Internships and Awards

Volunteer Internship Program | Junior Fellows Program | Parsons Fund Award | Henry Reed Fund Award |
Blanton Owen Fund Award | Fieldschool

The American Folklife Center provides opportunites for students to work with collections for course credit, and a limited number of awards for scholars interested in working with ethnographic collection materials at the Library of Congress. Following are descriptions of these programs and awards. Because of security measures at the Library, US Mail and Federal Express may be delayed. We recommend that applications for awards be sent by FAX: 202-707-2076. For more information about any of these programs the Center may be contacted by email: folklife@loc.gov or phone at 202-707-1741.

Volunteer Internship Program

The American Folklife Center has available at all times of the year a limited number of volunteer internships through which individuals may work with the archival collections in the Archive of Folk Culture. Although these internships carry no stipend, many persons have found them useful in planning a career, or in obtaining the experience necessary to enter an academic, or other, profession. Interns who are students have often arranged with their institutions to obtain academic credit; some have earned as much as sixteen credit hours for their work.

The goals of the Center's Volunteer Internship Program are as follows:

1. To provide educational experience or career training in the fields of folklore and folklife, ethnomusicology, archival studies, library science, or related areas
2. To provide in-depth exposure to the field of folklife, the collections of the Archive of Folk Culture, and the processes of collection, preservation, and presentation
3. To organize and structure activities that produce concrete results to benefit both the intern and the Center
4. To build networks with future generations of professionals concerned with aspects of folklore and folklife.

Interns have the opportunity to participate in a number of activities of the American Folklife Center: reference, processing, acquisitions, special projects, and events. Some examples include: compiling finding aids for specific subject areas in the Archive's collections, organizing and labeling collections for preservation and storage, and maintaining a wide variety of subject and collections files. Other projects may include research for special projects and assisting with public events. Occasionally, interns are called upon to assist in responding to requests from Congress and the academic and public sector communities.

The period of internship may range from just six weeks to more than a year (minimum 200 hours). Part-time arrangements are possible, although a commitment of at least two full days a week is preferred. Interested applicants should have:

1. An interest in the subjects of folklife, anthropology, ethnomusicology, or related disciplines.
2. A willingness to work in a library/archive situation
3. A commitment to the 200-hour minimum.
4. Some prior experience with folk music or folklife materials, preferably in an archive or library is preferred.

Persons interested in the Volunteer Internship Program should contact Ann Hoog, Reference Folklife Specialist, as follows: phone (202) 707-4428; fax (202) 707-2076; e-mail ahoo@loc.gov. Please include with your letter of application a phone number where you can be reached, a resume or list of interests and experience, a time when you can be interviewed, and an indication when you would like to schedule your internship.

Junior Fellows Program

The American Folklife Center participates in the Library of Congress Junior Fellows Program, which offers a small number of fellowships each year for students enrolled in or just completing undergraduate or graduate academic programs. The fellowships are offered for the summer months, from June through August. Applicants must be at the junior-year level or above. In the past the Folklife Center has had from one to three Junior Fellows, who have gained useful experience and provided an important service to the Center processing selected archival collection materials. The Center is particularly interested in candidates who are enrolled in such programs as folklife, anthropology, ethnomusicology, and archival methods and management. For more information contact Nora Yeh, coordinator of processing, by fax (202) 707-2076; by phone (202) 707-4426; or by email nyeh@loc.gov. You may also visit the Library of Congress Junior Fellows web site.

The Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award

The Parsons Fund Committee for the Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund for Ethnography at the Library of Congress invites applications for awards of up to two thousand dollars per year (awards in previous years have been between two hundred and one thousand dollars). The committee is composed of the professional staff of the American Folklife Center.

The purpose of the fund is to make the collections of primary ethnographic materials housed anywhere at the Library of Congress available to the needs and uses of those in the private sector. Awards may be made either to individuals or to organizations in support of specific projects.

Projects may lead to publication in media of all types, both commercial and non-commercial; underwrite new works of art, music, or fiction; involve academic research; contribute to the theoretical development of archival science; explore practical possibilities for processing ethnographic collections in the Archive of Folk Culture or elsewhere in the Library of Congress; develop new means of providing reference service; support student work; experiment with conservation techniques; and support ethnographic field research leading to new Library acquisitions. Past recipients and their research topics have included:

1996

• Julia Bishop: The James Madison Carpenter Collection

1997

• William T. Dargan: African American Lining Out Hymn Performance
• Lucy Long: Appalacian Plucked Dulcimer

1998

• Carl Lindahl: British- and Irish-American Folk Tales
• Thomas Gilcrease Museum Association: Yuchi Dance Music

1999

• Susan Lutz: Documentary film entitled Sunday Dinner: Food, Land, and Free Time
• Yücel Demirer: Representations of Kurdish National Identity in the Woodrow Wilson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

2000

• Larry Polansky: Research for the publication of work on folksong transcription and notation by the ethnographer Ruth Crawford Seeger
• Anne Laskey and Gail Needleman: Research for educational music textbooks using folksong based on the Kodály method

2001

• Barrett Golding: to support the creation of two public radio programs presenting music and stories from Florida collected in the WPA era in the Archive's collections along with an interview with Stetson Kennedy, head of the WPA Florida project.
• Mark Jackson: to support the creation and publication of a CD based on the music and spoken words of John Handcox, a sharecropper and member of the Arkansas-based Sothern Tenant Farmer's Union who was recorded at the Library of Congress in 1937.
• Nancy-Jean Seigel: to support her work researching, organizing, and adding to the files of the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection in the Archive of Folk Culture.

2002

• No award

2003

• Nicole Saylor: to create a web page highlighting the ethnographic fieldwork of Sidney Robertson Cowell (1903-1995) in Wisconsin. This site will be an addition to the Mills Music Library's Helene Stratmen-Thomas project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Applicants should submit a two-to-three page narrative describing their proposed project and its potential products and audiences, and should provide a budget and time-frame. Applications should include a resume or statement of previous experience and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references who are qualified to speak about the applicant's professional work. Because of security measures at the Library, US Mail and Federal Express may be delayed. We recommend that applications for awards be sent by FAX: 202-707-2076. 20540-4610, by March 15, 2004. Awards will be announced in early May. For questions, call or FAX the chair of the Parsons Fund Committee at the American Folklife Center--phone: (202) 707-5510; FAX (202) 707-2076.

The Henry Reed Fund Award

The American Folklife Center invites applications for an award of $500 from the Henry Reed Fund for Folk Artists in the Library of Congress. Applications are due May 1, 2004, and the award will be made by May 31.

The Henry Reed Fund was established in 1990 in honor of old-time fiddler Henry Reed, with an initial gift from Alan Jabbour. The purpose of the fund is to provide support to activities directly involving folk artists, especially when the activities reflect, draw upon, or strengthen the collections of the American Folklife Center.

Projects and activities might include:

• Payments to folk artists, their families, their descendants, ortheir cultural communities in connection with publication or dissemination of documents in the American Folklife Center's collections
• Honoraria or reimbursement to folk artists for programs, such as concerts, workshops, or exhibitions, which feature those folk artists and their arts
• Programs honoring and celebrating folk artists for their cultural contributions
• Support for the costs of documentation of distinguished folk artists and the acquisition of such documentation by the Library of Congress

Applicants for fund awards should submit a two-to-three page narrative describing their proposed project, and provide a budget and time-frame.

Applications should include a resume or statement of previous experience and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references who are qualified to speak about the applicant's professional work. Because of security measures at the Library, US Mail and Federal Express may be delayed. We recommend that applications for awards be sent by FAX: 202-707-2076. Applications are also accepted by email: folklife@loc.gov. For further information call Ilana Harlow at the American Folklife Center at 202 707-1735

The Blanton Owen Fund Award

Notice: There will be no Blanton Owen award for 2004. This step is being taken to preserve the principal, in compliance with the rules of the fund. The American Folklife Center welcomes applications for the 2005 award.

Established in 1999 by his family and friends in memory of folklorist Blanton Owen, to support ethnographic field research and documentation in the United States, especially by young scholars and documentarians. Currently this award is offered every other year. The next Blanten Owen Fund award will be given in 2005. The application proceedure is the same as for the Parsons Fund Award:

Applicants should submit a two-to-three page narrative describing their proposed project and its potential products and audiences, and should provide a budget and time-frame. Applications should include a resume or statement of previous experience and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references who are qualified to speak about the applicant's professional work. Because of security measures at the Library, US Mail and Federal Express may be delayed. We recommend that applications for awards be sent by FAX: 202-707-2076. The deadline is March 1, 2005. Awards will be announced in early April. For questions, call or write the chair of the Blanton Owen Fund Committee at the American Folklife Center--phone: (202) 707-5510; FAX (202) 707-2076.

Field School for Cultural Documentation

The Fruits of Their Labors: The Culture and Traditions of Orchards in Utah Valley, an Introductory Field School for Cultural Documentation, July 11-31, 2004

Sponsored by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. For three weeks this summer, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and Brigham Young University will co-sponsor the Center's seventh annual field school for cultural documentation, which will be held in Provo, Utah, from July 11 through July 31.

A full description and application form are available from this link: Fieldschool 2004