Introduction
This page focuses on fieldwork resources - including manuals, guides, and collections of critical reflections as well as relevant technology and equipment. The material collected here can help you study and evaluate fieldwork methods in your discipline, or prepare to conduct fieldwork in the course of your own research.
- The first box includes selected books from the catalog for fieldwork both in ethnomusicology and other disciplines with relevant methodologies. To find additional materials, try a search in the library catalog for "fieldwork" with "musicology", "ethnomusicology", "ethnography", or "ethnology", or for particular methods like "oral history" or "interview methodology"
- Next, you'll find a sampling of publicly available resources including best practices documentation from prominent cultural organizations
- Finally, at the bottom of the page we've highlighted some technology and language learning resources
Selected Guides, Criticism, and Manuals for Fieldwork
Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork by Call Number: Online ResourceA comprehensive review of the ethnographic process for developing a project, implementing the plan, and completing and preserving the data collected. Readers will find a detailed methodology for conducting different types of fieldwork such as digital ethnography or episodic research, tips and tricks for key elements like budgeting and funding, and practical advice.
Shadows in the Field: new perspectives for fieldwork in ethnomusicology by Call Number: ML3799 S522008The focus in ethnomusicological writing and teaching has traditionally centered around analyses and ethnographic representations of musical cultures, rather than on the personal world of understanding, experience, knowing, and doing fieldwork. Shadows in the Field deliberately shifts the focus of ethnomusicology and of ethnography in general from representation (text) to experience (fieldwork).
Concepts, Experiments, and Fieldwork: Studies in Systematic Musicology and Ethnomusicology by Call Number: ML3799 .C735 2010Perspectives on current trends in Systematic Musicology as well as aspects of disciplinary history are presented along with results from current research. Contributions to this volume are organized into four sections: theory, methodology, and disciplinary history, musical acoustics, and organology, music psychology, neuromusicology, music theory and analysis, and ethnomusicology and folk music studies.A manual for documentation, fieldwork & preservation for ethnomusicologists
Call Number: ML3798 M262001This book, put out by the SEM, contains quite a it of useful information about actually performing field work despite its small size. It covers ares like planning for the field, procedures for recording in the field, storing your materials, documentation, ethical and legal considerations, and depositing fieldwork materials in archives.
Resources from other disciplines that often conduct fieldwork may also be useful! A sampling of titles are listed below to get you started, but you can find more books about ethnology and anthropology fieldwork in the Library catalog.
Constructing the Field: ethnographic fieldwork in the contemporary world by Call Number: Online Resource and Main Stacks 305.800723 C766Fresh perspectives on contemporary fieldwork are provided by diverse case-studies from across North America and Europe. These contributions give a thorough appraisal of what fieldwork is and should be, and an extra dimension is added through fascinating accounts of the personal experiences of anthropologists in the field.
Ethnographic Fieldwork: an anthropological reader by Call Number: SSHEL Stacks 305.800723 Et3882012Newly revised, Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader Second Edition provides readers with a picture of the breadth, variation, and complexity of fieldwork. The updated selections offer insight into the ethnographer's experience of gathering and analyzing data, and a richer understanding of the conflicts, hazards and ethical challenges of pursuing fieldwork around the globe.
Search after Method: sensing, moving, and imagining in anthropological fieldwork by Call Number: SSHEL Stacks GN34.3.F53 S425 2020Reigniting a tradition of learning from experience, Search After Method is a plea for livelier forms of anthropology. The anthropologists in the collection recount their experiences of working in the field, framed within a range of anthropological debates.
In the Field: life and work in cultural anthropology by Call Number: Online Resource and SSHEL Stacks GN346 .G54 2018Through fascinating and often entertaining accounts of their lives and work in varied cultural settings, the authors describe the many forms fieldwork can take, the kinds of questions anthropologists ask, and the common problems they encounter. From these accounts and the experiences of the student field workers the authors have mentored over the years, In the Field makes a powerful case for the value of the anthropological approach to knowledge.
Publicly Available Resources
This box collects publicly available resources, including best practices documentation from cultural and governmental organizations.
- Cultural Documentation Guidelines from the American Folklife CenterProvides practical advice and insights into the process of conducting a local-level field documentation project.
- Folklife and Fieldwork: An Introduction to Cultural DocumentationDocument from the Library of Congress that covers how to do fieldwork and what to do with the results.
- Principles and Best Practices for Oral HistoryThe Oral History Association's Principles and Best Practices summarizes the organization’s most important principles and best practices for the pre-interview preparation, the conduct of the interview, and the preservation and use of oral histories.
- Oral History in the Digital Age - EssaysThe following texts are designed to give you the latest information on best practices in collecting, curating, and disseminating oral histories. As micro-essays and case studies, the texts are designed to be easily updated and revised as technologies change.
- Personal Archiving from the Library of CongressTips for preserving digital media.
Technology & Language Resources
Technology Resources (both on and off campus)
- Technology at the Scholarly CommonsLocated in Main Library 306, the Loanable Technology Desk is a collaborative campus effort that provides students and faculty opportunities to experiment with digital media creation, with expanded opportunities to learn of best practices in digital media and emerging technology. You can borrow equipment, use audio and video recording booths, or schedule a consultation to get advice on your project.
- Oral History in the Digital Age - EquipmentThe following essays will help you through deciding on equipment.
- Digital Audio Field Recording Equipment GuideAn overview of digital audio field recording technologies available to researchers from the Vermont Folklife Center.
- LinkedIn LearningLinkedIn Learning is widely recognized as the industry leader in online learning and their library contains over 1,200 courses and 73,000 tutorials organized by subject, software, and instructor. After you log in, you will have the full variety of lynda.com's titles at your fingertips. Taught by industry experts, these videos will be available 24/7 to accommodate your busy schedule and to allow you to learn at your own pace.
Language learning resources available through the University of Illinois
- Rosetta Stone Advantage This link opens in a new windowA language learning program that allows users to maintain and improve their language skills. Languages include Spanish (Spain and Latin America), American English, French, German, Italian, and Dutch.
- Pimsleur Language Learning AudiobooksLanguage learning series on CD that can be checked out from the Main Stacks. Languages include: German, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, French, Korean, Twi, Hindi, Dutch, Romanian, Albanian, Armenian, Croatian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Indonesian, Mandarin, Irish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Spanish.