SCL holds many sources for biographical information.

In the library catalog, select a SUBJECT search for:
South Carolina--Biography

or by city or county:
Charleston (S.C.)--Biography.

Consult the Biographical Citation card catalog in the Reading Room for citations to biographical information in various publications.

A majority of Books Division's holdings may be identified using the online library catalog of USC.

Card catalogs in the Reading Room are no longer updated, but remain useful to search for certain formats, such as maps sheet music.

Consult Electronic Resources and other indexes at the Thomas Cooper Library Reference Department..

SCL holds phone books, city directories, and other sources that may place a person or family in S.C. at a given time.

In the library catalog, select a SUBJECT search for "directories" under a location name:
Beaufort (S.C.)--Directories.

Anderson County (S.C.)--Directories.

For school catalogues, yearbooks, and other materials documenting educational institutions, select searches using both AUTHOR and SUBJECT under the name of the institution,
AUTHOR search for:
Bettis Academy

and SUBJECT searches for:
School yearbooks
Catalogs, school
College catalogs

• Guide to College Catalogs at SCL
• Guide to College Yearbooks at SCL
• List of Extinct S.C. Schools

Books Division holds many sources for family history, including books, county histories, newsletters, etc., many of which may be easily identified in the library catalog using a SUBJECT search:

Subject search for a family name:
Brown family

• Subject search under a city or county:
  Lexington County (S.C.)--Genealogy.
• Subject search with a topical subject:
  Registers of births, etc.--South Carolina--Aiken County.

SCL holds subscriptions to various scholarly journals, such as the South Carolina Historical Magazine published by the S.C. Historical Society. Consult the indexes at the main desk.

Some titles will be listed under a SUBJECT search for:
South Carolina--Periodicals

Many other titles will be listed topically: South Carolina wildlife appears under a SUBJECT search for:
Fishing--South Carolina--Periodicals.

Books Division holds various historical maps, such as the fire insurance maps produced by the Sanborn Map Company since the late 19th century.

Use a SUBJECT search in the library catalog:
South Carolina--Maps

Additional maps may be found in the card catalog, listed either chronologically or geographically.

Often written and published quickly in response to a certain event (such as the Stamp Act or the Nullification Crisis) these pamphlets reached a wide audience at a relatively inexpensive cost.

SCL's pamphlet collection enjoyed a major addition in 2001 withacquisition of the Kohn Hennig collection.

SCL held many pamphlets prior to acquisition of this collection. However a search of this particular collection allows a search of many titles in this genre and suggests the sort of information availabe in this resource. To browse titles of hundreds of pamphlets and books in this acquisition, search the library catalog with AUTHOR search for
Kohn-Hennig Collection

A selected list of recent acquisitions of Printed Caroliniana appear in the Library's annual publication known as the University South Caroliniana Society Progam.

A complete run of this title is available in the Manuscripts Division Reading Room for years 1937-2003, and on the web dating to 1993-2003.

SCL provides access to newspapers from around the state, beginning with the South Carolina Gazette, of 8 Jan. 1732 to more recent titles.

Newspapers can be found in the library catalog using a SUBJECT search for the county of publication:
Horry County (S.C.)--Newspapers.

Columbia (S.C.)--Newspapers.

Richland County (S.C.)--Newspapers.

For more information on research in area newspapers, consult the book, South Carolina Newspapers (1988), by John Hammond Moore. This volume includes details of publisher, location, mergers, and dates of publication. Moore's book also discusses the agenda or intended audience of many of these newspapers (i.e. pro-Federalist or German-language or African American, etc.)

Indexes to some of these newspapers may be found with a KEYWORD search including terms:
newspapers and index?

To see a list of publishers and titles produced in various South Carolina cities, search the library catalog using a SUBJECT search for
South Carolina publications with a city or initial:

South Carolina publications--Greenville--G.E. Elford, 1861.

South Carolina publications--Charleston--Deutsche Zeitung, 1855.

South Carolina publications--Walhalla

A SUBJECT search for South Carolina publications--G displays a list of 372 publications produced in Gaffney, Georgetown, Greenville, Greenwood, and Greer South Carolina publications--G

SCL holds a small collection of sheet music, some of which was published in South Carolina. Many titles include interesting cover art.

Consult the card catalog for details.

If the circulating copy of a USC thesis or dissertation is not available at Thomas Cooper Library, contact SCL. Copies held in Books Division do not circulate beyond the Reading Room and are currently housed at the Annex.

If searching for dissertations or theses completed in a specific department, use a SUBJECT search incorporating the current name of the department [some departments have merged, some names have changed]:
University of South Carolina--Theses--Geology

The above subject heading is coded as a 690 field. To search for topics across various disciplines, use a KEYWORD search with a given subject, such as "segregation" and specify that the termtheses appears in the 690 field by typing in theses followed immediately by a period or full-stop followed immediately by 690followed by another period.

KEYWORD search for:
segregation and d:theses

Contact Books Division to browse USC yearbooks, Garnet and Black, the student newspaper, The Gamecock, or other publications documenting life at the University.

University histories for reference include titles by Edwin Green, Max LaBorde, Hollis, Daniel Walker, 1922- University of South Carolina
A SUBJECT search for
University of South Carolina--History

returns many titles including the following works:

• Green, Edwin L.
  A history of the University of South Carolina
• La Borde, Maximilian, 1804-1873.
  History of the South Carolina College, from its incorporation, Dec. 19, 1801 to Dec. 19, 1865 ...
• Lesesne, Henry H.
  A history of the University of South Carolina, 1940-2000

SCL holds several dozen collections of clippings files that provide quick ready-reference about people, places, and topics in SC history. This resource also provides a useful index to researching people and events in the many un-indexed newspapers.

See list of Vertical files collections

Collections focus on people; files for each of the 46 counties in S.C.; Black History, Education; Film in S.C.; Agriculture / Farming in S.C.; Military History in S.C.; Food; Health; Ku Klux Klan; Colleges and Universities in S.C.; Religion in S.C.; Music / Musicians in S.C.; Artists in S.C.; Art History in S.C.; and other topics.

Many of the larger collections are now housed offsite at the Annex.

In the library catalog, you can read a full description and request from Annex by carton number.

In the library catalog, use a KEYWORD search t:vertical files. This will search for the phrase vertical files in the Title field.