Academic folklore prepares students for teaching and researching.
Public Folklore prepares them for jobs in government, arts administration, and museum management. Both of these emphases allow for interdisciplinary, interdepartmental work in English, history, anthropology, sociology, geography, as well as other fields which may be germane to the student s particular focus. The core folklore courses are taught by distinguished folklorists, and the library and archival resources include nationally recognized collections, such as the Austin and Alta Fife Collections, the Don Yoder Book Collection, the Wayland D. Hand Memorial collection, the Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Library, the John I. White Cowboy Song Collection, the G. Malcom Laws Ballad Collection, the American Folklore Society Papers 1888 to present, the Wayland D. Hand Collection of American Popular Belief and Superstition, the Jay Anderson Folklore Collection and the Barre Toelken Native American Collection, plus an ongoing archive of student fieldwork collections spanning more than twenty-five years. Jeannie Thomas and Barre Toelken with USU graduate students at the Utah Folklore Society Meeting 2000. The USU Special Collections also serves as the national repository for the American Folklore Society s Papers, over 50 linear feet of records and documents accumulated during the 104 year history of the organization.