Genre include blason populaire, counting-out rhymes, jokes, folk beliefs, dance, drama, folkspeech, games, legends, mnemonic devices, songs, and song parodies. Special classifications include religious lore, family lore, and scout lore. Detailed indexes of the material are kept according to guidelines set down by The Cataloging Service, Bulletin 104, May 1972. Also housed in the U.C. Berkeley Archive are the Black Diamond Oral History Project and an extensive but uncatalogued tongue-twister collection, the result of a contest initiated in 1966 by KYA, a rock and roll radio station broadcasting from San Francisco. This is a non-circulating archive.
Researchers are welcome to work on the premises during regular hours or by appointment.
A clear explication of meaning, contextual information, and details about informants are extremely important as well. Please ask for collecting guidelines and sample entries. All rights reserved .