The Department carries out the classification of Lithuanian folk song texts (about 700,000 songs have already been classified). This work was started in 1956. The Lithuanian folk song card catalog was prepared in accordance with B. Kazlauskienė’s instructions for classifying folk song texts. The structure of this systematic catalog is based on the functional and thematic principle. This card catalog of song texts is being intensively expanded and supplemented. Its core consists of materials held at the ILLF Lithuanian folklore manuscript archive as well as materials taken from published sources. The song classification system developed by the Institute has been adopted by Lithuanian folklore researchers. The Department is also preparing an electronic version of the Lithuanian folk song catalog. In 1956 work was begun on a catalog of Lithuanian folk song melodies. The pur-pose of this catalog is to classify various melodic types.
Compiling The Book of Lithuanian Folk Songs is a priority of the Department. This is a multivolume corpus of songs (17 volumes were compiled during 1980-2003) covering the texts and melodies of songs from all regions inhabited by Lithuanians and from various periods.
The efforts of individual researchers are directed mainly toward the study of songs and musicological research.