Folklife Center News AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER It’s ALL IN THE CARDS: LABORLORE: WISDOM FROM THE ELDERS: BOARD OF TRUSTEES Librarian Appointees: Tom Rankin, Chair, North Carolina Jane Beck, Vice-chair, Vermont Donald Scott, Nevada Kojo Nnamdi, District of Columbia Congressional Appointees: Daniel Botkin, California C. Kurt Dewhurst, Michigan Mickey Hart, California Dennis Holub, South Dakota William L. Kinney Jr., South Carolina Marlene Meyerson, New Mexico Charlie Seemann, Nevada The National Visionary 3 AFC’s historic card catalog 8 A recap of the symposium, 11 Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Massachusetts has long been an essential “Laborlore Conversations Leadership Project (NVLP), Presidential Appointees: research tool for visitors to the IV: Documenting Occupational a private, non-profit organization, Carl Artman, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior Library. Now you can access it Folklore Then and Now,” held at has donated more than two hun- Mary Bomar, Director, National Park Service online! AFC on August 15 and 16, 2007. dred videotaped interviews with Lisette M. Mondello, Assistant Secretary for Public and Governmental Affairs, prominent African American elders Department of Veterans Affairs to the American Folklife Center. Ex Officio Members James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress Cristián Samper, Acting Secretary of the AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER Smithsonian Institution Dana Gioia, Chairman, National Endowment The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to “preserve and present for the Arts American folklife” through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference Bruce Cole, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and training. The Center incorporates the Archive Bill Ivey, President, American Folklore Society of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928 and Philip V. Bohlman, President, Society for is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the Ethnomusicology world. Peggy A. Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center Folklife Center News publishes articles on the programs and activities of the American Folklife Judith McCulloh (Emerita), Illinois Center, as well as other articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20540–4610. Folklife Center News does not publish announcements from other institutions or reviews of books Folklife Center News from publishers other than the Library of Congress . Readers who would like to comment on Center VOLUME 29, NO. 3 SUMMER 2007 activities or newsletter articles may address their remarks to the editor. Stephen D. Winick, Editor ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES: The American Folklife Center’s Website provides David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor full texts of many AFC publications, information about AFC projects, multimedia presentations Michaela McNichol, Art Director of selected collections, links to Web resources on ethnography, and announcements of upcoming events. The address for the home page ishttp://www.loc.gov/folklife/ . An index of the site’s Cover: U.S. Representative Stephanie Herseth contents is available at http://www.loc.gov/folklife/az-index.html. Sandlin, of South Dakota, stands between the The Website for The Veterans History Project provides an overview of the project, an online “kit” for Lakota hoop dancers Jasmine Pickner (left) and participants recording oral histories of veterans, and a brief presentation of some examples of video- Dallas Chief Eagle (right), on the stage of the and audio-recordings of veterans’ stories. The address is http://www.loc.gov/vets. Coolidge Auditorium. Pickner and Chief Eagle performed on November The Folkline Information Service is a cooperative announcement program of the American Folklore 15, 2007 as part of AFC’s Homegrown Concert Society and the American Folklife Center. It is available only on the American Folklore Society’s Series. Herseth Sandlin, along with other server: www.afsnet.org. The service provides timely information on the field of folklore and folklife, members of the audience, danced with them on including training and professional opportunities, and news items of national interest. the stage. AmerIcaN FOLKLIFE CENter Staff Administration: Guha Shankar, Folklife Specialist Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Rachel Mears, Archivist Peggy A. Bulger, Director Stephen D. Winick, Writer-Editor Specialist Monica Mohindra, Program Officer Mary Bucknum, Acting Assistant Todd Harvey, Folklife Specialist Sarah Rouse, Senior Program Officer to the Director Processing and Cataloging: Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist Timothy Schurtter, Program Officer Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Tom Wiener, Historian Maggie Kruesi, Cataloger Michael Taft, Head, Archive Audio Engineering: Valda Morris, Processing Technician Jonathan Gold, Audio Technician David A. Taylor, Head, Research and Marcia Segal, Processing Archivist American Folklife Center: Programs Digital Conversion: Tel: 202 707–5510 Nora Yeh, Archivist, Coordinator John Barton, Specialist Research and Programs: Fax: 202 707–2076 Theadocia Austen, Public Events Reference: Veterans History Project: E-mail: [email protected] Coordinator Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist Bob Patrick, Director www.loc.gov/folklife Nancy Groce, Folklife Specialist Judith A. Gray, Folklife Peter T. Bartis, Senior Program Officer Debra Murphy, Special Assistant Specialist,Coordinator Jeffrey Lofton, Public Affairs Specialist It’s All in the Cards: AFC’s Historic Card Catalog Is Now Online STEPHEN WINICK By John Barton, Jennifer Cutting, and Stephen Winick FC is proud to introduce the online version of its historic Acard catalog. This impor- tant resource allows users to search for information on the most frequently used recordings in the Center’s archive, Left: This photo of Stavin’ Chain and without traveling to the Library. This an unidentified fiddler is rare, in that represents a significant enhancement the photographer, Alan Lomax, noted of AFC’s service to the public. The new which song was being performed resource, entitled Traditional Music and ly tape recordings. The best-known re- when it was taken. The catalog card Spoken Word Catalog from the American cordings listed in the catalog include the for that song, “Batson,” is above. Folklife Center, has been under develop- seminal fieldwork conducted by John A. ment for over two years. It was released Lomax and his son Alan, during the time on November 1, 2007, and is accessible they worked for the Library of Congress; at http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/ they recorded such legendary American of well known and lesser-known trea- afccards/afccards-home.html. musicians as Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie sures by other notable collectors includ- The majority of the audio recordings and Jelly Roll Morton. Also listed are ing Herbert Halpert, Zora Neale Hurston, listed in the catalog were recorded in the Alan Lomax’s less well-known field Henrietta Yurchenco, Vance Randolph, 1930s and 1940s. Most are instanta- collections in Haiti in 1936 and 1937, and Helen Creighton, among many oth- neous disc recordings, made on acetate and in the upper midwest of the United ers. In addition, the catalog reflects ex- and aluminum discs, while a few are ear- States in 1938. There are also hundreds change projects with institutions outside AMERIC A N F O L K L I F E C ENTER N EWS 3 Left: Gabriel Brown and Rochelle French. Eatonville, Florida, 1935. Below: The catalog card for one of their performances identifies the date, and shows that Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle were present. Typing in the upper left identifies the original disc on which the song is to be found, annotations in the upper right identify the reel-to-reel tape numbers for the reference copy in AFC’s stacks, and a stamp in the lower right identifies the card as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. LOMAX N ALA the United States, notably the Discoteca A search for Publica Municipal de São Paulo Col- “Galveston,” lection (1938-1943) of field recordings for example, would from Brazil, and many field recordings turn up any card that mentions Galves- collected in Oceania. Users should keep ton, as the place of recording, within room: both the information originally in mind that this catalog represents only a title, refrain or first line, or indeed typed on the cards, and the penciled-in a portion of AFC’s recordings; in fact, the anywhere it appeared on the original corrections and additions made by refer- majority of the Archive’s recordings were card. Since the physical card catalog in ence staff over the years. This provides acquired later, and thus are not repre- the Folklife Reading Room is searchable researchers with the best of both worlds: sented here. But the catalog represents only by the five criteria of title, performer the information they need in a digital the rich collections of the golden age of name, state, shelflist number (AFS num- format, along with the nuances conveyed disc recording, including many of the ber), and foreign country or language, by a card catalog emended over seventy- treasures that make AFC’s archive one of this represents a significant improve- five years of use. the most valuable and well known folklife ment in researchers’