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Finding Folklore Focused Field Projects

Some students and researchers want to know how to use the folklore archives more effectively. One of the items that the archive includes is the focused projects. These are semester projects done by students in folklore classes on topics of their choosing. Subjects range from missionaries to courtship, customs to beliefs and many more.

There are three places to find focused field projects: the project list, the online catalog, and an alpha-numeric call number list.

1. Go to student projects to find a list of field projects. They are listed by title and author’s name. If there is a subject that is of interest to you. The PDF is fully searchable. The drawback with this format is that if it is not in the title, you are not going to find it.

2. You may use the library search function to find many titles since about 2001. These are searchable through topics, geography and genre, just like any book in the library. Each project has an individual record. Part of the trick is being familiar with Library of Congress search terms—which are not always intuitive.

3. The last place to search is done using a call number search. You can find the link for call number searches on the library home page when you are searching for books. When you click on it you will be taken to a page with boxes and drop down menus. Enter FA 1 (for folklore archive projects) in the call number box. Select “HBLL Special Collections” in the first box with a drop down menu. In the next box select “alpha-numeric classification.” It is important to do all three boxes correctly or you will not end up with the projects. Do not make any changes on the last three boxes. Click on “Search.”

You will see a list that runs several pages. Unfortunately, these are not searchable and all you see is the author and the title. If a title intrigues you, you can click on it and receive the whole entry for that title. Then you may want to choose a subject term and receive a list of all items in Special Collections with that term listed. Be careful not to choose anything too broad, because your returns will not be just folklore field projects.

If you have any questions after trying these methods, please contact Kristi Young at kristi_young@byu.edu or 422-6041.

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