How to
Find Books Historical
Society Newsletters How to
Find Books
Historical
Society Newsletters
First rule - There is no one easy way to locate books about specific areas!
In general, there are two classes of books you will be trying to locate. Those that are still currently available for purchase and those that are out of print and held only in libraries.
STEP ONE: Identify the Book
Work out the exact name of the book you are looking for and who published it. This is not who printed it - the publisher is the person who pays a printer to manufacture a book - although if you see a copy of the book, noting the name of the printer may be useful later.
To do this you need to look in all sorts of places for book details. The best is to locate a copy of GIPPSDOC, which is the published holdings of the Centre for Gippsland Studies. This was published originally as three large volumes, with a single volume update. It contains three indexes: author, title and subject. The subject index includes names and localities. Copies of GIPPSDOC are held in the National and Victorian State Library, most public libraries in Gippsland and some family history groups and historical societies. If you cannot locate it any other way, its purchase may well be a very worthwhile investment. It is currently priced at $40.00 and available only from the Centre for Gippsland Studies.
Another way to locate the name and publisher for books is to avidly read the booknotes in Gippsland Heritage Journal, where an attempt is made to note all books as they are published, with details of sources, and Gippsland Roundup. The indexes to Gippsland Heritage Journal include a listing of books reviewed and noted by title and are a useful quick reference.
A good source of information is published bibliographies (lists of books), such as the one for the Maffra Shire that appears in Macalister Landscapes (which listed 119 published items and 26 unpublished items in 1994, but is already out of date), or other substantial publications with bibliographies. For example, there is now a complete Bibliography of Wellington Shire on the internet.
Both the Wellington and East Gippsland libraries were members of Technilib, which no longer operates, so if your own municipal library has access to the Technilib Union Catalogue you can ask them to check for you by title, author or subject. Access to other databases may also be available.
STEP TWO: Find out if you can still Buy the Book
The nature of local histories is that some, almost as soon as they are printed, are sold out and are never reprinted. These you will locate only in libraries.
The problem really arises in working out if the book is still available for sale. Some people who publish books have made no allowance for a commercial mark-up and do not place them in local bookshops, preferring to sell them from their homes, believing 'everyone will know where to find me'. This is fine if you are a local, and they live locally.
We would suggest your first step is to ring any of the specialist bookshops we have listed, starting with the one closest to the area. Then try newsagents if the town is substantial and no specialist bookshop has been listed. Try the yellow pages in the local telephone book. For residents of Melbourne, the Information Victoria Bookshop in Little Bourke Street is a good place to start looking.
If that does not work, try writing to the Family History Group or Historical Society that covers the area, asking only about the availability of the book and enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope. If you include other material, or other questions, you may not receive as quick a reply - it is better to keep research enquiries separate. Check if the historical society is listed herein as having a backlist and if it does, send a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope and request a copy.
Finally, when all else fails and you still haven't communicated directly with the publisher, contact the place where the book was printed and ask them if they can put you in touch with whoever published the book. The printer will not be able to supply the book, but may he able to supply information about how to find the person/organisation that took delivery of the books when they were printed.
If, after that, you have not located a supplier for the book, you could well consider it to be out of print.
STEP THREE: Finding 'Out of Print' Books
All books published in Victoria must, by law, be lodged at the State and National libraries. Some, however, manage to slip through the net, but this is still the best place to start looking for them if you live in the metropolitan area. The State Library of Victoria's catalogue is becoming increasingly available by computer to local municipal libraries so your local library may be able to check by title, author or subject for you, but will be unlikely to be able to obtain the State Library's copy for you through interlibrary loan.
In Gippsland almost all of them can be read, but not borrowed, from the Centre for Gippsland Studies and most are held in their library local collection. Some are available to borrowers through the Wellington and East Gippsland libraries. If you live in Yeppoon in Queensland or Bunbury in Western Australia your local municipal library may still be able to obtain specific local histories through inter-library loan, if the Wellington or East Gippsland libraries hold a copy that it normally allows out for loan.
Some historical societies and family history groups also hold copies of many out of print local histories, but do not allow them out on loan.
Sometimes it is also useful to contact secondhand bookshops that specialise in local history and ask them to place your name on a 'wants' list for that title.
Historical Society Newsletters
One source of information that is often overlooked is Historical Society Newsletters. Some societies in the area have been producing newsletters for many years, containing information that is seldom available elsewhere. Articles have been abstracted in Gippsland Heritage Journal for newsletters from their first issue in 1994.
Currently newsletters arc produced by historical societies at Bairnsdale (East Gippsland Historical Society), Lakes Entrance (Tambo), Maffra (which includes Stratford, who have produced their own newsletter in the past), and Yarram. You can subscribe for newsletters, to receive them as they are printed, or some societies (such as Maffra) are geared to produce full sets of back copies. There is an index to Maffra's (which may be publicly available in the near future) and the East Gippsland and Stratford Historical Societies hold manuscript indexes to their newsletters that they can check.
Collections of back issues of newsletters are held at the State Library of Victoria (where you request individual items), the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (where you may be able to browse), the Centre for Gippsland Studies and Maffra Library Local Collection. The East Gippsland Historical Society and Tambo Historical Society Newsletters are held in the Bairnsdale Library Local Collection.
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Last updated on 28 February 2003