds of files it contains.

Double click on a bundle to open it. Here you can see the files it contains and learn more about the contents.

Click on Show more in the bottom corner of the box at the top of the screen to read the description of the bundle contents and to see more about the people involved in the recordings.

Beneath each file name, you can see the file format, e.g., whether it is a video, audio, document, etc.

Click on the file to stream an audio or video file, or to view images, PDFs or .txt documents. ELAN annotation files are labeled as “xml” and FLEx database files are listed as “zip”. These file types must be downloaded and opened with the appropriate software to be viewed.

If you see a message that the file cannot be displayed, check that you are logged in and that the file is not part of a restricted access bundle.

Double click on the file you would like to view, then click on the download icon in the top right-hand corner. The download should start automatically.

The use of the materials in ELAR is subject to the ELAR Terms and Conditions. Materials may only be used for non-commercial and/or educational activity. Any other usage needs explicit written agreement from the Collection Steward and any other rights holders.

If the materials are used in a publication, broadcast, or other public dissemination, ELAR must be acknowledged as well as the Collection Steward and any other rights holders in the materials according to the citation instructions on the collection’s landing page.

In ELAR there are three levels of access. These are determined by the person or people who collected or curated the materials in the collection and are administered by the Collection Steward.

• Open Access (O): Files in these bundles may be viewed, streamed, or downloaded by anyone visiting the ELAR site.
• User Access (U): Files in these bundles may be viewed, streamed, or downloaded only by registered users of ELAR who have accepted ELAR’s terms and conditions and who are logged in.
• Subscriber Access (S): Files in these bundles are restricted and may only be viewed, streamed, or downloaded by registered users of ELAR who have been granted permission by the collection steward to access those bundles.

You can check the access level of the file bundle.

If you are not able to view a file, make sure that you are logged in and try to view the file again.

If the bundle is marked for Subscriber Access (S), you will need to fill out the access request form.

Some files in the archive may be in formats which cannot be displayed by our archiving system. In these cases, you need to download the file and open it with appropriate software. See the question on how to view files for more information.

First, check that the materials are in fact restricted. Restricted materials are indicated as having Subscriber Access.

Inside the bundle, click on Show more on the top of the screen to see the full details for the bundle. Read the access restrictions to understand why the depositor marked these materials as restricted.

Click on the words “Request access to restricted files” at the bottom of the ELAR page or visit https://elararchive.org/blog/request-access/ to fill out the access request form.

This form will ask you to identify the specific bundles that you would like to access and to describe the reasons that you are requesting access. This information is forwarded to the collection steward, the person who is responsible for the administration of the materials in that collection. It may take some time to receive a response.