Open Folklore as an Open Access Model

Opening paragraph: "Across fields, scholars are developing new ways of producing and circulating scholarly work, leveraging digital infrastructure and extending open access. The Open Folklore project is exemplary. A collaborative partnership of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, Open Folklore is creating digital infrastructure that will allow folklore materials and publications to be widely available to folklore scholars around the world, to the communities with whom folklorists work and to the public at large. Anthropologists and AAA [American Anthropological Association] need to consider such models, reflecting on different ways the field as a whole, and its various subfields and sections, can develop, leverage digital infrastructure and circulate knowledge in new ways. In this commentary, I highlight just a few of Open Folklore’s features and challenges that deserve our consideration...."