Folklife &

 Fieldwork

An Introduction to

Cultural Documentation

American Folklife Center

Library of Congress
Folklife and Fieldwork:

An Introduction to Cultural Documentation

Fourth Edition

By Stephen Winick and Peter Bartis

With contributions by Nancy Groce, Margaret Kruesi, 

and Guha Shankar

Library of Congress

Washington, DC, 2016 
 Publications of the American Folklife Center, no. 3

First printed 1979; revised 1990; 2002; 2016 
Table of Contents

Preface to the Fourth Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

The American Folklife Center: Who We Are and What We Do . . . . . . . . . . . 1

What Is “Folklife Fieldwork?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Designing the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Think about Your Goals and Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Decide What to Document (and Why) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Think about Archiving, Sustainability, and Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Consider the Ethics of Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Figure Out What You’ll Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Preparing for Fieldwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Do a Little Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Make Community Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Decide What (Besides Interviews) to Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Think about Participant Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Decide on the First People to Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Get Comfortable with Your Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Design Release Forms (or Just Steal Ours!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Make Contact with Your Interviewees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Schedule Your Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Create Your Interview Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Going “Into the Field” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Get Used to Writing Fieldnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Get Ready to Record Your Interview (Audio) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Record and Conduct Your Interview (Audio) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Additional Tips for Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Recording on Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Create Interview Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Taking Still Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Documenting Objects, Buildings, and Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Let the Project Guide You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Preserving and Presenting Your Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Care for Your Paper Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

iii
Describe Your Digital Collection through the Magic of Metadata

 (Also: What Is Metadata?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Care for Your Digital Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Decide How the Collection Can (and Should) Be Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Get Your Collection Ready for an Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Public Sector Folklore and Folklife Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Online Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Appendix: Sample Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

iv
Preface to the Fourth Edition

When the first edition of Folklife and Fieldwork was published in 1979, our 

readers had a difficult choice to make: the better audio quality offered by 

a bulky reel-to-reel tape recorder or the convenience of the newfangled cassette 

deck. With one of those two machines, plus a single-lens-reflex camera and a few 

rolls of film, the 1979 fieldworker was equipped to document the world. Earlier 

editions of this guide gave great advice regarding the handling and preservation 

of these older forms of documentation. These tips are still relevant for some 

archival collections, but not for most fieldwork. Born-digital documentation 

requires a whole new set of practices—new ways of recording and new methods 

of preservation. 

Since the first edition appeared there has also been a surge of interest in 

personal archiving. Preserving family history, genealogy, and community history 

has never been more popular. Popular interviewing projects like the Veterans 

History Project and StoryCorps are leading the way in a new era of oral history 

collecting, and both of their collections are part of the American Folklife Center 

archive. While this book prioritizes the documentation of folklife, by which we 

mean traditional culture and heritage, the guidelines offered here for interviewing and documentation apply to a broad range of topics.

Folklife and Fieldwork has been redesigned to make it more user-friendly 

and more chronological. In large part, the table of contents serves as a step-bystep checklist for designing and implementing a fieldwork project.

For more information on the questions raised in this manual, as well for 

the latest discussions on specific technologies and techniques, please consult the 

online version of Folklife and Fieldwork at www.loc.gov/folklife 

v
The American Folklife Center: 

Who We Are and What We Do

The American Folklife Center (AFC) was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress, making us America's designated national folklife center. Our mandate is 

“to preserve and present American folklife,” which we achieve in many ways. We 

conduct and facilitate research on folklife, documenting all kinds of traditional 

culture. We provide reference services to Congress and the public, so if you have 

a question about folklife, get in touch! We provide training through hands-on 

field schools, as well through online guides. We sponsor live performances, 

lectures, and exhibits, most of which occur at our home base at the Library of 

Congress in Washington, D.C. (Many of them are available online as videos as 

well.) And, of course, we create publications, including this one.

One of our most important functions is maintaining one of the world's 

largest archives of folklife materials, including songs, stories, and creative 

expressions of people from throughout the United States and around the world. 

The American Folklife Center archive contains about 6,000,000 items. Approximately 400,000 of these are sound recordings, dating from 1890 to the present. 

We have in our collections the very first ethnographic field recordings, a set of 

wax cylinders from 1890, documenting Passamaquoddy songs and stories from 

Maine. We have thousands of classic folksongs, folktales, blues, and dance tunes, 

recorded on acetate discs in the 1930s and 1940s. We also have brand-new, 

born digital collections of music, song, speech, photos, and video documenting 

folklore and folklife. We are best known as the world’s foremost repository of 

American folklife material, but we also have collections of traditional culture 

from throughout the world in virtually every known recording format. AFC is 

also the home of the Veterans History Project (VHP), which was established by 

an act of Congress in 2000, and which has collected audio and video recordings, 

journals, letters, and photos documenting first-person wartime experiences of 

over 100,000 American veterans from WWI to the current day. 

The word “folklore” was coined by an Englishman named William John Thoms 

in 1846, as a “good Saxon compound” to replace the Latinate term “popular 

antiquities.” The word “folklife” comes to us from Germanic and Scandinavian 

languages, and was popularized in American English by Don Yoder, a folklore 

professor from Pennsylvania who helped start the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk 

Festival, which is generally considered the first American “folklife festival” 

(as opposed to folk festival), and which strongly influenced many subsequent 

folklife festivals. Yoder also donated his most important audio collections to 

AFC.

The AFC has a small and versatile staff. Luckily, we also have the Library 
of Congress's state-of-the-art facilities to help preserve all this great material. A 

good portion of our holdings are available online, and we’re always working to 

add to our online collections. You’re welcome to contact AFC staff for information or visit us in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the AFC’s services and 

programs, and to see our extensive list of online publications, presentations, and 

collections, please visit our website.

Website: http://www.loc.gov/folklife

Email: folklife@loc.gov

Phone: 202-707-5510 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanfolklifecenter/ 

Folklife Today Blog: http://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/ 

RSS/email list sign up: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/rss.html 

What is “Folklife Fieldwork?”

Most people know the word “folklore,” which includes oral traditions such 

as stories, sayings, and songs—and this is a large part of what AFC documents. 

But, to describe our mission, we use the broader term “folklife,” in order to 

encompass other forms of culture, including customs, cuisine, crafts, dress, 

celebrations, music, and traditional architecture. 

When Congress created the American Folklife Center in 1976, it defined 

American folklife as: 

The traditional, expressive, shared culture of various groups in the United 

States: familial, ethnic, occupational, religious, and regional. Expressive 

culture includes a wide range of creative and symbolic forms, such as 

custom, belief, technical skill, language, literature, art, architecture, music, 

play, dance, drama, ritual, pageantry, and handicraft; these expressions 

are mainly learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and are generally maintained or perpetuated without benefit of formal instruction or 

institutional direction.

The range of materials we consider “folklife” includes the following list. This is 

just a sampling, though—many other things are also folklife!

• Folk and traditional songs, music, and dance

• Any kind of orally-told story, including jokes, legends, and family

histories

• Sayings such as proverbs, riddles, rhymes, greetings, and insults

2
• Folk beliefs and practices about religion, healing, and magic

• Calendar customs such as annual holidays, saints’ days, festivals, and 

pageants

• Rites of passage such as birth celebrations, coming-of-age ceremonies, 

weddings, and funerals

• Traditional food preparation, recipes, and symbolic meanings of food

• Vernacular buildings such as houses, barns, mills, and outbuildings

• Clothing such as formal regalia and ethnic and traditional dress

• Textiles and needlework such as knitting, weaving, quilting, and 

embroidery

• Handicrafts such as carvings, paintings, paper-cuts, beadwork, 

sculpture, and braiding

• Traditional use of land and space

• Technical skills and knowledge related to traditional occupations

Here’s a handy tip for using the list of genres on this page. If you’ve encountered 

songs, dances, or other practices, but you aren’t sure if they count as “folk,” 

remember the U.S. government’s definition of “folklife,” just above the genre 

list. If the practices were “learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and 

are maintained or perpetuated without formal instruction or institutional 

direction,” then chances are they’re folklife. 

In the 19th century, scholars wanted to document folklife because they were 

afraid it was disappearing. They defined it as cultural remnants from the remote 

past, and believed it was strongest in poorly developed or isolated communities, 

so they saw their work as a race against time. Nowadays, folklorists believe that 

folklife is universal and dynamic. Some forms of traditional culture remain the 

same, others evolve, and still others are created all the time, so there’s always new 

folklore. Many stories, for example, now originate in internet-based virtual communities and emerge into contemporary oral tradition. Think of urban legends 

constantly spreading in the news and online, or the many tradition-inspired art 

forms out there, from bluegrass music to graffiti. Think of jokes you tell with 

your friends, rhymes that help you remember things, or easy cooking tips you 

picked up from your family. Folklife is alive and well in the 21st century, and 

every single one of us participates. 

There are many different words for what we call “folklore” and “folklife.” In 

Germanic and Scandinavian countries, you’re most likely to run into a variant 

of “folk”: “volkskunde” in German or “folkliv” in Swedish, for example. In 

Romance languages people often use some form of the word “popular,” so 

folklore is called “traditions populaires” in French. In Spanish, people often 

use “folclor” or “folklore,” but in many countries this carries connotations of 

artificially staged versions of folk traditions, so people sometimes use terms 

3
such as “folclor popular” “artes populares” or “tradición popular” to talk about 

traditional folklore. In international legal contexts, folklore and folklife are 

referred to as “cultural heritage,” with folklore forming part of “intangible 

cultural heritage” and material folklife genres such as crafts and architecture 

forming part of “tangible cultural heritage.”

Researching folklife may seem easy: after all, there’s plenty of information 

online and in libraries about most folklife topics, such as (say) English folktales, 

African-American spirituals, or Mongolian yurts. Just google it, look it up, or 

visit the library, right?

 But did you ever wonder how that information got there? How did the world 

find out about these topics in the first place? Often, it was because someone did 

fieldwork—the 

difficult but 

rewarding work of 

recording firsthand 

observations and 

interviews with 

community experts. 

Yurts don’t describe 

themselves, and 

most traditional 

yurt-builders are 

too busy to write a 

book or an online 

article. So someone 

had to measure, 

draw, photograph, 

and write down 

notes about yurts. 

Researchers even conducted interviews with traditional yurt builders—all so we 

could google “yurt” and find out all about them. 

Fieldwork is what we call this work of firsthand observation. Fieldwork is 

recording or documenting what we see and hear in a particular setting, whether 

that be a rural farming community or a city neighborhood, a local fish market or 

a grandmother’s living room. 

 Fieldwork is gathering together for analysis the raw material that may one 

day find its way into a library or museum (or even Wikipedia). Most excitingly, 

fieldwork is interviewing the greatest living experts on the traditions that interest 

us, most of whom are not rich or famous, but known only within their communities.

Folklife fieldwork can help tell the story of a community in many ways, 

leading to community engagement and cultural revitalization. The products of 

Maasai fieldworker Ann Sintoyia Tome (far left, with headphones) records Maasai women’s songs during the Cultural 

Documentation Training Program for Indigenous Communities 

in Il Ngwesi village, Kenya. Photo by Guha Shankar.

4
Lindon Bilal interviews WWII veteran Abdul Kariem during the VHP “Do Your Part” 

Initiative of summer 2015.

folklife fieldwork, in the form of audio and video recordings, notes, drawings, 

and photos, may be used to produce anything from a scholarly book to a TV 

show, or from an essay to an exhibit. At the same time, if we care for them, they 

will remain safely archived for future generations. This book will help guide you 

through the documentation process.

Folklife fieldwork is a lot like the kind of fieldwork done in anthropology. 

The differences are mainly in what each discipline emphasizes. Cultural 

anthropology may look at any aspect of a culture, including political 

organization, kinship, or attitudes to war. Folklife uses similar methodologies to 

focus specifically on creative expressions, performances, art forms, and beliefs. 

Oral history, too, has many similarities to folklife. However, oral historians 

are usually seeking facts about the past, an accurate historical narrative based 

on firsthand experience. Folklife is more interested in seeing the world from 

the perspective of the person being interviewed, including the meanings their 

thoughts and memories hold for them. Work in the three disciplines can be 

very similar, especially where interviewing is concerned. Books or training 

guides created by anthropologists and oral historians can be very helpful to 

folklorists as well.

5
Designing the Project

Think about Your Goals and Outcomes

It’s always a good idea to have a clear set of goals before you set out to do 

research. Try to create a statement of purpose that can be expressed in a few 

sentences. This can serve as a way to introduce yourself to community members, 

so they’ll understand why you’re hanging around, recording conversations, and 

taking pictures. Each time you conduct an interview, you can use it to explain the 

purpose of your project. You want to be honest with people and have them feel 

comfortable with your presence, so make sure you can explain what you’re doing 

openly and honestly.

Folklorists doing fieldwork are sometimes mistaken for police, government 

agents, or even foreign spies! One way to prevent this misunderstanding is to 

explain to people clearly why you’re in their community taking pictures and 

talking to their neighbors. 

Your primary goal may be to develop a better understanding of a community, to help community members receive recognition or apply for a grant, or to 

contribute documentation to a local archive. Among your goals may also be a 

specific type of end product, and this can help determine the kinds of documentation you create. If you want to write a book or a website, then written notes, 

audio recordings, and photos may be the most useful kinds of documentation 

to bring back. If you’re creating a radio show or podcast, the quality of the audio 

may be important. If you’re making a film, TV show, or online video, obviously 

you’ll have to think about video equipment, as well as about securing shooting 

locations and other logistical questions. What if you’re recording memories 

of your family members just to preserve them for the future? If that’s the case, 

think about the best way to accomplish that. Maybe video files take up so much 

digital storage space you worry your family won’t keep them, but smaller audio 

files seem manageable. It’s up to you—but the next section may be helpful when 

you’re making these decisions. 

One of the first decisions to make is whether to do your fieldwork alone or in 

a team. Many of the best field projects in the AFC archive were accomplished 

by teams of fieldworkers rather than individuals. Teams allow you to divide the 

labor, to document the process of fieldwork (for example, by photographing 

interviews in progress), and to brainstorm with teammates. They also require 

you to negotiate with your teammates, beginning right here with the goals of 

the project.

6
Decide What to Document (and Why)

If you’ve read this far, chances are you already have a topic in mind. If not, 

however, don’t worry. The following tips apply whether you’re refining an idea 

you’re already working with, or coming up with a topic from scratch. 

Folklife is everywhere, so you can’t just set out to “document folklife;” a 

good project needs to be much more limited in scope. In fact, it’s usually best 

to have three interrelated limits on your project: a specific group or segment of 

the population, a specific tradition or subject matter, and 

a specific place. Having only one or two of these can often 

lead to a project too large to handle. Deciding to study the 

playground games of children, for example, leaves you with 

millions of playgrounds to look at, but studying the playground games of children on the South Side of Chicago may 

be manageable. Studying all the folk traditions of Cambodians in Philadelphia is 

a long-term, multi-year 

project, but studying 

their traditional music or 

community celebrations 

may be manageable. When 

the project is underway, 

you may also discover 

that sub-topics emerge. 

Studying games in the 

playgrounds of the South 

Side, for example, involves studying games on particular playgrounds. The games 

on each playground, meanwhile, may include counting-out rhymes to determine 

who goes first, songs sung during each game, and rules 

and strategies for each game. A Cambodian wedding, 

similarly, includes cooking, music-making, clothing 

design, and many other categories of expression. The 

more you look, the more you’ll see.

So how do you choose your limits? For the 

place, we recommend a manageable area like a small 

town, a rural district, a city neighborhood, or even 

something more specific: how about a work site, 

school, senior center, or city block? For the group, we 

recommend an age cohort (e.g. seniors or kids), an ethnic group (e.g. Mexican 

Americans or Italian Americans), a family, an occupational group (e.g. fishermen 

or construction workers), or a religious group. 

7
As for the tradition or subject matter, if you don’t have one in mind, a list of 

some different kinds of folklife might be helpful. See our list on pages 2-3, above.

Think about Archiving, Sustainability, and Access

Whether you’re documenting with a specific end product in mind, or trying 

to preserve folklife for the future, it’s important to think about what’s going 

to happen to the materials you collect and create. If all goes well, you’ll have 

many digital still photographs, sound recordings, video recordings, and word 

processing files. In addition, you may pick up, for example, a few maps, posters 

of events you documented in the community, a program booklet or two, a few 

handcrafted items offered as a gift by an appreciative artist, and assorted expense 

receipts, letters, and other paper items. Before you begin, consider how, and 

maybe where, your collection can be safeguarded, carefully preserved, and made 

accessible to interested parties.

 

Remember, ideally, your collection will be interesting not only to you but 

to others as well. But if the collection remains under your bed, no one will ever 

know it’s there. If you’d like to allow others to use your collection, think about 

where you might place it to make that possible. Community libraries, local 

and regional museums, and state and local historical societies often maintain 

folklife and local history collections, and many universities also house archives 

of folklife materials. Staff members of these institutions and organizations may 

Fieldworker John Ole Tingoy shares data from his laptop with other fieldworkers and with Laikipia Maasai community members during the Cultural 

Documentation Training Program for Indigenous Communities in Il Ngwesi 

village, Kenya. Photo by Guha Shankar.

8
be willing to talk with you about how to handle your material, and will be able to 

say whether or not they’re likely to acquire your collection. Remember that such 

archives are under no obligation to take your materials. In fact, most archives 

have collection development policies in place that 

may preclude them from 

accepting your collections. 

But the first step is the 

same: get in touch with 

someone at the archive and 

see if they’ll discuss it with 

you.

If you’d like to place 

your collection within 

a particular institution, 

always contact that institution ahead of time to make 

sure that they are willing and 

able to take the collection 

and care for it. Ask for specific instructions on file formats and standards they 

accept, as well as the naming conventions they use to describe and organize their 

collections. 

Whether or not you get advice from an institution, it’s a good idea to plan 

out how you’ll file and store your collection in advance. Along with paper items 

you collect, such as posters advertising community events or maps drawn by 

your interviewees, preserve any paper-based administrative files, since they 

include information on origins, goals and the overall planning and carrying-out 

of the project. A basic system of file folders is fine for this paper collection. Having the system set up in advance allows you to file the materials you collect each 

day after returning from your fieldwork. Sample file headings might include: 

Planning, Correspondence, Budget, Equipment, Fieldnotes, Release Forms, 

Publications, Ephemera, and Maps. (You can always add folders as you go, too.) 

We recommend using acid-neutral archival folders and writing the categories 

directly on them in pencil, since stick-on labels can fall off and leave glue or 

residue on collection materials. 

Of course, most of your collection will consist of digital files. Before you 

start, it’s a good idea to have a few external hard drives ready that will be large 

enough to back up your files. If you’re giving your collection to an institution, 

ask about their preferences for how to name your files. Otherwise, we suggest 

you name your files according to a plan that will use words to identify them as 

belonging to the same collection, and numbers to identify the sequence in which 

they were recorded, with your name and the general topic of the collection in 

If you preserve your fieldwork materials, they may 

be useful for generations to come. In this photo, three 

Pawnee speakers together with their linguist assistant 

listen to Pawnee recordings in the Folklife Reading 

Room. Photo by Stephen Winick.

9
the filename, so (for example) Chicago_Games_Winick_Interview_1.wav and 

Chicago_Games_Winick_Photo_1.nef. If you rename your files at the end of 

each fieldwork day before backing up the files, you’ll keep up with this task pretty 

easily, and your backup files will all have the same names as the originals. 

“The Fieldworker Is the First Archivist.” 

Here at AFC, the statement above is downright proverbial. When we say this, 

we mean that the fieldworker’s actions often determine if a collection is safe 

and accessible. Our archive has some very old and important collections whose 

fieldworkers did not provide essential information, such as names and places, 

and it’s very hard for researchers, or even trained archivists, to find the items 

they need. By following our advice here, and in the section on metadata below, 

you’ll be your own archivist, creating a collection that can be preserved and 

served to researchers for years to come. 

Consider the Ethics of Your Project

Typically, we record the folklife of particular communities and groups 

because we respect them and think their traditions are important and interesting. Obviously, we don’t want to do anything to harm the communities we 

study, or the individuals within 

them. Since our interviewees are 

giving us their time and trust, it’s 

also important that we be honest 

and truthful with them. For these 

reasons, you shouldn’t record 

anyone without their knowledge, 

do research under false pretenses, 

or lie to the community you’re 

studying. You shouldn’t use their 

In ethnographic fieldwork, it is crucial to 

establish a rapport with your interviewees. Part of this is remembering to treat 

them fairly, as you would any friend. 

A strong set of ethical principles built 

into the project helps. Folklorist Beverly 

Robinson (right) clearly had a great 

rapport with Jessie Lee Smith. They were 

photographed by Carl Fleischhauer on 

the porch of Smith’s home in Tifton, 

Georgia, August, 1977. South-Central 

Georgia Folklife Project Collection.

10
Are you doing your project while you’re a student or faculty member at a school 

or university? If you want to use any part of it for credit in any course, or even 

if you want to identify yourself as university-affiliated while doing fieldwork, 

your school may have specific requirements. Interviewees are often considered 

“human subjects,” just like people in medical experiments, and universities are 

very careful about regulating human subject research. Talk to professors who 

do ethnography or oral history to find out about your school’s Institutional 

Review Board, often known as the “IRB.”

One way to get a handle on fieldwork ethics is to take a look at some ethical 

standards statements from professional organizations. See the links on our 

website at www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/ 

voices or images without permission. You don’t want to use the information they 

give you in a way they don’t approve of, or publish it in ways that will harm or 

embarrass them. All of this requires care on your part.

Figure Out What You’ll Need

Different projects have different equipment needs, but most projects will 

benefit from some version of the list below. Think about your own project, and 

decide which of the following you’ll use:

• Notepads, pens, and pencils.

• A camera with extra memory cards, batteries, charger, and accessories 

(lenses, lights, tripod, etc).

• A digital audio or video recorder with 2 microphones, mic cables, extra 

memory cards, batteries, and a pair of headphones. Audio equipment 

should be capable of recording WAV files at 96khz/24bits; video 

equipment should certainly be capable of shooting High Definition 

(HD), and preferably 4K or UHD. 

• A laptop, notebook, or tablet computer, with power source or charger, 

and if possible a backup hard drive. This can help you take notes as well 

as process audio, video, and photo files in the field. 

• An extension cord and power strip. 

• A steel tape measure for recording the dimensions of material objects. 

• A GPS or map, so you can get to the site and find your way around. 

• Release forms. (More on this later!) 

• Appropriate dress, which is both comfortable and/or right for the 

occasion. Some fieldworkers may need a stout pair of shoes and casual 

clothes, for example; others collecting at events such as a family dinner 

or a church service, will need more formal clothes.

11
This collection of recording technology demonstrates the changes that have 

occurred in audio and photographic documentation during the existence of 

the AFC’s archive. AFC has materials in all the formats represented here, from 

cylinders and wire recordings to material recorded on mobile phones. Photo by 

Stephen Winick.

Preparing for Fieldwork

Do a Little Research

Before going into the field, you’ll want to prepare by researching your topic 

online and at the library. Whether you’re studying blues guitar players, children’s 

games, or stories told by soldiers in the Iraq war, there’s probably both online and 

published information that can help you ask informed questions. Similarly, it’s a 

good idea to become familiar with the neighborhood or area where your interviewees live before you start your formal meetings with them—if only to ensure 

you don’t get lost on the way to your first interview! 

Make Community Connections

The very first step of your fieldwork that takes place “in the field” is simply 

meeting and making friends with people in the community you’ll be working 

with. Begin with whomever you happen to know in that community. If you don’t 

know anyone, try visits to local civic and cultural clubs, places of worship, craft

12
stores, or veterans organizations. Attend public events like ethnic and community festivals and volunteer fire department fundraisers. Finally, seek out local 

people whose job is to know 

about the community, including folks who work at local 

historical societies, community 

centers, arts centers, colleges 

and universities, and libraries. 

Explain to your initial contacts 

what your project is and ask 

who knows the most about the 

tradition you’re seeking. 

It’s also a good idea to ask 

whether your initial contacts 

know of anyone working on a 

similar project. You may find 

out folks within the community are already documenting 

the traditions you’re interested 

in. In that case you’ll want to 

compare notes and, if possible, 

coordinate your efforts. Ask 

them how your work can support community documentation. Also, think about 

how you might help each other preserve your collections. 

A notebook is handy for all stages of fieldwork, especially preliminary chats. Before a person has agreed to 

a formal interview, you can ask them a few questions 

and jot down the answers. While tablets and mobile 

devices are useful for some fieldwork encounters, your 

interviewee will be sure you’re paying attention if you 

take notes on paper. Here Tom McBride talks to a 

participant in Montana’s Babb Rodeo on Labor Day, 

September 3, 1979. Montana Folklife Survey Project 

Collection. Photo by Barre Toelken. 

Decide What (Besides Interviews) to Record

Ethnographic interviews are the heart of many fieldwork projects, but you 

can document a lot of other things as well. Depending on your topic and your 

goals, you might want to make audio 

or video recordings of folklore or folk 

music performances, or of community 

celebrations, rituals, and other enactments. You might want to photograph 

buildings, fences, gravestones, or 

other elements of the built environment. 

Before you start your fieldwork, think 

about what kinds of objects, events, and 

procedures besides interviews you’ll 

want to document, and make a plan for 

how to do it. 

Thomas Adler photographs a headstone 

in a small cemetery in Patrick County, 

Virginia, September 1978. Blue Ridge 

Parkway Folklife Project Collection. 

Photo by Charles Wolfe. 

13
Think about Participant Observation 

One of the main methodologies employed by folklife fieldworkers is 

“participant observation.” This means (of course) that you are participating in 

the culture as well as observing. If you really want to know about folk music, 

for example, you might take lessons with a singer or musician. If you want to 

know about weaving or cooking or planning a traditional wedding, you might 

end up learning to do these things alongside your interviewees. You can also 

offer to do important but unglamorous tasks, like serving food at a community 

celebration or cleaning 

up the church after 

a wedding. As long 

as you’re doing this 

with other members 

of the community, 

you’ll be learning more 

about how they live, 

celebrate, and express 

themselves, while also 

offering them a service 

they can appreciate. 

You’ll learn a lot about 

how traditional tasks 

are done, and also how 

they are taught—both 

very important aspects 

of traditional culture. 

Participant observation of this kind is a great way to learn more about 

the folk traditions you want to document. Most traditional artists are not very 

accustomed to researchers recording their materials, so you may seem like an 

odd duck. But they’re very familiar with passing on their traditions to other practitioners, so learning the tradition in the traditional way can make your teachers 

more comfortable with your role. It also demonstrates your commitment to 

them, and encourages them to get to know and trust you. As you prepare to 

enter the field, think about the cultural forms and processes you might want to 

learn, and the tasks you can offer to do. 

Decide on the First People to Interview

After making initial contacts and thinking about the scope of your project, 

you’ll want to find people you can talk to in depth about the traditions you’re 

studying. You can interview almost anyone about folklife, but often certain 

people are especially well qualified to talk about folklife because of their good 

14

Participant observation can take many forms. Fieldworker Alan 

Jabbour is also a fiddler, and used this skill to obtain a demonstration of “beating straws,” or playing fiddlesticks, by John R. 

Griffin of Lennox, Georgia on August 6, 1977. South-Central 

Georgia Folklife Project Collection. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer.
memories, long lives, performance skills, or particular roles within a community. 

Folklorists sometimes refer to these people as “tradition bearers.” Usually many 

people within a community know who the tradition bearers are, so your best bet 

is to ask around. 

Sometimes your initial contacts may offer to talk to someone for you: the 

local librarian might say, “Mr. Mathunas, who comes in here every week, knows 

a lot about that. I’ll mention your interest and see if I can set something up.” This 

can be helpful, but doesn’t always pan out. It’s better to get the person’s contact 

information and get permission to mention that your contact the librarian suggested you get in touch. Once you have the names of three or four interviewees, 

those folks can probably suggest others. Now you’re ready to think about the 

interviews!

Get Comfortable with Your Equipment

Most folklorists have had the awful experience of returning from an interview to find out the recorder didn’t work or the mic didn’t pick up the interviewee’s voice. Minimize the chance of this happening by learning how to use all 

your equipment in advance. It’s never a good idea to try to figure out the controls 

on your audio 

recorder or the 

operating system 

on your tablet during an important 

interview—at best, 

you’ll be stressed 

out during the 

interview and make 

your interviewee 

nervous, and at 

worst you’ll waste 

the day and have to 

return for another 

interview. Make 

sure you buy or 

borrow your equipment at least a few 

days in advance, and stage some test interviews and photo shoots just to get to 

know your equipment. 

15

Craft stores and other businesses that cater to ethnic communities 

can be fruitful places to seek folklife interviews. Here fieldworker 

Peter Bartis interviews a professional at the Yarn and Canvas, a 

Greek-owned needlework shop in Chicago, in 1977. 

Photo by Jonas Dovydenas.
If your recorders, cameras, and computers have clocks that record the date 

and time, set those accurately before setting out to do fieldwork. That way, the 

dates and times of your fieldwork will be accurately recorded as part of the 

digital files. Similarly, some cameras and recorders have GPS technology built 

in, which tells them where recordings and photos were made and embeds that 

data in the digital files. Unless there is an ethical reason to turn them off (for 

example, you’re photographing a sacred site whose location the community 

doesn’t want to reveal), GPS coordinates can enhance your data in many ways. 

Read your users’ manuals to find out how to use these features. 

Design Release Forms (or Just Use Ours!)

If you plan to use the information from your interviews in publications, 

podcasts, films, or online presentations (and it’s safest to assume you will at 

some point), it’s important to obtain a statement from both the interviewer and 

interviewee granting permission. The simplest way to do this is to use a standard 

release form which grants researchers access to the interview and permits its use 

for non-commercial purposes. Our release form (on page 40) is ready to go for 

most basic purposes, but if you already know you may want to use the interview 

in a commercial context, you might need to design your own form by adding 

language to ours. We recommend you bring two copies of the release form to 

the interview: one for your files; the other for the interviewees' files. Have both 

parties sign both copies, and you’ll have it all spelled out.

Remember, after the interview, interviewees always have the right to refuse 

to sign a release form if they have reservations about what was discussed. You 

can ask them to reconsider, but don’t negotiate by introducing promises that 

aren’t on the release form. If the collection and its release forms go to another 

institution or individual in the future, they’re only bound by what it says on the 

release, not by a promise you made personally. If necessary, negotiate a new 

release form with terms your interviewee feels comfortable with. And, of course, 

always remain polite and understanding during such discussions. 

Make Contact with Your Interviewees

As a last step before scheduling interviews, you’ll want to find out some 

basic details about your interviewees—you can do this directly with them in 

person, on the phone, or by email. During those conversations, make sure you 

explain who you are, why you want to do the interview, and what will happen to 

the information you collect. (Remember how you created that short statement of 

purpose? Here’s where it comes in handy!) 

16
Schedule Your Interview 

Once you’ve identified an interviewee and had a preliminary conversation 

or two, you can schedule the interview. Arrange a time when you and the interviewee can have a couple of hours together in a quiet location. This gives time for 

setting up and for conducting an interview of an hour or a little more.

Create Your Interview Questions

When you know what the topic is, and who you’ll be interviewing, it’s time 

to create a list of questions. Begin by brainstorming, and writing down all the 

questions that it occurs to you to ask. Then edit and refine your questions based 

on your project’s goals and the following principles:

• Keep your questions short and avoid complicated multi-part questions; 

the interviewee can only answer one thing at a time. 

• Never ask questions you don’t understand; if you’re pretending to know 

more than you do, your interviewee will probably see through it! 

• Avoid questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no”; you want 

their answers to be full of stories and explanations. 

• Avoid leading questions or ones that already suggest an answer; your 

interviewee may give you the answer you seem to want instead of the 

answer they think is true. 

• Don’t begin the interview with questions about topics that are 

controversial within your interviewee’s community; it’s best to have a 

rapport with the interviewee before tackling more controversial subjects, 

and controversy can sometimes cause an interviewee to stop talking 

altogether!

• Don’t worry about pauses. You may be asking about a topic the 

interviewee hasn’t thought about for many years. Give them time to 

reflect and formulate their response.

• Somewhere between twenty and twenty-five questions is usually a good 

number for an interview of about an hour. With this in mind, finalize 

your list. (If you have a lot of questions, bring them all but be aware you 

may have to schedule a second interview.)
Going “Into the Field” 

Get Used to Writing Fieldnotes

We recommend taking notes throughout the fieldwork process. Notes are 

the best way to preserve small bits of data which may seem insignificant at the 

time, but which can take on importance later. At the very least, your notes will 

provide a useful chronology of your activities. At best, they can be the intellectual core of your project's documentation, preserving your observations and 

ruminations as the project unfolds. We call a fieldworker’s notes “fieldnotes.” 

Fieldnotes are particularly important for fieldworkers engaged in participant 

observation. When you’re learning to play the oud from an Egyptian master 

musician, you can’t always record everything that happens at the lesson. When 

you’re being taught to weave complex visual images into a tapestry, or serving 

food at a community celebration, you can’t always be taking photos of that 

process too. So your notes are often going to be the best record of participant 

observation. 

You should write up a few paragraphs of fieldnotes at the end of every 

fieldwork day. They should include your impressions of participant observation, 

as well as such things as general observations about your progress, impressions 

of your interviewees, summaries of conversations, descriptions of settings, and 

drawings and diagrams of buildings and artifacts. They should also include 

information such as the lighting conditions you dealt with during photography 

or videography, and sources of extraneous sounds picked up by your audio 

recorder. All this will be useful later, when you’re trying to interpret your photos 

or recordings. A paper notebook can be helpful for sketching and drawing, and 

also for jotting down notes to yourself during interviews or participant observation, but a tablet or notebook computer is more efficient for writing fieldnotes, 

since notes you create on a computer will be searchable text. 

Get Ready to Record Your Interview (Audio)

On the day of each interview, and especially the first one, it’s best to arrive as 

close as possible to “just on time.” If you show up early, your interviewee may not 

be ready for visitors. If you show up late, you may not have time to do the whole 

interview. If traffic or transportation time can vary, this may mean getting to the 

neighborhood a little early, and then either driving around the block a few times 

or finding a spot like a park or a coffee shop where you can wait a few minutes. If 

you’re not driving, you can use this time to make last minute adjustments to your 

interview questions or your equipment.
Obviously, if you’re in your interviewee’s home, they have control of the space. 

You should politely ask to use the spot that looks the best, and to turn off any 

TVs, music, or noisy equipment like fans. It’s also a good idea to take out your 

phone and other devices and say, “I’m just going to turn these off so we don’t get 

interrupted!” If you’re lucky, your interviewee will take the hint and do the same!

How do you choose a good spot to record in an unfamiliar location? Avoid 

noise! Be careful of setting up near a window onto a busy street. Also, try to 

avoid spots near refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, furnaces, heat and AC 

vents, and water heaters. All of these locations might be silent when you arrive 

and become noisy the second you begin recording.

Plan on recording the voices 

of both the interviewer and interviewee. Recording the questions, 

comments, and responses of the 

interviewer provides context 

and accounts for the reason and 

logic behind the responses. Set 

your microphones as close to the 

speakers (including yourself) 

as possible. Lavaliere mics are 

best for one-on-one interviews 

and should be clipped near the top 

button of a shirt or blouse—about 

6 inches below the chin. If you use a 

standard microphone, it should be 

mounted to a stand and placed about 

6 to 10 inches from the speakers. 

This photo shows a good basic setup for an audio 

recording with lavaliere mics. Fieldworker Dorothy 

Sara Lee is interviewing emcee Clifford Wolfe, Sr. 

at the 1983 Omaha Powwow in Macy, Nebraska 

on August 13, 1983. Omaha Powwow Project 

collection. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer.

Although we recommend 

lavaliere mics for sit-down 

interviews, there are many 

interview situations in which 

such mics would get in the way. 

In this photo, Geraldine Johnson interviews Ruth Newman 

while she cooks in her aunt’s 

home in Galax, Virginia. Blue 

Ridge Parkway Folklife Project 

Collection. Photo by Lyntha 

Scott Eiler. 

19
Before beginning the interview, make sure the recorder is recording. The 

counter or time code display should tell you it is advancing, while the meters 

should tell you if the recording levels are good. Many digital recorders can also 

be set so you can listen to what’s being recorded. When they’re set on this setting, 

you can do a mic check at the beginning of the interview and monitor the levels. 

It’s always good to have more than one way to verify that recording is occurring: 

it’s ideal to have a moving counter, levels visible on the meter, and sound in the 

headphones. 

Record and Conduct Your Interview (Audio)

At the start of the recording, make a brief opening statement that specifies 

the date and place of the interview, the names of the people on the recording, 

yourself included, and the general topic of the interview. It’s best to keep the 

recording device running 

throughout the interview, 

and only turn it off when 

you’re asked to do so or 

when an interruption 

requires it.

Careful listening is 

critical to the interview 

process. Although you’re 

recording it for later, you 

need to be listening in the 

moment, so you can guide 

the conversation and be 

sure you’ve covered the 

topics you need to cover. 

Avoid looking at your 

list of questions too often, 

or adjusting the equipment unless it’s absolutely 

necessary. Your attention 

to what the interviewee 

is saying not only helps you guide the interview, it encourages the interviewee. 

Speak directly to the person and respond to statements in an encouraging way. 

Avoid overusing such expressions as “I see” or “uh-huh” while your interviewee 

is talking. Although this is polite in everyday conversation, it mars the recording, 

distracts listeners, and makes it difficult to use the audio for production. Nodding in approval usually works well.

There are many venues and opportunities for folklife 

and oral history interviews today. StoryCorps provides 

a model in which two people have a conversation in a 

controlled environment with good recording equipment 

and technical support. Photo by Rob Lowell.
about, and also records the ideas the interviewee is interested in conveying. So 

ask the questions you’ve prepared in advance, but also let the interviewees cover 

what they think is important. Be flexible, and be prepared to let the interview go 

in a different direction than you planned.

It’s best not to interrupt your informant’s answers or thought process. 

Because of this, it’s a good idea to have your pad and pencil handy. If you hear 

something you want to follow up on, but the interviewee is in the middle of a 

story, jot it down so you won’t forget it. Even if you’re more comfortable taking 

notes on a laptop or tablet, doing so can make it look like you’re checking your 

email or not paying 

attention. If you use a 

pad and pencil, your 

interviewees will know 

you’re taking notes on 

what they’re saying! 

When their story or 

explanation is finished, 

you can ask immediate 

follow-up questions 

such as “When did 

that happen?” “What 

are the steps in doing 

that?” “Can you give 

me an example of that?” 

Then peek back at your 

notes and see if there was 

anything else: “During 

that story, you mentioned 

that you had to bring a ration book to the grocery store. What do you remember 

about wartime rationing?”

Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. Showing your interviewee 

a photo can spark their memories and sharpen their descriptions. Consider 

using photographs, maps and other materials to elicit stories and information. 

If you do so, say clearly on the recording what you’re showing your interviewee, 

identifying the item so you’re sure you can find it later.

It’s useful to give spoken cues or information so that listeners can understand what is being described in the conversation. For example, if the speaker 

makes a gesture indicating size or distance, and the recording is audio only, 

quickly describe what the interviewee is doing. 

Interviews can be tiring. We recommend about an hour for a session. If 

there is a lot more to discuss, it’s often best to take a break or schedule a second 

interview session for another day.

21

Your interviewees’ own photographs are sometimes a useful 

memory prompt. Here, former towel-factory worker Anne 

Murphy, of Totowa, New Jersey, is interviewed in her home 

by fieldworker David Taylor. Murphy is describing a photo of 

workers (including herself) at Newberger’s Towel Factory, in 

Paterson, ca. 1918. Photo by Martha Cooper.
Make a brief closing announcement on the recording at the end of the 

interview.

After you stop recording, make sure to thank your interviewee for taking the 

time to help you in your research. 

We recommend recording WAV files at 96khz/24bits. Although you can save 

storage space by recording in mp3 or other compressed formats, these involve a 

loss of fidelity. Formats that offer lossless compression aren’t standard for many 

archives. These decisions are up to you of course, but the widely-accepted WAV 

standard at the above resolution works best for major archives such as ours. 

Additional Tips for Video

Most of the guidelines we gave above also apply to video documentation. 

However, the video interview also involves a few other considerations. Video is 

more complex than audio, so we recommend bringing a teammate to shoot the 

video. If you can do this, it obviously helps for that person to have videography 

experience. If you have to do it solo, or if your teammate is inexperienced, here 

are some tips for a sit-down interview.

For most purposes, it’s unnecessary to zoom, pan, or change focus while 

your interviewee is talking. In fact, it’s probably best to video the interview so 

your interviewee is in a basic, steady head-and-shoulders shot. If the video is 

The organization MobileChina 2007 posted this photo on Flickr 

with a Creative Commons License and the caption “Video ethnography with Chinese students abroad. Interviews with China’s 

best and brightest, undergraduate and graduate students at UC 

Berkeley, Stanford and SF State.”

22
used in any sort of production later, directors and editors are used to this format—but if you move around a lot, or shoot the video too close up or too wide, 

it may make it difficult to use the video. To achieve a good shot, you’ll want to set 

up the camera on a tripod so it doesn’t move. You’ll want to seat your interviewee 

in a chair that doesn’t rock, swivel, or recline, so he or she also doesn’t move. 

Think about lighting when you choose a location: you don’t want your interviewee lit from behind, because this causes the video to look washed out. Most 

of the light should come from the same direction as the camera, or from the side, 

not into the lens. 

Once all this is set up, frame your shot so the interviewee looks good. You 

can frame your interviewee dead-center, but you should also consider using the 

“rule of thirds”: our eyes are naturally drawn to the lines one-third of the way 

from the top, bottom, left, and right of the screen. Thus, the most interesting 

parts of the shot, such as your subject’s eyes, should fall close to the intersections 

of these lines. To achieve this without being too close up, line up the shot as a 

head-and-shoulders shot turned to 2/3 or 3/4 profile so that the interviewee’s 

gaze cuts across 

the axis of the 

camera’s position 

and towards the 

interviewer seated to 

the left or the right 

of the camera. The 

interviewee’s eyes 

should fall one-third 

of the way down 

the screen and your 

interviewee’s head 

and shoulders should 

fill the right or left

2/3 of the screen. The 

empty third of the screen should be in front of the interviewee’s face, not behind 

their head. This not only feels natural, it leaves space on the screen for titles if the 

video is used in production later. 

Keep track of how you frame each interview. If you plan to edit the interviews into a film, for visual interest it might be worthwhile to film some of your 

interviews with the speaker on the left and others with the speaker on the right. 

You yourself should sit off-camera, in a place so that the shot looks natural if the 

interviewee is looking at you.

Rule of thirds applied to framing Courtland Cox for his 

Civil Rights History Project interview. See more examples 

of the principle on the next page. 
Rule of Thirds: More Examples

In these examples, the first image centers the main subject, while 

the second employs the “rule of thirds,” in which points of interest such as 

people’s faces occur one-third of the way from the top and one-third of the 

way from the side. Note that centering the image can provide basic, stable 

composition, while the rule of thirds can add visual interest. In photos it is a 

simple matter to crop images, but for video you will need to frame the shot 

so it follows the rule of thirds. When framing interview videos, centering 

works well if you plan to present the whole video for people to watch. A 

combination approach, in which some are centered and others employ the 

rule of thirds, works well if you plan to edit clips from the interviews into a 

longer film. 

The first pair of images, by photographer Stephen Winick, shows Steve 

LaRance performing an invocation at the Library of Congress on May 18, 

2016. The second, which is by William Smock, shows AFC fieldworker Carl 

Fleischhauer with cowboy Myron Smart in Nevada in April, 1980. 

24
Recording on Location

The best on-location recording techniques for art forms like concerts, parades, 

and weddings are beyond the scope of our advice, but we’ll provide some links to 

further resources on our website at www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/. For purely 

documentary purposes, it may be worthwhile to just set up your camera on a 

tripod with the whole performance within the shot. For audio, you could point 

two directional microphones toward the performance about 6 inches apart and 

at a 110-degree angle, or two omnidirectional mics about two feet apart and 

parallel to one another, or even use a single stereo mic. It may not make for the 

best audio or video, but reviewing recordings like this can still teach you a lot 

about the art forms you’re studying.

Although equipment changed a lot in the 

half-century between these photos, the 

basics are the same: a recording device, 

a microphone, and a set of headphones 

for monitoring. On top, Joseph S. Hall 

records a story by 86-year-old Steve 

Woody, a life-long resident of the Smoky 

Mountains, in 1939. This National Park Service photo is also included in Hall’s collections at 

AFC. Hall needed a car on the scene because car batteries were required to power his massive disc recorder. On the bottom, Mary Hufford interviews bluegrass musician Everett Lilly 

during a 1996 Fourth of July celebration on Kayford Mountain, in West Virginia, as part of the 

American Folklife Center’s Coal River Folklife Project. Photo by Terry Eiler.

25
Create Interview Logs

As soon as possible after each interview, it’s a good idea to create a log. A 

log is a time-coded list of the main topics covered in the interview. Just listen to 

the interview and make a note of when the topic changes. The beginning of a log 

looks like this:

Identifier: afc2012034_00483

Title: Patrick Bovenzi interview, 2013-02-17 

Names: Patrick Bovenzi (interviewee); Ellen E. McHale (interviewer)

Place: Tampa Bay Downs Racetrack kitchen.

Date: 2013-02-17

Description: Patrick Bovenzi talked about his work in the horse business, 

and especially his current work as a horse identifier.

Language: English

Formats: 1 audio file, digital, WAV (55 min.); 1 video file, digital, sound, 

color, mpeg4 (55 min.)

Rights: No restrictions, permissions completed.

Tagging: Horses, Racetracks

TIME CODED LOG:

00:10 Originally from Canandaigua, NY, not far from the Finger Lakes 

Racetrack. He started out walking hots at the Finger Lakes Racetrack when 

he was 14 years old. He has been in Florida 23 years. He has no other family 

members in the horse business. He was a kid who always had the Racing 

Form with him in high school, studying it in High School study hall. He 

started walking hots in 1968 when he was 14 (he had lied about his age, 

saying he was 16 years old). He worked at Finger Lakes Racetrack in the 

summers through high school and college. 

1:38 In 1968 he started working for Marty O’Neill, a former jockey turned 

trainer.

2:10 He worked with the horses during college, worked the horses in the 

morning and evenings and went to RIT during the day. It took him a little bit 

longer to finish because of that – 5 years instead of 4. He majored in criminal 

justice, in the College of General Studies. He learned about law and when 

he’s not a horse identifier, he is a steward so that is relevant to his degree.

4:10 Pat has done everything in the horse business – stable boy to steward: 

groom, hot walker, assistant trainer, jockey agent, paddock judge, placing 

judge, patrol judge, clerk of scales, horse identifier. He has been a horse 

26
identifier the longest. There are only 51 horse identifiers in the country. He 

works with four breeds and is very busy. 

 5:12 a horse identifier determines the identity of horses. It is his job to 

determine that each horse entered in a race is the correct one. He checks 

markings and color. He examines their teeth. He looks at natural markings – 

legs, cowlicks – and then refers to the registration papers and the tattoo. 

6:22 when a horse walks up to him, Pat looks at the horse as he walks up and 

then he examines her teeth and then the tattoo. It is a quick look. 

We recommend creating your log in a word processor or spreadsheet. That 

will turn your logs into a searchable list of all the topics covered in your interviews. It will come in very handy later, when you need to find information about 

a specific topic! We also recommend the header information you see above, 

which contains the same information we’ll use later as the essential metadata for 

keeping track of your interviews. That way, whether you add this metadata to the 

files first or log the interviews first, you won’t have to do this work twice. 

While you’re listening to the interview, also make note of useful leads to 

other community members or resources, and identify information that you want 

to clarify in follow-up interviews. 

In some situations, it may be worth your while to produce a full transcript of 

your interview. This means to type, word-for-word, everything you and your 

interviewee said during the interview. Transcripts provide searchable text of 

the entire interview. They also may allow future researchers to understand 

your interviewees, especially if it took you some time to learn to understand 

their speech. The goal is to create an accurate and understandable text. You 

don’t have to include every utterance like “um,” or every stutter, but try to 

reproduce as closely as possible the speaker's words. Remember, no matter how 

thorough and accurate transcripts may be, they are never able to capture tones 

of voice like an audio recording, or facial expressions like a video recording. 

On the other hand, they’re easily accessible and text-searchable, and require no 

playback equipment. Transcribing can be time-consuming; it takes between six 

and twelve hours to transcribe one hour of an interview, plus additional time if 

you edit the transcript afterwards.

27
Taking Still Photos

If you’re studying a genre that is primarily visual (like folk art) or material (like food, furniture, landscape, architecture, boats, etc.), then still photos 

become an important tool as well. 

As with audio and video recorders, use the highest-quality camera available 

to you. The higher the pixel resolution the better, since high resolution allows 

you to crop your images and enlarge details. This is especially important if books, 

presentations, or exhibits may result from your fieldwork. Set your camera to 

capture and save your files as unprocessed, uncompressed “raw” data files (file 

extensions vary by camera model, e.g., nef, dcr), rather than processed image 

files, such as tiffs and jpegs. If you can’t shoot in raw, use the highest resolution, 

least compressed image settings your camera is capable of achieving. 

In addition to the camera, carry batteries, charger, and spare memory card. 

If you intend to shoot in low light conditions and can’t use a flash, a tripod can 

hold the camera steady enough for longer exposures, and some lenses are better 

than others for this as well.

Get to know your camera for a while before using it for fieldwork. Cameras 

can have complex controls and features, and it’s no fun trying to figure out how 

to adjust it for lower light while the concert you’re trying to shoot proceeds 

without you! Practice using your camera in various light conditions and with 

various subjects. Try stationary, posed shots and candid shots of people moving 

around. The more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll be in the field.

When you’re photographing during your interview visits, some shots should 

include your interviewee’s everyday home or work surroundings. They should 

show, for example, the household, the use of space, and the decorations in their 

homes. You should also photograph details of the environment relevant to your 

research: a workshop if you’re studying a person who makes musical instruments, or a home shrine if you’re studying religious traditions. It’s always good 

to take a few flattering portrait shots of your interviewees and maybe even a shot 

or two with their whole family. Pictures like this are useful in introducing your 

interviewees to the public in later presentations of your work, and they also make 

great gifts to give back to them! 

If you’re shooting during a performance, process, or event, take enough 

pictures to document it fully. If you’re documenting the creation of a chair, for 

example, try to photograph each step in the process. If you’re photographing 

a musical performance, wide shots showing the whole band are important to 

establish context, and it’s also ideal to get close-ups of each prominent singer and 

each instrument being played. Try especially hard to photograph unusual instruments, dance moves, and playing techniques. If you’re documenting a wedding, 

photograph every person in the wedding party and every step in the ceremony if 

you can.

28
If you are photographing at an event where there are official photographers, 

don’t get in their way. However, it’s OK to ask for their card and, with the permission of the host of the event, contact them later about using their photos. 

When shooting photos, remember the “rule of thirds”: it’s often good for the 

most interesting spots on your photo to be a third of the way from the top, bottom, left, or right, rather than dead center. See pages 23-24 for examples. 

To conserve disk space, you can always discard photos that didn’t come 

out well as you go along. However, keep in mind that your primary purpose 

is documentary rather than aesthetic. A photo that doesn’t look so great, but 

that documents exactly how a garment moves during dancing, can be as useful 

later as a great portrait of the dancer’s face. Discard photos that are out of focus, 

blurry, or too light or dark, as well as photos that you’re sure aren’t useful in telling your story. Caption photos as soon as possible following the interview or the 

event while your memory is still fresh. 

Documenting Objects, Buildings, and Landscapes 

If your project is about buildings, landscapes, or objects, a good starting place 

is a set of photographs. It’s also best to conduct an interview with the owner 

or maker of the object, or with someone knowledgeable about the building or 

landscape. In the interview, 

try to find out such details as 

its uses, its significance to the 

community, what materials 

it’s made of, its component 

parts, the date of its creation, 

any modifications people 

have made to it since then, 

and the names of its designer, 

maker, and current and past 

owners.

If you’re documenting 

buildings, the most accurate 

form of documentation is 

formal, properly executed 

measured drawings. Unfortunately, most of us would need 

the services of an architect 

or draftsman to produce the 

real thing. However, for the purposes of many projects, you can create serviceable 

drawings with the help of another fieldworker or two. You can then supplement 

29

Steel measuring tape is still your best bet for accurate 

measurements of buildings. Other tapes stretch 

slightly, so the longer the item you’re measuring the 

less accurate they become. In this photo, fieldworker 

Howard W. Marshall takes a building’s measurements. South-Central Georgia Folklife Project, 1977. 

Photo by Carl Fleischhauer.
these drawings with photos of both the interior and exterior. The National Park 

Service has a good set of guidelines for this, covering both drawings and photographs of historic buildings. You also might want to check if the building has 

already been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. You can 

find links to both the guidelines and the collection of historic documentation on 

our online resources page: www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/ 

On buildings and landscape elements, take bigger measurements with a steel 

measuring tape if you can. Small measurements might require a smaller ruler. 

If you want to get fancy, you can also use a profile gauge to record the shapes of 

moldings.

When you’re measuring a building or site, it’s best to go with three people: 

two to handle the tape and ruler and to call out measurements, and the other 

to write them down. It’s difficult to measure large surfaces on your own, so it’s 

good to have one person at each end of the measuring tape. It’s even harder to 

switch between the measuring tape and the notebook to write the measurements 

down. Because of this, a single fieldworker will probably have trouble doing this 

efficiently, but you could manage it with two. 

To ensure you can match up the measurements with the part of the building 

they represent, it’s helpful to sketch the feature in your field notebook first. Then, 

as your partner calls out the measurements, write them down next to corresponding parts of the sketch. After sketching and measuring, shoot your photos. 

Later, you can do your best to transform the measurements, photos, and sketches 

into measured drawings on graph paper or digital illustrations.

You should also supplement the drawings and photos of the building itself 

with inventories of furnishings, along with sketches or photos of their placement. 

If particular artifacts found within the structure or on its property are significant, 

document them too. See our sample "Building Documentation” form online at 

www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork 

Let the Project Guide You

Our final piece of advice on fieldwork itself is to let the project guide you. 

Sometimes, we go into the field with one idea in mind, but the interviewees we 

meet turn out to have a strong interest in another folklife topic. If you’ve been 

subtly guided toward a different focus by your interviewees, it may be worth 

considering a shift in topic. Or you may decide to make it your next project! 

30
Preserving and Presenting Your Results

When you’re done with your fieldwork, you’ll likely have a large number 

of digital files in several categories (audio, video, photos, and word processing 

documents). You’ll also have paper items of various kinds. Now is the time to get 

them all ready for long-term storage. 

Care for Your Paper Files 

If you took our suggestion and created a filing system in advance, your 

paper files should already be in folders. But there are still a few things you can do 

to improve the collection. For example, remove paper clips, rubber bands, and 

other fasteners, which may result in damage and rust or leave sticky substances 

on your materials. Then, store your material in a cool dry place, away from overhead water pipes and areas where there is a risk of fire or flood. Finally, consider 

scanning some of your paper items and preserving them as part of your digital 

collection. 

Describe your Digital Collection through the Magic of Metadata (Also: What Is Metadata?)

Our digital files consist of data: bits and bytes of binary information, which 

computers can decipher into audio, video, pictures, and words. But there’s also 

information ABOUT that information, telling us when and where it was created, 

how it has been changed, and who has changed it. That data about our data is 

called “metadata.” 

Each of your digital objects needs metadata for discovery and access. Your 

announcement on the recording and your recording and photo logs have already 

captured some metadata. If you’ve followed our advice and set the time and 

date on your equipment, more of your metadata will already be in good shape: 

the date and time on which you created your files, for example, is automatically 

embedded in the files. If you also followed our advice about file naming, you 

have files already named in a way that makes the collection easy to navigate. But 

there is other metadata, too, that can help you and later researchers find your 

way around the collection.

We recommend a format known as Dublin Core for recording metadata about 

fieldwork files. An online tool to generate Dublin Core metadata and a simple 

spreadsheet in the Dublin Core format are available from our online resources 

page: www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/

31
We recommend that you record descriptive tags (known as “descriptors”) 

about each of your files. Good descriptions recorded in a spreadsheet can be 

reused for online presentations and for cataloging once your collection goes to 

an archive or library. Therefore, a spreadsheet is by far the best way to keep this 

information. But you can use a word processing document instead, or even a 

paper notebook, if you’re old-school!

Essential descriptors answer the questions what, who, where, and when. For 

each file, enter the filename into your spreadsheet, and then record the following 

information about it:

• Identifier. Each digital object requires a unique identifier. Filenames are 

subject to change, so create a scheme for identifying your photographs, 

audio files and video files. 

Example: NVFA_CPDP2012_HP08_PH10 is a unique identifier 

which includes repository NVFA (Northern Virginia Folklife Archive); 

Project name (CPDP2012) Columbia Pike Documentary Project 2012); 

fieldworker’s initials and interview number HP08, (Hillary Pearson’s 

eighth interview session); and media type and number PH10 (digital 

photograph number 10). 

• Title. Include factual content about who, when, what, and where. 

Groups of photographs can share the same title. 

Example 1: Huxley residence, Boone, NC. Kitchen, 2015-12-21

Example 2: Iryna Wolynetz interview conducted by Stephen Winick, 

2015-02-27

• Names of participants. (Include year of birth, if possible.) Ask what 

name each person prefers and how to spell it. Include the “role” of the 

participants, such as interviewer, interviewee, collector, photographer, 

singer, or person depicted. 

Example: Eudokia Sorochaniuk (b. 1919), interviewee; Stephen Winick 

(b. 1968), interviewer.

• Place of recording. 

Example: 1234 Street Road, Pennsauken, NJ, USA

• Date of recording or capture. Use the format YYYY-MM-DD (Even if 

your recording device captures date and time, manually record dates in 

a separate field in the spreadsheet.) 

 Example: 2004-08-23

32
• Description/Summary. Describe the interview in a brief sentence or 

paragraph. 

Example 1: One-hour interview with Iryna Wolynetz at the Ukrainian 

Museum about Ukrainian textiles, including weaving and Hutsul 

nyzanka embroidery. 

Example 2: Photo of Mr. Lieburn’s barn, Lancaster, PA. (Note: if a photo 

caption includes all the significant details, then you don’t need to repeat 

them here, but add descriptive details about content and context if 

important.)

• Language. Describe language(s) and dialect(s) of your interviewees, 

especially if you are using a translator or are not familiar with the 

language. 

Example: Spanish, South Bolivian Quechua

• Format or physical description. Description of the digital files, video, 

audio, or photos you have captured, and/or of any analog materials 

you’ve collected, e.g., color slides, photographic prints, clippings, 

pamphlets, posters, etc. 

Example: 1 audio file (32 min.), digital, WAV (96 kHz, 24 bit)

• Rights. Note if there are any restrictions placed on the use of the photos 

and interviews. You should also note if permission forms have been 

completed. 

• Keywords. Keywords are important topics or subjects covered in your 

interviews and photos and can help retrieve information after they are 

recorded. Keywords are “uncontrolled,” meaning that whatever topics or 

words you decide to add can come from any source. Some communities 

have specific words they use to describe their traditions, and it is 

important to include these local keywords in your descriptions.

Control Your Vocabulary! In addition to keyword tagging, 

it can be valuable to tag your interviews with terms from 

a “controlled vocabulary” such as the American Folklore 

Society Ethnographic Thesaurus, which you can find on our 

online resources page: www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/ . If 

you use a controlled vocabulary, people will be able to find 

your materials more easily on the web or in an archive. 

33
Photo description example

Title: Parade at West Indian carnival, Brooklyn, NY, 2010-

09-04

Names: Stephen Winick (b. 1968), photographer. Richard 

Evans (b. 1975, person depicted)

Place: Eastern Parkway and Schenectady Ave., Brooklyn, NY

Date: 2010-09-04

Description: Richard Evans in a yellow and black sequined 

bee costume in the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, 

N.Y. on September 4, 2010. He later described making the 

costume and pre-parade activities with other participants. 

Language: After the parade, Richard Evans provided some 

descriptions of the event in Spanish.

Format: 10 photographs, digital, color, NEF

Rights: No restrictions on use. Please credit the 

photographer. Permissions completed.

Tagging: Costumes, parades, Caribbean Americans

Interview description example 

Title: Betty Sweeny interview conducted by Stephen Winick, 

2014-08-23

Names: Stephen Winick (b. 1968), interviewer; Betty Sweeny 

(b. 1945), interviewee.

Place: Betty Sweeny’s home, 1234 Street Road, Pennsauken, 

NJ, USA

Date: 2014-08-23 

Description: Betty Sweeny described her work as a 

taxidermist, including early instruction from her father, 

people’s attitudes about taxidermy, new techniques, tools 

used, her photography and marketing of her work. 

Language: English

Formats: 1 audio file, digital, WAV (55 min.); 1 video file, 

digital, sound, color, mpeg4 (55 min.)

Rights: No restrictions, permissions completed.

Tagging: Taxidermy, wildlife, anatomy, occupations, 

photographers, oral histories 

34
This photo is an example of how important accurate metadata can be. It’s a 

frame of motion-picture film shot by Alan Lomax in 1942, and labeled as 

“Charles Edwards.” Almost 70 years later, AFC staff members learned it was 

actually David “Honeyboy” Edwards. After this film was shot, Honeyboy 

went on to be a crucial figure in country blues, a Grammy Award winner 

and recognized pioneer. Until this film was rediscovered, it was thought that 

no image of Honeyboy existed from before the late 1960s. Many books and 

films have been made about Lomax and Edwards, and they all could have 

benefited from this footage, but no one knew it existed—because an archivist 

wrote down one name wrong. 

Care for Your Digital Collection

To keep your files safe, we recommend that you make three copies of your 

files on hard drives. We recommend you keep one in a different physical location 

from the others. Store all your drives in a stable and protected environment with 

moderate humidity and temperature, and without strong electrical or magnetic 

fields nearby. Finally, we recommend you migrate your files to new storage 

devices every 5 years or so. 

Decide How the Collection Can (and Should) Be Used

Now that you have a great collection of fieldwork documentation, and 

you’ve seen to its physical safety, it’s time to decide what to do with it. If you 

went into the field with a production goal in mind, like a podcast, film, book, 

or exhibit, you’ll need to assess whether your collection fits the bill. If you didn’t 

35
have a goal, it’s time to think about these options! 

If you still don’t want to do any production with the collection, the second 

question is whether others might be interested in your work. If the collection is 

purely personal or familyrelated, you might want to 

hold onto it privately. But if 

it documents a folklife topic 

interesting to the wider 

community, why not make 

it accessible to scholars and 

other parties? The best way 

to do so is to approach an 

archive or library about 

donating the collection. 

 Because the digital 

world moves quickly, and file 

types evolve, in the long term 

your collection is better off in 

the care of professional archivists, especially if they are experienced in working 

with digital collections. They can store it on servers, with software that checks 

for data loss and file corruption. They can also convert to new file types and 

formats as technology evolves in the future. If you think your collection is worth 

preserving, we recommend 

exploring this option. (In 

most cases, since your 

collection is digital, you’ll 

be able to keep copies, so 

your own access won’t be 

affected at all by donating it 

to an archive!)

Think about ethics 

one more time. Did your 

interviewees express 

serious concerns about outsiders 

hearing about their traditions? 

Were people reluctant to sign the 

release forms? Did you promise at any time to keep anything “off the record?” 

If so, you might need to place restrictions on your collection, or withhold items 

when you donate the collection. Still, it would be worth talking to an archive 

to see what they recommend. If you didn’t encounter any of these issues, we 

certainly hope you’ll consider a library or archive. 

36

Larry Fremin is interviewed by Jocelyn Donlon 

in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo by Jon Donlon, 

courtesy of Lousiana Folklife. 

A staffer from the Office of Senator Joe Donnelly 

(IN) interviews a Persian Gulf War veteran at the 

Hamilton East Public Library, August 25, 2014.
Get Your Collection Ready for an Archive

If you have followed our advice on file types, file naming, and metadata, 

your collection is likely to be nearly ready for an archive to accept. However, 

every archive and library has its own standards and procedures for accessioning 

collections. Therefore, if you haven’t been in touch with an archive or library 

yet, your best bet is to talk to institutions where you’d like your collection to be 

housed, and get from them their own archival standards. You can then adjust 

your files or metadata to fit their needs. Keep in mind that archives have their 

own policies about whether or not to accept collections, and can decline your offer.

Once you have determined how to keep your collection safe for the long 

term, whether at home or in an archive, it’s time to celebrate! Your fieldwork 

project is complete! 

Public Sector Folklore and Folklife Programs 

Just like folklife, folklorists are everywhere if you know where to look! Since 

the formation of the American Folklore Society in 1888, folklorists have been 

organized into a scholarly discipline to study traditional culture. But many folklorists have moved beyond academia, to bring their work before the general public. 

Nearly every state has a program for documenting and presenting its own 

folk cultural heritage, and most hire trained professionals. Folklorists organize 

concerts, festivals, exhibits, and other cultural heritage programs. We create 

reports and recommendations related to urban planning, cultural sustainability, 

and economic development. We develop archives, encourage community scholarship, prepare school curricula and teacher training programs, and organize 

folk arts residencies in schools, libraries, and museums. 

Folklorists are also concerned with the sustainability of folk traditions. 

We work to help fund folk arts through grants and by establishing community 

resources at arts centers, libraries, and museums. We create programs to help 

folk artists find apprentices, and help pay for their services as teachers, so that 

folk traditions can continue to be passed on. We provide performance and 

exhibit opportunities for folk artists through a wide range of public programs.

Folklorists design, implement and manage “folk artists in the schools” programs, 

oral history projects, museum programs and broad scale documentation projects. If you are interested in securing the services of a folklorist, or interested 

in learning more about the profession, contact the American Folklife Center. 

We can refer you to local, state, regional, and federal folklife programs, and to 

relevant universities. We even have an internship program! Contact the Center at 

folklife@loc.gov 

37
Online Resources 

Visit us online. You’ll find sample forms such as audio and video logs, photo 

logs, and building documentation forms. In most cases, you will want to enter 

this information into spreadsheets rather than paper forms, but the forms will 

give you a good idea of what information to create or capture. You’ll also find 

links to resources from other agencies, such as the National Park Service and the 

Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as other useful guidelines for folklife 

and oral history fieldwork. And, of course, a pdf version of this guide! Find it all 

at www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork

Plus, find more folklife resources and a wealth of online collections at www.

loc.gov/folklife

Cover Credits

Photo 1: Dallas Chief Eagle performs at the Library of Congress on November 15, 2007. 

Photo by Michaela McNichol, LC Office of Communications.

Photo 2: Dorothy Sara Lee interviews Clifford Wolfe Sr. at the 1983 Omaha pow-wow. Macy, 

Nebraska, August 13, 1983. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer. AFC 1986/038: FCP/0-CF3A-6.

Photo 3: A patron at the Yarn and Canvas craft supply store, Chicago, Illinois, April 21, 1977. 

Photo by Jonas Dovydenas. AFC 1981/004: 13.

Photo 4: Former AFC Director Alan Jabbour and John R. Griffin in Lennox, Georgia, August 

6, 1977. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer. AFC 1982/010.

Photo 5: Bing Xia plays the guzheng at the Library of Congress on May 21, 2015. Photo by 

Shawn Miller, LC Office of Communications. 

Page 7 Credits

Top: Frank Gavica with button accordion, Paradise Valley, Nevada, October 1979. Photo by 

Carl Fleischhauer. AFC 1991/021: NV9-CF32-9.

Middle: Children playing "ring around a rosie" in Chicago, Illinois, April 1941. Photo by 

Edwin Rosskam. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USF33- 005164-

M1.

Bottom: Nepalese Dancer. Photographer unknown. AFC 2011/002.

38
39

Appendix: Sample Forms 

AUDIO AND VIDEO RECORDING LOG 

Title

Names of interviewer(s) and interviwee(s)

Place

Date

Description

Language

Formats

Rights

Keyword Tags ____________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Additional Notes: _________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

TOPIC SUMMARY 

Time or meter Topic

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________
RELEASE FORM

I,_______________________, am a participant in the ___________________

project, (hereinafter "project"). I understand that the purpose of the project 

is to collect audio- and video-tapes and selected related documentary materials 

(such as photographs and manuscripts) that may be deposited in the permanent 

collections of __________________________________. The deposited documentary materials may be used for scholarly, educational, and other purposes. I 

understand that the ____________________ plans to retain the product of my 

participation as part of its permanent collection and that the materials may be used 

for exhibition, publication, presentation on the World Wide Web and successor 

technologies, and for promotion of the institution and its activities in any medium.

I hereby grant to _____________________________ ownership of the physical property delivered to the institution and the right to use the property that 

is the product of my participation (for example, my interview, 

performance, photographs, and written materials) as stated above. By 

giving permission, I understand that I do not give up any copyright or 

performance rights that I may hold.

I also grant to_____________________________ my absolute and irrevocable consent for any photograph(s) provided by me or taken of me in the 

course of my participation in the project to be used, published, and copied 

by ______________________________ and its assignees in any medium.

I agree that_______________________________ may use my name, video or 

photographic image or likeness, statements, performance, and voice 

reproduction, or other sound effects without further approval on my part.

ACCEPTED AND AGREED

Signature___________________________________________

Date________________

Printed name_______________________________________________

Address ________________________________________________________

____________________________________________Zip_________-_______

Telephone ( )________ - ___________ 

Fax ( ) ________ - ___________

Email ____________________________________

Note: for further examples of release forms, see our online resources at:

www.loc.gov/folklife/fieldwork/ 
loc.gov/folklife