Using the Ethnographic Collections

The tabs below provide information about each of these systems and their utility relating to American Folklife Center collections.

The Library of Congress hosts a growing number of collections online. These collections are accessible via the Library of Congress website through the Digital Collections site.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Within this digital environment, the American Folklife Center provides access to several dozen of our multi-format ethnographic collections. You can access these by selecting American Folklife Center from the facets in the left-navigation selections under the Part of heading. Or, select the link below.
American Folklife Center Digital Collections
The online collections at the Library of Congress adhere to a standard navigation scheme. Once you click on a collection title, you are taken to the About this Collection page. You will find an overview description of the collection, accompanied by a gallery of "featured content." Each of the items in the gallery is clickable and will take you into the collection.

Another standard tab is Collection Items, and clicking that tab displays search results of all digital items belonging to that collection. You will have control over listing arrangement and filtering via drop down menus on the right hand side of your browser window, as well as in the navigation facets on the left hand side.

A few notes about American Folklife Center online collections:
- in many cases, an "image" item will contain multiple subitems. These may be individual pages of a scanned document, or frames from a roll of 35mm photographic film (black and white or color slide).
- in some cases, there is a "Related items" box on a collection item's page. This will contain one or more links to other items in that collection that may be of value as you use a collection. For example, if you have navigated to an audio recording of an interview, there may be a link to a recording log or field notes connected to that interview.

The American Folklife Center (AFC) offers Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids for many of our collections. Read more about EAD and the purpose of these guides below.

AFC EAD Finding Aids
This link provide an alphabetical listing of all EAD Finding Aids for collections in the AFC. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an XML standard for encoding archival finding aids, maintained by the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards of the Society of American Archivists, in partnership with the Library of Congress.
EAD: Encoded Archival Description
All EAD Finding Aids for Library of Congress collections are found here. These guides provide comprehensive overviews of unique Library resources. Progressively detailed descriptions of a collection's component parts summarize the overall scope of the content, convey details about the individuals and organizations involved, and list box and folder headings. Special service conditions are noted, including terms under which the collection may be accessed or copied. Links are provided to digitized content, when available.
EAD Use and Best Practices at the Library
The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an international standard maintained by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists .This site provides an overview of the standard and information about best practices at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress Online Catalog offers robust access to bibliographic records for the collections held by the American Folklife Center. These records will provide important information for researchers, including AFC shelf number, notes on the scope of the collection, and essential metadata to help you determine how a given collection aligns with your research question(s). Access the full catalog here:

Search the Library of Congress Online Catalog
To limit your search in the LC catalog to items and collections held by the American Folklife Center, choose the Advanced Search option, then click on the "Add Limits" button (below the boxes for entering search terms). In the box labeled "Locations in the Library," select "American Folklife" (see screenshot below)

Enter your search terms, and then select "search" (toward the bottom of the screen) to display results held by the American Folklife Center.

Beyond the Library-wide access tools detailed in the previous tabs, the American Folklife Center provides several kinds of "local" tools that focus more directly on our collections and Reading Room resources.

AFC Geographic Research Guides
The American Folklife Center currently provides research guides to our collections organized by geographic area, and these can be especially useful in discovering items related to specific locations within large collections that contain material from multiple geographic locales (eg. several U.S. states).

These guides offers item-level description and metadata. In order to most efficiently utilize these cross-collection guides, be aware of the following:
- guides are generally organized on the page in a collection/item hierarchy: collection descriptions will precede item descriptions (which will be indented and listed under the collection to which they belong). For example, a collection listed in the Florida guide may very well contain many items unrelated to Florida, but only those items connected to Florida will be listed in the indented section
- in identifying items of interest, be sure to make note of both the "AFC" number and the "AFS" number(s). The "AFC" number refers to the collection, while the "AFS" number(s) will relate to individual items. NB: "AFS" is an historic designation connected to the Archive of Folk Song, established by the Library of Congress in 1928.
Ethnographic Thesaurus
The AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus is a searchable online vocabulary that can be used to improve access to information about folklore, ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, and related fields. As such, it is a useful resource when utilizing ethnographic collections held by the American Folklife Center. The resource is currently hosted online by the Library of Congress as part of its linked data services.
Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog
The historic card catalog in the American Folklife Center Reading Room comprises a cross-indexed reference tool for the body of instantaneous disc recordings we hold (across multiple collections). The catalog contains cards indexing shelf number, geographic location of recording, title of song/performance, and name(s) of performers. The card catalog is accessible in our Reading Room, and there is an electronic version of this resource available to researchers offsite.

The American Folklife Center Reading Room also contains reference resources in the form of hard copy, paper-based files that provide immediate access to information about collections and popular or common subjects. These files are also known as either numerical files, since they are organized according to AFC collection numbers, or subject files that are arranged according to general or corporate subjects. Reference staff will assist patrons in finding the appropriate resources.

Accessing Ethnographic Collections at the Library of Congress

Using the Ethnographic Collections