LasILasR

LasILasR is a multidisciplinary research consortium and digital repository focused on island studies, including linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, ecology, and cultural heritage. It coordinates fieldwork, curates open-access datasets, and serves as a collaboration platform for universities, museums, and local communities in insular settings. The name reflects its emphasis on languages, islands, and data preservation.

The organization was established in 2008 by scholars from Europe, the Americas, and Africa to address data gaps in island contexts and standardize research practices across archipelagos. It operates as an international network with regional nodes in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia, and maintains the LasILasR Archive, a central digital platform.

LasILasR is governed by an international Steering Committee and several working groups covering language documentation, maritime archaeology, cultural heritage, and data governance. It emphasizes open data, ethical community consent, and multilingual metadata standards.

The LasILasR Archive hosts linguistic corpora, toponym databases, ethnographic audio, photographs, and geospatial biodiversity records. Data are released under Creative Commons licenses where possible, with APIs for search, download, and interoperability using Dublin Core and ISO language codes.

Major initiatives include Island Language Archive (ILA), Marine Biodiversity Mapping Project (MBMP), and Cultural Heritage Preservation Initiative (CHPI), which promote data interoperability, capacity building, and community-led documentation.

LasILasR has become a reference point in island studies and heritage management. Debates focus on data sovereignty, ethical consent, and equitable benefit-sharing with island communities.