Cologne Language Archive Services (CLASS)

CLASS is a collective term for the projects and initiatives carried out at the University of Cologne from 2012 to 2014 as part of Curation Projects 3.1 and 3.2 of the CLARIN-D Technical Working Group 3 (F-AG 3). Some of the results of these projects are now managed by the DCH.

Curation Project 3.1: Poio API—a framework for processing and utilizing field research data in linguistic research

The curation project aims to improve search and annotation capabilities in documentation data and to bridge the gap between the data formats used by language documentation archives (particularly the ELAN annotation format) and those used in corpus linguistics and NLP (particularly LAF/GrAF). This goal will be achieved in two steps: The establishment of an open and modular software library—Poio API—can serve as the foundation for general web-based applications and as the core of project-specific software.

A productive, server-based sample application that provides both web services and a graphical user interface makes the library usable as a reference implementation. Technically, the project focuses on the DoBeS corpus as a central resource within the CLARIN infrastructure for the subject areas of F-AG 3.

Curation Project 3.2: Field Linguistic Tool Repository

This curation project makes helper scripts already in use within the academic community available as a web application and web services. To this end, research-supporting scripts are collected and maintained, their source code is published, and their functionality is made available via an HTML-based user interface and a REST interface.

Through the Field Linguistic Tool Repository, four scripts are established as CLARIN resources: ToolboxPy, Toolbox2LaTeX, ToolboxSearch, and the CMDI File Generator. The first three curated scripts allow users to search for and replace annotations in Toolbox files. Some of these are integrated into the CLARIN resource Poio. The CMDI-File Generator enables the bulk generation of CMDI files for data from linguistic field research. The various web applications are integrated into the Cologne Language Archive Services (CLASS) and are also accessible via a REST interface.

The CMDI File Generator is implemented as an HTML5 web application. This web application will also function offline, allowing researchers to generate metadata files during fieldwork without an internet connection.