Printed Books, Pamphlets, State Documents, and Periodicals
--25,000+ Volumes
Dating from the eighteenth century to the present, these publications cover a broad range of knowledge, including works in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Housed in the collection's reading room, these materials are arranged in three distinct areas. The Reference Collection includes such legal titles as the North Carolina General Statutes, reports of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, West's North Carolina Digest, Strong's Index, North Carolina School Law, and treatises on the law. Patrons interested in population and labor statistics will find publications of the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina, among other sources. A variety of directories provide information about cities, businesses, manufacturing firms, and educational institutions. A growing collection of printed abstracts of state records and those of counties in Eastern North Carolina assists historians and genealogists with their research. The Stacks Collection contain books that circulate as well as bound periodicals and many state documents. Recent state documents in paper format provide information about varied topics of current interest, while long runs of older titles, including reports of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Labor, are useful for historical research. Current issues of periodicals in such fields as the arts, business, the environment, genealogy, government, history, labor, literature, and the natural sciences can be found on open shelves.
Maps
Among the collection's 4,500 cartographic pieces are United States Geological Survey topographic maps, National Wetlands Inventory maps, North Carolina historical maps including some of its counties, and Garland Stout's historical research maps of the state's 100 counties, which show place names gleaned from old maps and other documents.
Vertical and Clipping Files
Maintained since the 1920s, the collection's extensive Vertical File and Clipping File contain useful information about Tar Heel people, places, events, and other subjects. The newspaper Clipping File provides articles about the state.
Rare Books and Broadsides
A small collection of rare books and broadsides reflect the North Carolina Collection's emphasis on the history of the Eastern North Carolina.
Microforms
Housed in a special room within the North Carolina Collection, these include over 13,000 reels of microfilm (old and current newspapers published in cites and towns throughout North Carolina; federal census records for all North Carolina counties, 1790-1930; county records for selected counties in Eastern North Carolina; Sanborn Map Company maps) and over 37,000 pieces of microfiche containing recent state government publications. Since 1988 the North Carolina Collection has served as a depository for state documents reformatted on microfiche by the State Library. Many of these documents pertain to topics of current interest--aging, day care, education at all levels, hazardous waste disposal, and swine farms, to name just a few.
Current Newspapers
Current issues of major state newspapers--Available in the reading room.
Electronic Databases
The North Carolina Collection provides access to the North Carolina Periodicals Index.