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Category: Acquisitions

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Collections documenting cultures in Brazil, the Sudan region, New Mexico and California are now richly described online

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

A handful of recently published online finding aids describing American Folklife Center collections provide detailed windows into collections documenting a range of traditions, from New Mexican Midwinter Masquerades to traditional music from the Sudan region. The following round-up draws heavily on descriptions created by the archivists who processed these amazing collections. Roxane Connick Carlisle Collection, …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

No ordinary banjo

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

This is a guest post by acquisitions coordinator Todd Harvey of the American Folklife Center. Today the American Folklife Center accessioned an extraordinary, hand-crafted North Carolina banjo. The instrument was built in 1961 by Frank Proffitt, Sr., of western North Carolina, and given to the eminent folk musician and dancer Douglas Kennedy, of the English …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

So you want to donate your documentary collection to an archives?

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

At the American Folklife Center, we regularly get questions from fieldworkers about how to find an archival home for their collections. This post aims to consolidate some of that information in one place, and benefits from thoughtful feedback from several staff members. Disclaimer: This is general guidance and does not necessarily reflect the Library’s acquisitions policies. You or …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

StoryCorps interviews and the importance of keywords

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

This is a guest post from Julia Kim, Digital Assets Specialist at the American Folklife Center. This Thanksgiving, StoryCorps invites everyone to take part in The Great Listen, a national movement that empowers young people–and people of all ages–to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

National Storytelling Festival photographer visits the Center

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

This is a guest post by Todd Harvey, acquisitions coordinator and folklife specialist at the American Folklife Center. Fifteen years ago, a moving van carrying four tons of archival material documenting the National Storytelling Festival arrived at the Library of Congress in the largest single acquisition the American Folklife Center has yet undertaken. The National …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

AFC’s Occupational Folklife Project Goes Online with “Working the Port of Houston” Collection

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by Nancy Groce, Senior Folklife Specialist and Director of the Occupational Folklife Project. After seven years of planning, research, fieldwork, and archiving, the American Folklife Center is delighted to announce that the first installment of its Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) launches today on the Library of Congress’s website with …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

AFC acquires the songbooks from your childhood

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

This is a guest post by Todd Harvey, acquisitions coordinator at the American Folklife Center (AFC). The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce a major acquisition, the Cooperative Recreation Service collection (AFC 2016/051) donated to the Center by fiddler, scholar, and publisher Bruce Greene. The Cooperative Recreation Service is a publishing company founded during …