Research Guides: Folk Studies: Library Resources

Fieldwork Resources

FOLKLIFE AND FIELDWORK: An Introduction to Field Techniques
An online resource prepared and maintained by The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Learn more about steps in the process and specific field techniques.
Guide to Folklore Collecting Assignments
Provides you with firsthand experience with how folklore is identified, collected, and archived. Deepens your acquaintance with your personal living culture and make you aware of the many folklore forms that surround you.

Local Museums and Programs

Kentucky Museum at WKU
The Kentucky Museum displays history, arts & culture, with an outstanding quilt and textile collection, extensive archaeological and ethnic holdings, also fine and decorative arts
WKU Special Collections
Includes primary and secondary source material specifically for Kentucky in their Research Collection and Manuscripts and Folklife Archives.
WKU Programs in Folk Studies
Western Kentucky University has one of the most successful folklore programs in the United States. Western's Programs in Folk Studies place special emphasis on public folklore and the related areas of folklore and education and historic preservation.

Regional and National Resources

Kentucky Digital Library
Historic newspapers, images, maps, books, and oral histories from collections around the state provided by KYVL. A member of Digital Public Library of America.
Historic Sites in Kentucky
From the prehistoric Native American village occupied by the Mississippian mound builders at Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site to 1862 when Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle occurred at Perryville Battlefield.
The American Folklife Center
Archives of ethnographic materials from the United States and around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. Includes a page for Kentucky Resources.
Center for Southern Folklore Memphis
A private non-profit organization dedicated to documenting and presenting the people, music and traditions of the region.
Folkstreams
A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.
Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is dedicated to the collaborative research, presentation, conservation, and continuity of traditional knowledge and artistry with diverse contemporary cultural communities in the United States and around the world.
The American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society is an association of people who study and communicate knowledge about folklore throughout the world.
National Network for Folk Arts in Education
Universal yet unique to each community, family, and individual, folk arts and folklore provide inherently interdisciplinary opportunities to investigate local learning in deeply meaningful ways that connect generations, regions of the nation and the world, and diverse ways of knowing.

Articles, Books, & Primary Sources in Library Databases

See SKYCTC's eBooks from ProQuest Ebook Central!

Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
SKYCTC's ebooks from ProQuest. Includes 56,000+ ebooks from leading publishers including unique titles from Wiley, 130 university presses, and more. Collections cover subjects such as: biology, business management, computer science/IT, education, engineering & manufacturing, history, literature, nursing and other health-related fields, physical sciences, psychology, religious studies and sociology.

See SKYCTC's eBooks from EBSCOhost!

EBSCOhost eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Electronic book collection, including fiction, nonfiction, and reference.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:

KYVL has partnered with the University Press of Kentucky to make more than 1,300 titles in the collection freely available to KYVL members.

eBooks from the University Press of Kentucky This link opens in a new window
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KYVL has partnered with the University Press of Kentucky to make more than 1,300 titles in the collection freely available to KYVL members. This collection includes topics ranging from architecture to business, education to law, Arts & Humanities and studies in Romance languages to social & behavioral sciences and STEM fields.

Use the search box below to find articles and primary sources in history and other related disciplines from a selection of EBSCOhost Databases.

For additional research materials, you can use the multi-disciplinary database Academic OneFile, or a subject specific one below. Type in your topic keywords in one of the search engines and narrow results with the menu on the right. Use the Topic Finder feature to discover related subject keywords and sources about your research interests.

Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Full text academic articles in physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects. Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:
Diversity Studies (Gale) This link opens in a new window
A must-have for social science, history and liberal arts coursework, this collection includes hundreds of journal titles exploring cultural differences, contributions and influences in our global community.
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Fine Arts (Gale) This link opens in a new window
With hundreds of full-text magazines and journals covered in databases such as the Wilson Art Index and RILM, this collection will provide your students with resources to support research in areas such as drama, music, art history, and filmmaking.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:
Pop Culture Studies (Gale) This link opens in a new window
This collection provides useful information for any researcher in a social science, history, art or liberal arts course. This collection is made up of hundreds of subject-appropriate full-text periodicals.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:

Use our ProQuest Database Alt-Press Watch or our local news database NewsBank to find news on national, state, and local affairs.

Alt-PressWatch (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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This ProQuest database provides full-text articles from hundreds of publications of the alternative and independent presses, from 1970 to current.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:
Newsbank Access World News This link opens in a new window
Find current and archived articles on issues, events, people, government and more. Includes access to 78 Kentucky media publications and newspapers, including the Bowling Green Daily News, the Lexington Herald-Leader. The Suggested Topics feature on the homepage can help select topics for essays, speeches and current events research. Coverage from 1980 to current.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:

See a full list of SKYCTC databases with our A-Z Database List below.

A-Z Database Guide
Full list of Databases the library subscribes to, including trial access.

Find Background Information

Why is background information important?

Provides an overview of an unfamiliar topic.
Give you basic information about a topic like definitions & summaries.
Helps you broaden or narrow your search.

Reference materials, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries, are great sources of background information.

Britannica Online: Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
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Includes Encyclopædia Britannica plus Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, magazines, periodicals, e-books, news, multimedia, an interactive world atlas, and more.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is an e-reference database. With hundreds of digital reference titles from over 100 publishers, this database offers a user-friendly interface to access curated, authoritative reference sources, providing users with a firm foundation for understanding a topic. Credo helps users gather background information, find key terms and concepts, and even connect to e-journals in the library databases to access more specialized information and peer-reviewed articles.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:
eBooks from Master Academic eBook Collection (Infobase) This link opens in a new window
With more than 2,500 core reference works from the Facts On File, Ferguson’s, and Bloom’s imprints. Coverage includes a wide range of academic subject areas—from literature and language reference, to world history, religion, and philosophy. Also includes Literary Classics eBook collection and Sacred Text eBook collection.

Find Library Resources

Type keywords in the Library Search box below to search most of the SKYCTC, KCTCS, and KYVL databases to find articles, books, and other resources.

How to Find Resources in Library Search
A short introduction to searching and saving favorites in Library Search.
Tutorial on How to Use Library Search
For an in-depth tutorial on how to do effective searches in Library Search.

Books on the Shelf at SKYCTC

Myth by William G. Doty
Call Number: BL304 .D577 2004, Reference
ISBN: 0313326967
Publication Date: 2004-06-30
Overview of the role of myth around the world.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures by Ferris, William R.
Call Number: Reference E 161 .G74 2004
ISBN: 9780313332661
Publication Date: 2004-12-22
Regional culture, including architecture, art, ecology and environment, ethnicity, fashion, film and theater, folklore, food, language, literature, music, religion, sports, and recreation.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy by E. D. Hirsch; Joseph F. Kett; James Trefil
Call Number: Reference E169.1 .H614 2002
ISBN: 0618226478
Publication Date: 2002-10-03
World history and politics, literature, science and technology.
The Shaker Communities of Kentucky by Hooper; Curry; Hines
Call Number: F 459. S53 2006
ISBN: 9780738542676
Publication Date: 2006-05-31
History of the Shaker Communities of Kentucky: Pleasant Hill and South Union presents the lives, struggles, and achievements of a remarkable people.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase
Call Number: Reference GR 74 .G73 2008
ISBN: 0313334412
Publication Date: 2007-12-30
This massive Encyclopedia gives students and general readers a broad, multicultural survey of folk and fairy tales from around the world.
Tobacco and Kentucky by William F.Axton
Call Number: HD 9137.K4 A88 2009
ISBN: 9780813193403
Publication Date: 2009-11-11
Axton describes the various forms in which tobacco has been used, its quick adoption by the Old World, and its gradual development into the forms common today, especially the blended cigarette, and the importance that has had in Kentucky life.
Singing the Glory Down by William Lynwood Montell
Call Number: ML3187 .M66 1991
ISBN: 0813117577
Publication Date: 1991-09-12
In Singing the Glory Down, Montell contributes to a fuller understanding of twentieth-century American culture by examining the complex relationships between gospel music and the culture of the nineteen-county study area in which this music has flourished for a hundred years.
A Few Honest Words by Howard
Call Number: ML3477.7.K4 H78 2012
ISBN: 9780813136455
Publication Date: 2012-09-18
How Kentucky's landscape, culture, and traditions have influenced notable contemporary musicians. Profiles reveal the importance of the state and the Appalachian region to the creation and performance of music in America.
The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture by Samuel S. Hill (Editor)
Call Number: F209 .N47 2006
ISBN: 0807830038
Publication Date: 2006-04-03
Covering the following topics in Southern culture: Religion; Geography; History; Myth, manners, and memory; Language; Ethnicity; Foodways; Environment; Literature

eBooks from SKYCTC

Folklore by McCormick; White
Call Number: Online with KCTCS username and password
ISBN: 9781598842418
Cross-cultural survey of the major types and methods of inquiry in folklore.
Encyclopedia of American Studies by Simon Bronner, Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication Date: 2010
Brings together a wide range of disciplines related to the history and cultures of the United States, from pre-colonial days to the present.
Explaining Traditions by Simon J. Bronner
ISBN: 9780813134062
Publication Date: 2011-07-22
discusses the underlying reasons for the continuing significance of traditions, delving into their social and psychological roles in everyday life, from old-time crafts to folk creativity on the Internet.

Librarian / Associate Professor

Ryan Dowell

Email Me

Contact:

Main Campus - Learning Commons
Building L, Office 119A

270-901-1171

Subjects: Library and Information Services