"Library of Congress American Folklife Center: An Illustrated Guide," an 84-page softcover book with 46 illustrations and accompanying compact disc with audio recordings.

Written by American Folklife Center (AFC) editor James Hardin, the guide traces the growth of the Library's folklife collection from its roots in the Archive of American Folk-Song, which was founded at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music, to a collection of oral histories of Americans at the turn of the 21st century. The Archive of American Folk-Song was incorporated into the AFC when the center was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American folklife." Today, the collection encompasses all aspects of folk culture from the United States and around the world.

From the music of Cajun fiddlers and Omaha- Sioux drummers to accounts of the daily life and work of Alaskan sled-dog mushers and Maine boatbuilders, the collection encompasses and defines the grassroots traditions of American life. Researchers come to the American Folklife Center to hear music, ancient myths and urban legends from around the world. They come to read narrative accounts of everyday life along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and to view film footage of Balinese dancers. Materials from across the globe, such as the music and pageantry of China and traditional expressions from Central America, Papua New Guinea and Africa, also figure prominently in the collection. In recent years, the American Folklife Center has been recording the personal stories of America's living war veterans through the Veterans History Project, man-on-the-street reactions to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the voices of the civil rights movement through a cooperative oral history project with the AARP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

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Product #: 21104002