HOW AND WHERE TO LOOK IT UP
RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING THE HISTORY
OF
JEFFERSON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. ©2001
William D. Theriault, Ph.D.
17434 Virginia Ave.
Hagerstown, MD 21740
WMTheriault@myactv.net
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23. Internet Resources
This is one of the most important resources available to researchers, but the information it provides must be
used with caution. There are virtually no restrictions, aside from copyright, for publishing information on
the Internet. Therefore researchers should pay special attention to the sources of all information.
I have resisted the temptation to provide a detailed list of general Internet sources to use for researching local history. The Internet is a dynamic resource, and many sites available today may disappear in a few years, or even months. I recommend that you start your Internet research by consulting the well-established libraries and archives and then following links from those websites. When you have exhausted these sources and become familiar with their offerings try some Internet-wide searches.
To help you get consistent results from your Internet searches and to save time, develop a list of search terms and become familiar with the features of the search engines you use. Pay particular attention to instructions on narrowing a search. They are not the same at every site. Many websites have Advanced Search features that let you fine-tune your queries.
Many archives and libraries have their own Internet sites, including online catalogs of their collections and copies of relevant primary and secondary source materials. You can expect collection descriptions to become more specific as libraries continue to catalog their materials, and you can expect more primary source materials to be offered online. Persons using this publication should routinely examine the websites for libraries listed here.
Chapter 2 of this work includes Internet addresses for many libraries and archives and notes online catalogs that are available when this work went to press. These resources should be routinely consulted when you research West Virginia History. The following repositories have the largest collections of materials related to Jefferson County history:
Library of Congress (including the American Memory Collection)
West Virginia Archives (Charleston, WV)
West Virginia Regional History Collection (Morgantown, WV)