AR Folksong Digital Archive

The University of Arkansas Libraries’ Folksong Digital Archive is one of the most ambitious efforts underway to preserve and open the field recordings, manuscripts, and ephemera that document Arkansas’s deep folk music heritage. This session opens that archive to a festival audience.

Joshua Youngblood is the Associate Dean for Special Collections at the University of Arkansas, where he has built a career for more than 15 years stewarding the materials that document the state’s people, places, and traditions. He also serves on the board of the Ozark Natural Foods Co-Op.

His conversation walks through the archive’s holdings, how it is being built, and what it offers to musicians, researchers, and anyone interested in the songs that have shaped Arkansas life.