Appalachian Culture Subject Guide

Reference Materials:

Cataloochee: Lost Settlement of the Smokies: REF F 264 .C27 P68
Encyclopedia of North Carolina: REF F 254 .E54 2006
Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore: REF GR 110 .N8 D8 V 1
The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: REF 209 .N47 v.1-v.12
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America: REF E 169.1 .G7553 2009
Milestone Documents in American History: REF E 173 .M62
North Carolina Biographical Dictionary: REF CT 252 .N67 1999 V 1
The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Tarheel Places and Their History: REF F 252 .P69 2010
Dictionary of American Biography : REF E 176 .D52
The Encyclopedia of Appalachia: REF F 106 .E53 2006


Circulating Materials:

All circulating Appalachian Culture materials are located on the second floor of the library under the following call number ranges. Please check the online catalog for specific titles and call numbers.

F 1-975 United States local history
F 206-220 The South, South Atlantic States
F 221-235 Virginia
F 236-250 West Virginia
F 251-265 North Carolina
F 266-280 South Carolina
F 281-295 Georgia
F321-335 Alabama
F 336-350 Mississippi
F 350.5-355 Mississippi River Valley. Middle West
F 431-445 Tennessee
F 446-460 Kentucky

Recommended Circulating Materials:

  • American Folk Tales and Songs, and Other Examples of English-American Traditions as Preserved in the Appalachians and Elsewhere: GR 105 .C38 1971
  • Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People [videorecording]: DVD F 217 .A65 A643 2009
  • The Carolina Mountains: F 259 .M86 2006
  • Cataloochee [fiction]: PS 3603 .A438 C38 2007
  • The Face of Appalachia: Portraits from the Mountain Farm: F 217 .A65 B38 2003
  • The French Broad: F 443 .F8 D9
  • Haywood County: Portrait of a Mountain Community: F 262 .H35 H95 2009
  • A History of Appalachia: F 106 .D73 2001
  • Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers: GR 105.37 .J32 J33
  • The Last One [videorecording]: DVD HJ 5021 .L37 2008
  • Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains: PS 144 .N63 E93 2007
  • May We All Remember Well: A Journal of the History and Culture of Western North Carolina: F 261 .M39 1997
  • Our Southern Highlanders: F 217 .A65 K46 1984
  • Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940: F 217 .A65 .B43 1998
  • Serena [fiction]: PS 3568 .A698 S47 2008
  • Southern Jack Tales: PZ 8.1 .D289 S6
  • The Tall Woman [fiction]: P 24 .D9965
  • Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945: HN 79 .A127 E55


Digital Collections/Primary Source Documents:

  • Appalachian Center Data Archive Access data, charts, maps and statistics of the southern Appalachian region courtesy of the University of Kentucky
  • Appalachian Studies Association Resource Page Online information, syllabi, bibliographies and links to other resources provided by the Appalachian Studies Association and the Journal of Appalachian Studies
  • Center for Virtual Appalachia Morehead State University's collection of information, statistics, maps and articles concerning Appalachia
  • Digital Library of Appalachia ACAL archival and historical materials related to the culture of the southern and central Appalachian region
  • Southern Highlands Research Center Oral History Collection Two collections of interviews and oral histories featuring a wide spectrum of the populace of Asheville and Western North Carolina; excellent source of firsthand accounts of the history and growth of Asheville and the surrounding areas
  • Southern SpacesInterdisciplinary materials relating to Appalachian culture and history courtesy of the peer-reviewed journal, Southern Spaces

Articles/Reference Resources/Videos available through NCLIVE:

Type your search terms in to the NCLIVE database quick search or search for a particular journal title in NCLIVE. Read the abstract (that’s the symbol at the end of the title line with a magnifying glass) to see if the article meets your needs, and then look for the “PDF Full Text" or "HTML Full Text” symbol at the bottom of the entry.If you need help searching NCLIVE, please ask a librarian.

Some ebook and journal titles available through NCLIVE include:

  • American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (ebook)
  • Journal of Appalachian Studies
  • Journal of Southern History
  • Southeastern Archaelogy
  • Southern Quarterly
  • Transforming the Appalachian Countryside: Railroads, Deforestation, and Social Change in West Virginia, 1880-1920 (ebook)


Print Journals/Magazines:

Appalachian Journal
North Carolina Folklore Journal
Our State


***For additional resources on Appalachia and its people please see our American History subject guide