AILLA
AILLA was founded in 2000 by Joel Sherzer of the Department of Anthropology, Anthony Woodbury of the Department of Linguistics, and Mark McFarland, Director of the Digital Library Services Division of the University of Texas General Library System. Joel had observed that he and other scholars were collecting important recordings and texts of the indigenous languages of Latin America, and he became interested in preserving these collections of indigenous language and verbal art. The pilot web site and database, launched in April, 2000, were built by a group of Sherzer's graduate students: Christine Beier, William Fairchild, Ajb'ee Jimenez, and Lev Michael. The first year of the project was supported by a grant from the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at UT Austin.
AILLA is now a joint effort of the LLILAS Benson: Latin American Studies and Collections, the Department of Linguistics, and the Digital Library Services Division of the University Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. AILLA has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation.