{"id":4116,"date":"2025-05-28T17:44:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T17:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/sasi\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2025-05-28T22:07:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T22:07:36","slug":"reimagining-archival-language-building-community-centered-thesauri-at-sacda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/sasi\/2025\/05\/28\/reimagining-archival-language-building-community-centered-thesauri-at-sacda\/","title":{"rendered":"Reimagining Archival Language: Building Community-Centered Thesauri at SACDA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South Asian Canadian Digital Archive is committed to documenting, digitizing, and preserving the rich and diverse histories of South Asian communities across Canada. By gathering stories, records, photographs, and other cultural materials, SACDA seeks to create an inclusive archival space that reflects the lived experiences of South Asians in Canada\u2014past and present.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of this work, SACDA has developed a custom metadata schema tailored to the needs of this community. The schema is grounded in established standards such as Rules for Archival Description (RAD) and the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). SACDA\u2019s metadata work also incorporates established vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM).<\/span><\/p>\n

However, while widely adopted, LCSH falls short in accurately representing many aspects of South Asian culture, identity, and heritage. In response to these limitations, SACDA has developed localized thesauri\u2014community-specific vocabularies that more accurately capture the nuances of South Asian Canadian lived experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Spreadsheets to Semantic Web Tools<\/b><\/p>\n

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These local thesauri were originally maintained in a spreadsheet, but SACDA is now exploring more robust and scalable options. In partnership with Dr. Julia Bullard at UBC\u2019s iSchool and as part of the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant-funded project, Developing a Community for Community-Centered Vocabulary Work, Graduate Research Assistant Asmita Gupta has been working on the initiative to assess the feasibility of migrating SACDA\u2019s thesauri into VocBench\u2014an open-source, web-based tool designed for managing multilingual and semantically rich vocabularies.<\/span><\/p>\n

What the Process Involved:<\/b><\/p>\n

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This exploratory phase included several key steps:<\/span><\/p>\n