We are excited to announce the release of the Vancouver Statement on Collections-as-Data (in English, in Spanish, in French, in Arabic). This statement is an update to the Santa Barbara Statement on Collections as Data and is a direct product of the international working event Collections as Data: State of the Field and Future Directions (~ 60 participants, 18 countries represented), as well as a period of asynchronous community feedback. Many factors motivated an update to the Santa Barbara Statement including, but not limited to, heightened concerns about data sovereignty and the increasingly pervasive use of artificial intelligence. The statement we release today benefited from robust community contributions and we are grateful for the community engagement.
Given the growing international nature of efforts to support responsible computational use of collections as data, the Vancouver Statement on Collections-as-Data has been professionally translated by Transolution into Spanish, French, and Arabic. We sincerely thank Gimena del Rio Riande and Gaëlle Béquet for additional review of select translations prior to release. In choosing which languages to translate the statement into we considered a multitude of factors, including: number of language speakers, world region diversification, and demonstrated engagement with collections-as-data work. As the community grows and engagement diversifies further internationally, we would love to see additional translations of this work. If you have resources or expertise to support further translation please reach out to Thomas Padilla - tpadilla@archive.org.
Supporting responsible computational use of collections as data has never been more important. It is our hope that providing translations of the statement will support further action and advocacy internationally.
Thomas Padilla, Internet Archive
Hannah Scates Kettler, Iowa State University
Yasmeen Shorish, James Madison University
Stewart Varner, University of Pennsylvania