skip navigation  The Library of Congress >> Research Centers
AFC Logo The American Folklife Center
A - Z Index
home >> educational resources >> getting started

Getting Started: How Do I Do Folklife?

The range of activities, practices, beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that can be designated "folklife" is as broad, deep and wide-ranging as human creativity and existence themselves. Folklife reflects and shapes our relationship with the world and others who inhabit that world. There is no end to the everyday and intimate creativity that all of us share and pass on to the next generation. This means the traditional songs we sing, listen and dance to; the ways we celebrate life, from birthing our babies to honoring our dead; our personal and collective beliefs; and many other things besides.

The sections of this Web site will direct you to Center-sponsored programs and Library-wide activities, including training programs and education workshops. It will also help you find selected publications about carrying out folklife research.

These programs and products are grounded in the aims and methods of folklore, anthropology, history, and ethnomusicology, among other disciplines. They demonstrate how to integrate personal interactions and community-based collaboration with library research in the study of community, society, and culture.

  Back to Top

 

  home >> educational resources >> getting started

A - Z Index
  The Library of Congress >> Research Centers
  June 25, 2008
Contact Us:
Ask a Librarian