Identifier
NFAI.R.00000112
Repository Name
Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies Archives
Type of Repository
Academic Libraries, Archives, Museums
Repository State
Ohio
Repository Description
The CFS Archives is an active and lively part of folklore at Ohio State University and within the state of Ohio, serving as a productive learning environment for folklore students, a repository for folklore course projects, and a collaborative partner with various state organizations. The Folklore Archives houses unique folklore and ethnographic collections and research projects undertaken by students, faculty, and other scholars. Located in the heart of OSU’s campus in the Ohio Stadium, Suite 218, the Folklore Archives was established in 1960 as a resource for a wide variety of humanistic research. The Archives holds over four decades of research material, including audio and video recordings, slides and photographs, the large Francis L. Utley record collection, and thousands of text pages. The Folklore Archives holds regular hours of operation and can be accessed by appointment outside of regular hours. Suite 218 of the Ohio Stadium is accessed between gates 18-20 on the east side of the building. Visitors are advised to contact the archivist ahead of time before visiting the archives. Archival materials must remain on site. At present OSU faculty and students use the archives for teaching and research. Practicums in and visits to the archives are becoming standard for all introductory folklore courses and folklore courses that involve fieldwork research. The Folklore Student Association also currently holds its bi-weekly meetings and hosts special student events in the Archives. FolkOhio, the Archives website and online database, brings the holdings of the Folklore Archives to your fingertips. This site functions as a virtual archives and includes a number of different search functions for reviewing archival materials and browsing online collections. Our site is intended to be a useful resource for students, teachers, librarians, or anyone interested in traditional culture. Although the site focuses on Ohio lore and traditional culture, the archival holdings and the work of our faculty and students include research from all over the world.
ARCHIVES
The majority of our holdings are fieldwork-based research collections. We are particularly strong in regionally centered (primarily Ohio) student-collected ethnographic projects as well as traditional regional and international music. Additionally, we have donor-specific collections (Francis Lee Utley, Erika Bourguignon, Rosemary Joyce, Patrick Mullen, Amy Shuman and Margaret Mills) as well as extensive, rare reference and teaching materials.
GENRES
Unique in the state of Ohio, our archive is a repository of state and regional vernacular culture with a comprehensive collection of student research projects stretching back to the early 1960s, focusing on regional oral traditions. These collections are particularly strong in contemporary and historical legends, anecdotes, jokes, and oral history, beliefs, customs, festivals, material culture, and traditional ways of living. The Archives is also home to focused fieldwork-based research projects such as “The Appalachian Project,” “The University District Oral History Project,” “Key Ingredients: Ohio Foodways,” “Say Amen: Religion in Ohio,” “Lake Erie Fishermen: Laborlore in Ohio,” and “New Harmonies: Ohio Vernacular Music Today.” We are also in the process of acquiring slang journals from students taking linguistics courses in the English department. A number of our research initiatives were co-sponsored by various state and regional institutions including the Ohio Arts Council, Ohio Humanities Council, and the Joint Program in the Traditional Arts, with whom we continue to collaborate as part of our public outreach and public humanities mission. In addition, the archive holds field materials in the form of audio and video recordings (reel to reel, cassette, VHS, CD, and DVD formats), photographs, notes, ephemera; vinyl records; photocopies of archival material from other collections; bibliographic cards, correspondence, lecture materials; theses and dissertations; reference materials: published journals and monographs and instructional videos.
DATES
The field records are 20th century, contemporary, and ongoing, although some of the faculty collections (e.g. the Utley files) assemble research on medieval and early modern topics.
LOCATIONS
Ethnographic projects come primarily from Ohio. In addition to the regional focus, the archives has a strong and complementary international component with its significant collection of folk song and vernacular music recordings from across the globe—some 140 linear feet of LPs, currently being digitized. Other internationally focused holdings include the research collections of OSU faculty who work abroad and have donated primary research materials.
HIGHLIGHTS
The CFS Archives is especially strong in one-of-a-kind, Ohio-based ethnographic collections. Dating back to the 1960s, folklore faculty have donated their students’ fieldwork collecting projects to the archives. These student ethnographic papers constitute our most extensive collection and it continues to grow each year. Currently there are over 10,000 projects accessioned. Other Ohio-based collections include Genre Cards, Key Ingredients: Ohio by Food, Lake Erie Fishermen: Laborlore in Ohio, New Harmonies: Ohio Vernacular Music Today, Ohio Arts Council Projects, Ohio Valley Folk Publications, Say Amen: Religion in Ohio, and the University District Project. The Center for Folklore Studies Archives has an exciting collection based on founder Francis Lee Utley’s research interests. The Utley collection has two major components (1) files with his research notes, photocopies of archival materials, and other research items dealing with medieval folklore, folklore and literature, Biblical folklore, and a long-term comparative study of the Biblical Noah in international folklore, and (2) Utley’s extensive record collection featuring 78 and 33 RPMs from across the globe and ranging across genres. Continuing our history of collaborative partnerships, this year we are partnering with faculty, student and community research projects to accession two new collections: The Appalachian Project, an interdisciplinary research initiative investigating social/environmental/economic issues affecting the educational pursuits of high school graduates in southeast Ohio, and Ohio Slang Journals collected by OSU students.
FORMATS
Sound Recordings - 5,000
Moving Images - 1,000
Photographs - 5,000
Paper Records - 732 linear feet
Digital Data - 4TB
COMMENTS
Over the past seven years, the Center for Folklore Studies has actively engaged in digital preservation and access initiatives. To encourage greater access to our materials, archives staff have been working diligently to digitize our extensive catalog and to make it searchable via our online database, FolkOhio. To keep up with these pressing endeavors, the Center for Folklore Studies has created a new staff position that combines the CFS Assistant Director with, for the first time, Director of Archives. In addition, the graduate student archivist position has been elevated to a 20hr/wk appointment, up from 10hrs/wk. The Archives also employs three work study undergraduate students that aide the staff with digitizing, key-wording and transcribing of materials. In addition to the upkeep of the searchable student ethnographic project database, a large undertaking has been the digitization of the Utley Record Collection and the creation of a music listening station that will be open to faculty, students, and the larger community. Like archives everywhere, we face ongoing challenges of space and resources for preserving and cataloging materials. In 2010, a yearly newsletter was instituted to circulate archives-related information to the broader folklore community. With our collections growing at an exponential pace, Ohio State awarded the archives additional space in the Ohio Stadium (where the archives is currently housed). We plan to expand into our new space in early 2013.
Repository Description Source
[information from NFAI Survey]
Repository Contact
Cassie Rosita Patterson (Director, Folklore Archives)
Address
218 Ohio Stadium
1961 Tuttle Park Place
Columbus, OH 43210
USA
Telephone
(614) 292-1369
Email
patterson.493@osu.edu
