WVU Libraries

The WVU Libraries, the WVU Press, and the West Virginia and Regional History Collection are pleased to announce the availability of the out of print book, “West Virginia History: A Bibliography and Guide to Research” on the world wide web. The author, Harold Forbes, is the Associate Curator at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.

The book was published by the West Virginia University Press in 1981 and contains references covering the period from the prehistoric mound builders through the 1980s.

The dates of the published materials range from 1672-1980. Although it is out of print, it is still a valuable research tool. Originally costing $9.00, the book is now selling from $40.00 to more than $70.00 when a copy can be located in used and rare book stores.

Allowing free access to the bibliography is a service to scholars studying the History of West Virginia. 

More than thirty-one hundred resources are listed alphabetically under individual county names, and topical categories such as labor, feuds, coal mining, literature, folklore, geography, John Brown at Harpers Ferry, military and church history, slavery, and many others.

Resources include books, pamphlets, periodical literature, and unpublished theses and dissertations. Most of the materials in the bibliography can be found in the WVU Libraries and can be located using MountainLynx, the Libraries’ online catalog.

The table of contents has been formatted for the web in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and the contents were scanned in and saved in Portable Document Format (PDF).

The work is available on the web at: http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/wvcollection/history/.

Beth Toren — WVU Libraries
Mountaineer Spirit