The Archive preserves digital collections, including audio and video recordings, of endangered languages around the world.
The archive also digitises legacy collections in analogue formats saving them from deterioration and making them accessible to the speaker and their descendants, scholars, and the public.
[6] David Nathan was director during the first decade of the archive's existence until 2014, when the role was taken over by Mandana Seyfeddinipur, who is also head of ELDP.
[7] From July, 2021, ELAR has been housed at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) in Berlin, Germany.
[8] ELAR is one of three partners of the CLARIN Knowledge Centre for Linguistic Diversity and Language Documentation (CKLD), providing its expertise to researchers and community members across Europe.