Introduction What to Collect Conducting Fieldwork How to Do Fieldwork What to Do with the Results The Professional Folklorist Additional Reading Internet Resources Model Forms: - Fieldwork Data - Audio & Video Log - Photo Log - Release Forms PDF Versions: Folklife and Fieldwork [8.86MB : 46 pgs] La Tradición Popular y la Investicación de Campo [8.21MB : 46 pgs] (PDF solamente. Spanish language version)

FOLKLIFE AND FIELDWORK: A Layman's Introduction to Field Techniques

When the first edition of Folklife and Fieldwork was published in 1979 there were only a handful of professional state folklorists. Today nearly every state has a program for documenting and presenting its own folk cultural heritage. Folklife fieldwork has gone beyond its early missions of preservation and scholarship to serve new uses, such as providing information to economists, environmentalists, and community planners. New technologies for preserving and presenting traditional cultural expression have been developed. A new generation of professionally trained folklorists have emerged from university programs, and many now work in state and local organizations to sponsor concerts, website presentations, exhibits, and other cultural heritage programs.

But regardless of the number of folklorists available for professional projects or the sophistication of the technology, there is still a need for the participation of all citizens in the process of documenting our diverse traditional culture.

Published in print by The Library of Congress: [Display Bibliographic Information] First Edition Prepared 1979 by Peter Bartis; Revised 2002. Publications of the American Folklife Center, no. 3; First printed 1979; revised 1990; 2002. Translation of the Spanish languge version by Pampa Rótolo, 2004. Both printed versions are available.

Caption for the image: During a July 1994 American Folklife Center field school project in San Luis, Colorado, participants Laura Hunt (left) and Beverly Morris (right) interview rancher Corpus Gallegos on the vega, a cattle grazing area held in common by the community. Photo by Miguel Gandert