HRAF Collection of Ethnography: Microfiche

The HRAF Collection of Ethnography, which began to be built in 1949 in paper (converted to microfiche in the late 1950s), currently contains nearly one million pages of information on more than 350 cultures of the world, past and present. Each culture file contains a variety of source documents (books, articles, and manuscripts) that have been indexed and organized according to HRAF's comprehensive culture and subject classification systems: The Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) and the Outline of World Cultures (OWC).

Most microfiche contain about 240 file pages on each fiche. In addition to the file pages, most fiche also contain eye-readable flashers which indicate where new subject categories begin. Each microfiche also has a header strip that includes the name of the culture, its OWC code, the subject category codes for the subjects covered on the fiche, and the fiche serial number. The entire microfiche collection consists of 23,381 fiche, covering approximately 350 cultures. For the complete collection list, including fiche, click here.

From the 1950s until 1993, the annual installments of the HRAF Collection of Ethnography were distributed on microfiche. In 1993, with installment 42, microfiche production ended. Materials since 1994 (as well as retrospective conversions and updates of existing materials) are available in electronic form only. It is important to note that cultures in the microfiche and electronic versions are not covered in the same ways; the electronic versions include more recent source materials and not all the older sources are retained. 

The Associate Member dues for fiche (a minimum of 50 fiche) are $11.40 US per fiche in silver halide. (Pricing subject to change without notice.)

• 30% discount for 12,000 or more fiche.

• 15% discount for 6000-11,999 fiche.

• 10% discount for the whole Probability Sample Files (about 4400 fiche).

HRAF's Collection of Ethnography on microfiche is available solely from:

UMI/ProQuest Information and Learning
300 North Zeeb Road, P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346

Tel. 734-761-4700 or 1-800-521-0600
Fax 734-975-6271
Web site: www.il.proquest.com

Click here for a membership agreement in PDF format.