Using GitBook for user-friendly documentation of a vocabulary

The Language Data Commons of Australia project has developed a metadata vocabulary based on the previous work of the Open Language Archive Community (OLAC) [1]. The primary documentation of this vocabulary is located in a github repository (https://github.com/Language-Research-Technology/language-data-commons-vocabs), but this is not an ideal form for providing information to users. Firstly, github may be seen as an intimidating venue by less technically-minded users. Secondly, the presentation there is (necessarily) formal and technical which is also a barrier for some users

We have therefore decided to create a more accessible account of the vocabulary. We are using the GitBook platform to do this (Metadata for Language Data - Metadata for Language Data (gitbook.io)) which provides a more familiar format for non-specialists. This approach also allows us to provide explanations of key concepts and recommendations for the usage of vocabulary items. Our aim is to create a resource which is a stand-alone source on good metadata practice for language data and also a suitable target for links from our portal and help pages which gives users useful and accessible information.

Acknowledgements
The Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) project received investment ([https://doi.org/10.47486/HIR001](https://doi.org/10.47486/HIR001)) from the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). The ARDC is funded by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

Reference
[1] Steven Bird and Gary Simons. 2001. The OLAC metadata set and controlled vocabularies. In Proceedings of the ACL 2001 workshop on sharing tools and resources. Retrieved from https://aclanthology.org/W01-1506