West Virginia
Archives & History News
Volume II, No. 2
April, 2001

ADVICE FOR AUTHORS

From the Editor:

I am putting on one of my other hats this month to offer some suggestions as the cataloger for the Archives and History Library collection. Many of the titles we receive for the collection are self-published, thanks to the ease and convenience of our personal computers today. Few authors are aware of library cataloging rules and requirements when naming their works or designing their title pages. As a cataloger, I may not be able to fully identify the author, date or place of publication, even though I personally know the facts, if the information is not given on the title page. I am also required to use the title as it appears on the title page, not the front cover or the spine of the book, as the main title. In addition, if the writer has put different wording in all three places, I must add the cover title and the spine title in the cataloging as variant titles. Inexperienced catalogers may not always remember to include the extra title listings, making it difficult to locate your book. If you have ever used a library catalog to locate genealogies, county record transcriptions, local histories, etc., you may have had difficulty finding what you wanted for these reasons. Archives and History News would like to help both you (or your organization) as an author and publisher, and me and my fellow librarians as catalogers by offering some suggestions and samples of ways to make sure that researchers can find your book and that librarians can give you proper credit as its author.

PUBLISHING YOUR OWN WORK

HOW TO AVOID INDUCING MIGRAINES IN LIBRARIANS

The goal of an author is to share ideas and information. The goal of the library cataloger is to make each work as accessible as possible to the library's patrons so that the author's work can be located and used. The following guidelines are offered to help both the author and the librarian to achieve their goals. You need not adhere to these suggestions in order to have your work accepted for the Archives and History Library collection. Your work will be gratefully received, cataloged and placed in the collection regardless of format.

Using a printer who is not a professional publisher:

• Do not expect your local printer to know how to lay out a book in a manner agreeable with library cataloging requirements or most useful for researchers. You can prepare the manuscript yourself using the following guidelines, or give this information to the printer as instruction.

Title page tips:

• Information that should be included on the front of the title page:
  • Title
  • Author (or compiler, transcriber, indexer)
• Information that should be included on either the front or back of the title page:
  • Place of publication (town and state only is okay)
  • Date of publication (only the year is necessary)
  • Publisher and/or printer. You are the publisher if you did all the work to prepare the manuscript for copying and had it photocopied, or if a printer simply ran it off for you and bound it. If you employed a printer, usually the printer will include the company name and town on the back of the title page. Copy centers need not be named use your own name.
• Information that may be included, preferably on the back of the title page:
  • Ordering address
  • Correspondence address, e-mail and/or phone number
• See the sample title page included in this issue.

Title tips:

• Keep your title as brief as possible.
• If you want to more specifically identify the subject of your book, add one or more subtitles. Try to keep subtitles to a minimum, too.
• Do not use A, An or The to start your title if you can avoid it. The cataloger will not be able to include it in the title when he/she enters it into the system. Not all library catalog users or computerized catalog systems will know to skip the article when looking up a title and may not find your book.
• Use the same title on the title page, the cover and the spine. This is why a brief title is more workable, particularly for the book spine. If you are paying for lettering on the front cover, you will save yourself a lot of money as well.
• Put the subtitle below the brief title. Never place anything above the title on the title page or on the cover.

Identifying yourself:

• Decide how you would like to identify yourself and use that exact name on everything you publish. For example, choose either to spell out your middle name, or to use an initial. Length is not an issue you can list a first name, two middle names, and a maiden name with your current surname, if you like. Just be consistent!
• A woman who uses a maiden name to show her connection to a certain family should always include it, spelled out in full, even when not writing about her own family.
• If your surname changes, by all means use the new name. Simply adding it to the name you were already using (as a middle name or with a hyphen) will help connect you with your previous work, but you can certainly drop the earlier surname if you prefer.
• An organization should always use its proper name, not initials, and preferably identify one town as its location, even if the actual mailing address will change from time to time according to a different officer's address.
• If you do not want to receive correspondence, you still need to identify your town and state if you are self- publishing your work.
• If you want to receive correspondence or book orders, include a mailing address and/or an e-mail address. Just remember that you may be receiving messages for years to come, so you will need to commit to retaining that e-mail account as long as possible.
• We advise against including telephone numbers or fax numbers. Remember, your book will be in the library forever!

Page numbers:

• Please number the pages from the first page following the title page through the last page of the work.
• The title page and the back of the title page do not need to be numbered.
• Use lower case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii) to separate introductory pages from the main text if you wish.
• Do not number appendices or index pages separately. Simply continue the regular page numbers all the way to the end.
• If your work is in two or more volumes, and each volume is indexed separately, number the pages in each volume separately. For example, if Volume I contains pages 1-350 and its own index, then Volume II will contain pages 1-224 and its own index.
• If your work is multi-volume and you include a single overall index in the last volume, continuing the sequence of page numbers through all the volumes will be easier for the indexer and less confusing for the user. For example, if Volume I contains pages 1-350 and no index, then Volume II will contain pages 351-555 plus the index for pages 1-555.

• Please include an index in all of your work, unless already arranged in alphabetical order.
• Indexing is much easier now that a personal computer can alphabetize for you automatically.
• Consider asking someone else to index for you, if you do not want to do it yourself. You can give credit to the indexer on the title page or on the first page of the index.

Bibliography:

• Assist your fellow genealogists and historians by including a list of the resource materials you used in writing your book.
• The most basic bibliography will provide title, author, and date of publication.
• A more complete bibliography will add the publisher and place of publication.
• For unpublished works, identify where the works may be found. For example: Smith family history manuscript (unpublished) by John Q. Smith, Anytown Community Library, Anytown, WV.

Selling your work:

• State on the back of the title page or on the following page that the book is for sale.
• Be sure you include an address for receiving mail orders, even if you have listed an e-mail address. Not everyone has access to or is comfortable with e-mail, plus you may want to change your service. Also, regular mail can be forwarded for a short time if you happen to move.
• You do not need to quote a price. You may want to change the price up or down as time passes.

Copyright:

• Basically, copyright means that no one can use all or a portion of your work and claim credit for it, nor can anyone else sell your work for their own profit.
• Whether you formally file for a copyright or not, you have copyright protection as long as there is an author's name on the book; however, you must have a registered copyright in order to sue anyone for a violation of your copyright.
• Regardless of copyright, anyone can photocopy portions of a work. We sometimes see notes included by authors stating that no part of their works can be copied. A library usually will honor that type of statement. The Archives Library requests that if an author adds a restrictive statement in a work that a reasonable time limit with a specified date be included as well. Often works are out of print and the author can not be found after a few years.
• We are obligated to honor restrictions placed on copies of manuscripts and records owned by other entities, such as the Library of Virginia, preventing copying of an entire work, and because the copy has been sold with the buyer's agreement not to have it copied further.
• For more complete information on copyright law, visit the Library of Congress Web site: http://www.loc.gov/copyright.

Donations to the Archives and History Library:

• No one appreciates your hard work more than we do! We will accept your work and catalog it for placement in the Archives collection whether you have followed these guidelines or not.
• If you donate a work to us, be sure to give us your name and address. The director will send you a letter of appreciation and the cataloger will place a gift plate in the book.
• Regardless of format book, manuscript, family history chart, map, etc. an accepted donation will be cataloged with subject headings to make it accessible to all library users. Our on-line catalog is accessible on the Internet, so your work can be located by researchers anywhere in the world!
• If your work is over fifty pages and has a lefthand margin of at least one inch (a one and one half inch margin is better), we will bind it and place it on the open stack Reading Room shelves.
• If your work is under fifty pages, we will catalog it as a pamphlet and house it in our closed stack pamphlet files.
• If your work can not be bound, we will most likely shelve it in closed stacks.
• Donating your book or manuscript to the Archives Library means that people who visit us from all over the country will be introduced to your work. We hope some of them will purchase copies from you, if that is one of your goals. Because we are often asked where books can be bought or copies of photographs obtained, we suggest you include a mailing address in your work. You may also want to add your name to our Genealogy Surname Exchange for those surnames covered by your book.
• We depend upon donations to expand our family history and local history collections. Our acquisitions funds are very limited.
• We honor your copyright as owner of the material. Patrons may photocopy 20% of a work, as is commonly practiced in research libraries, with the understanding that the copy is for their own research use only.

The Archives and History Library is very grateful for the many individuals and organizations who have published their research and transcribed public records for use by the public. You are producing valuable tools for genealogists and historians that commercial publishers seldom print. Research in these fields would suffer greatly without your efforts. Keep up the good work!

HISTORY DAY 2001

On March 22, 2001, the State Capitol Rotunda was filled with history buffs and genealogists for the fifth annual History Day at the West Virginia Legislature. History Day is a cooperative effort of the West Virginia Archives and History Commission, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Historical Society, West Virginia Historical Association, West Virginia Association of Museums, Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, Mining Your History Foundation and Friends of West Virginia Culture and History.

History Hero Awards were presented to fifty West Virginians in recognition of their efforts to preserve local and regional history. The West Virginia Archives and History Web site at www.wvculture.org/history/histhero provides the name of each honoree, a brief description of the activities for which the person was chosen, and identifies the organizations that nominated them. Congratulations to all of the History Heroes for 2001!

MARCH NEW TITLES

The Fowler Ancestral Line of Louise Kiger (Humphreys) Morrison: Louise Humphreys Morrison, 1989.

The Cavet Ancestral Line of Louise Kiger (Humphreys) Morrison: Ms. Morrison, 1987.

The Harlan, Hurst and Ellis Ancestral Lines of Louise Kiger (Humphreys) Morrison: Ms. Morrison, 1987.

The Wylie Ancestral Line of Louise Kiger (Humphreys) Morrison: Ms. Morrison, 1987.

Winkley, Kiger and Related Families: Louise Humphreys Morrison, 1999.

Fennessy of the County Tipperary: Chronicle of an Irish Family: Richard J. Fennessy, 1999.

The Ancestors of Rex Hilburn Madeira, Sr.: Pauline Hardin Madeira, 1999.

The Yearbook of Experts, Authorities and Spokespersons: Broadcast Interview Source, 2001.

History of Shirley, West Virginia: Anne Mish, no date.

Salem Memories: [Anne Mish], no date.

History of the Center Point Covered Bridge: Swiger Run Pictorial History Library, Inc., 2000.

Pictorial History of West Union: Doddridge Co. W. Va.: Swiger Run Pictorial History Library, Inc., 2000.

Pictorial History of Riggins Run Community: Anne Mish, 2000.

West Union & Doddridge Co., W. Va.: Anne Mish, no date.

A Pictorial Salute to Our Service Men Who Fought for Our Country: Doddridge County W. Va.: Anne Mish, no date.

Center Point History of Old Allen & Coffman Stores: Doddridge Co. W. Va.: Anne Mish, no date.

A Pictorial View of 1950 Flood: Anne Mish, no date.

A Pictorial View of Tornado Hits Doddridge County: 1986: Anne Mish, no date.

A Pictorial View of Harrison County: Anne Mish, no date.

Index to St. Louis, Missouri, Marriages: [1804- 1876] Edward F. Mochel, 1999.

West Virginia: Wende Fazio, 1999.

Gauley River Camp: Gauley River Camp School Association, 1927.

2000 Statistical Handbook: West Virginia Research League, 2000.

The Americanization of West Virginia: Creating a Modern Industrial State: John Hennen, 1996.

What's in a Name?: Leonard R. N. Ashley, 2000.

DON'T THROW IT AWAY!!

Spring cleaning, yard sale and flea market season will be here soon! If you are cleaning out pamphlets, books, old West Virginia newspapers and magazines, city directories and telephone books, photographs, postcards, letters, etc., please check with Archives and History staff . You may have items we can add to the Archives Collection. Items do not have to be very old to be of interest to us. You may find potential donations while searching through other people's discards or library book sales. We are always interested in hearing about your finds; however, please do not send items to us without checking with us by mail or phone. Items we have accepted recently from yard sale or flea market scavengers include community festival programs, scrapbooks, high school yearbooks, church histories and directories, business ledgers, glass catalogs, and tourism brochures. We are interested in duplicate copies of some items and in each edition of a title for the collection, so often we are grateful to acquire additional copies of things already in the library. We particularly would like to receive donations of hardback and paperback books in good condition by West Virginia authors, both fiction and non- fiction. Some West Virginia authors are Homer Hickam, Sharyn McCrumb, Pearl Buck, Henry Louis Gates, Mary Lee Settle, Eugenia Price, Stephen Coontz, Cynthia Rylant (including her children's books), Otis Rice, Jayne Anne Phillips and Christopher Janus.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

CHECK OUR WEB SITE (http://www.wvculture.org/history) FOR GENEALOGICAL and HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND FOR MORE COMPLETE INFORMATION ON ACTIVITIES LISTED BELOW:

"BEGINNING GENEALOGY" WITH MARY LOU HENDERSON. APRIL 17. Ohio County Public Library.

ANNUAL GENEALOGY FAIR, APRIL 21. West Augusta Historical and Genealogical Society, Wood County Courthouse.

"MAINTAINING HISTORIC LOG STRUCTURE SEMINAR," APRIL 27. Prickett's Fort State Park.

ANNUAL WEST VIRGINIA BLACK HISTORY CONFERENCE, APRIL 30-MAY 1. West Virginia State College History Dept., Institute.

GENEALOGY FAIR, MAY 12. West Virginia Genealogical Society, Elkview.

"LINCOLN'S MEN: HOW PRESIDENT LINCOLN BECAME FATHER TO AN ARMY AND A NATION," MAY 22. William C. Davis, speaker. The Cultural Center, Charleston.

MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 28. Archives Library will be closed.

BLUE AND GRAY REUNION 2001, 140TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF PHILIPPI, MAY 31-JUNE 3. Philippi.

WEST VIRGINIA DAY, JUNE 20. *Archives Library will be open.

3RD ANNUAL STONEWALL JACKSON CIVIL WAR SEMINAR, JUNE 30. Pricketts Fort State Park.

*Only the Archives Library will be staffed--all other Archives offices will be closed. The State Museum will be open any time the Archives Library is open. The West Virginia Library Commission Library in the Cultural Center is closed weekends and all holidays.

ARCHIVES LIBRARY HOURS ARE 9:00 A.M. TO 5:00 P.M. MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, AND 1:00 P.M. TO 5:00 P.M. ON SATURDAYS. HOLIDAY HOURS ARE AS POSTED.

ARCHIVES AND HISTORY STAFF

Fredrick Armstrong: Director
Debra Basham: Archivist (photographs, special collections)
Greg Carroll: Historian (Civil War, Native American history)
Dick Fauss: Archivist (microfilm and moving images)
Elaine Gates: Part-time Library Assistant (microfilming and microfilm repairs)
Joe Geiger: Historian (Web page)
Ed Hicks: Photographer (archival photography, darkroom)
Mary Johnson: Historian (West Virginia History)
Jaime Lynch: Library Assistant (Records of the 1700's and early 1800's, Pennsylvania)
Cathy Miller: Library Assistant (WV State documents, periodicals)
Sharon Newhouse: Secretary
Harold Newman: Library Assistant (microfilming, Revolutionary War)
Pat Pleska: Part-time Library Assistant (Clipping File)
Susan Scouras: Librarian (cataloging, Kentucky, library collection, newsletter editor)
Bobby Taylor: Library Manager
Nancy Waggoner: Office Assistant

Contract employees working on special projects:
Constance Baston, Allen Fowler and Leah Jeanette Stover.

We need volunteers to assist with several different projects in the Archives and History Library. High school and college students seeking public service hours are welcome. Please call for further information.

This newsletter is a publication of :

The Division of Culture and History
Archives and History
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East
Charleston, WV 25305-0300
(304) 558-0230
Nancy Herholdt, Commissioner

Archives and History News