Journal of Folklore Research Reviews

The Journal of Folklore Research (JFR) is a longstanding journal of central importance to the field of folklore studies worldwide. Since its inception, JFR (originally it was known as the Journal of the Folklore Institute) has been edited at Indiana University by faculty and students in the unit that is now known as the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. This is the program in which I teach and which is the current editorial home of Museum Anthropology. One year ago, my colleagues John McDowell and William Hansen, together with a talented team of graduate students, launched a digital companion to JFR known as JFRR, which is short for Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. JFRR is a free service in which reviews of books and other media are sent by email to a list of subscribers. One need not be a subscriber to JFR (the journal) to be a recipient of (or contributor to) JFRR emailings. All that is needed is to submit one's email address to the editors. In addition to emailing out reviews of materials of interest to folklorists, ethnomusicologists, anthropologists and others, these reviews are made available online via a searchable database. The range of materials reviewed is quite broad and the quality of the reviews is typically very good. Celebrating the project's one year anniversary, the JFRR crew is seeking to get the word out about a project that has proved very successful and of great use to a significant number of scholars. They are eager to expand their list of readers and contributors. I urge readers of this blog, and of Museum Anthropology, to check the service out. It represents another interesting experiment in reworking the work of scholarly production, circulation and conversation.