The DART project is a collaboration between the University of Washington (UW) and research institutions in Thailand to provide online access to qualitative and quantitative social science research data on Thailand. Goals of the DART project are to: 1) develop best practices for digital archiving of multiple-format social science research materials and data, including rights and cultural property management; 2) develop a metadata schema and system design which allow for inter-operability of data for different uses; 3) surveying, aggregating, normalizing and cataloging data for inclusion a central registry at the UW.
To this date, DART consists primarily of collections of ethnographic and anthropological materials collected by academics and researchers in Thailand in the 1960s through 1970s. Current DART collections are held in the following repositories: University of Washington Special Collections, Seattle, USA; and the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Bangkok, Thailand.
The project has started in 2006 by digitizing and indexing the archives of the Tribal Museum of Chiang Mai, where a huge number of documents, photographs and newspaper articles had been collected by the researchers of the former Tribal Research Institute between 1960 and 1990.
The recovery of Thailand’s ethnic and cultural heritage is the main goal of this project. The digital archive has become an essential tool for research and teaching as they include resources for education, research and for visual anthropology. They also include resources useful to local communities and NGOs.
Southeast Asia Library Group (SEALG) 
Dec 12, 2013 @ 23:24:13
Thank you for posting this information about our DART Project. I would like to point out that this initiative, funded by the US Dept of Education, Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA)program, was defunded as a result of cuts to the Department and the elimination of the program in 2012, halfway into the grant period. For this reason, the website remains preliminary and much of the collaborative work we hoped to achieve yet unfulfilled.
We were able to collaborate with Chiang Mai University to fund additional digitization of the materials from the former Tribal Research Center, and with Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre to make their materials harvestable and at least partly available through the bi-lingual DART website. We have also made available most of the ethnographic materials of Prof. Charles Keyes. We would like to provide access to the large digital archive of ethnographic photographs from Peter Kunstadter on this site, if we are able to find additional funds to continue the project.
Judith Henchy
Judith Henchy Head, Southeast Asia Section, University of Washington Libraries Special Assistant to the Dean of Libraries for International Programs Affiliate Faculty, Jackson School of International Studies
Dec 13, 2013 @ 10:33:17
Thank you very much for your update. I hope you’ll be able to continue your good work. I do think it would be very useful for researchers, students and local communities as well.