Established in 1969 as a reference collection of local history and genealogy resources for Burke County and western North Carolina, the North Carolina Room is located on the main floor of the Morganton Public Library. The non-circulating collection focuses on local history, biography, travel, government, culture, folklore, and genealogy. It contains many rare and out of print materials, files on local history subjects, school yearbooks, as well as an archive of The News Herald newspaper. It is also the home of Picture Burke, a digital collection of historic local photographic images.
The NC Room resources are available for use during normal library hours of operation; however, it is best to call ahead to check staff availability if you need individual assistance.
Contact Us:
Email the North Carolina Room
Telephone: (828) 764-9266
Morganton Public Library
Attn: North Carolina Room
204 S. King Street
Morganton, NC 28655
Access billions of names in thousands of genealogical databases including Census and Vital Records, birth, marriage and death notices, the Social Security Death Index, Passenger lists and naturalizations, Military and Holocaust Records, City Directories, New York Emigrant Savings Bank records, and African American and Native American Records. Ancestry Library Edition is available at Morganton, Valdese, and C.B. Hildebrand branch libraries. Access is granted on-site only to library computers and on personal devices connected to the library wi-fi. Sponsored by the Friends of the Burke County Public Library and the NC Room.
Search over 10 years of Morganton history with The News Herald Collection, from 2008 to today. Explore current and archived issues of The News Herald with full-text articles from 2008-2018 and full-color newspaper pages beginning in 2019. Access is granted to on-site users and remote users with a valid library card.
The News Herald and additional early newspapers of Burke County, going back to 1876, are available on microfilm in the NC Room. Early area newspapers from 1876 to 1924 are also searchable online through NC Live with the Historic North Carolina Digital Newspaper Collection, and an expanded time period through DigitalNC, and are accessible with your valid NC library card. For more information about these resources, call 828-764-9266.
Terms and Conditions of Use:
Authorized users are licensed to use the Products solely for access, search, retrieval, viewing, printing, and downloading for non-commercial academic, educational and research purposes. Printing and downloading are limited to insubstantial portions of the data, for temporary storage. All other use is prohibited. The removal or altering of any copyright or other notices within the Product or using any portion of Product for purposes of manual, automated or other machine-assisted indexing or classification of other publications is prohibited. The transmission of Content, including but not limited to by way of email, facsimile or other electronic means is prohibited unless transmission is between Authorized Users. Users may not modify, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale of, create derivative works based on, or in any other way exploit any of the Content in whole or in part without the prior written consent of NewsBank and its respective content providers.
Digitized microfilm of The Valdese News from 1938-1950 is available through Digital NC‘s website. This weekly paper was published from 1938 into the 1980s (print copies of many of the post 1950s papers are available for viewing at the Waldensian Heritage Museum in Valdese).
The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is a statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Digital Heritage Center works with cultural heritage institutions across North Carolina to digitize and publish historic materials online. The site includes local newspapers, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and more.
Historic North Carolina Digital Newspaper Collection (Newspapers.com North Carolina Collection) consists of 3.5 million pages of digitized content from over 1,000 NC county newspapers, covering the years from 1751-1999. Burke County Newspapers included.
Looking for guidance on how to get started or in using the resource? How about a video walk-through? NCLIVE has created a Crash Course Video for this resource. Watch it on Youtube.
This resource is brought to you by NC Live, North Carolina’s statewide library cooperative, supporting 200+ public and academic libraries across North Carolina. Since its founding in 1997, NC LIVE has saved the state millions through innovation and collaborative efforts. Content includes an online collection of 1.6 billion full-text articles, eBooks, streaming videos, digitized newspapers, language learning tools, and more. This resource can be accessed outside of the libraries using your library card number and password.
Yearbooks provide a window into student life, and Digital NC has a collection of digitized yearbooks for high schools, colleges, and community colleges across North Carolina from the 1890s to the present. Included are over 150 yearbooks from Burke County schools. Note: dates on yearbooks vary based on what has been provided for digitization, and privacy considerations.
Digital NC also includes hundreds of Newspapers (dating from the earliest known published newspaper in the state up through the present) and more.
HeritageQuest is a treasury of American genealogical sources: unique primary sources, local and family histories, and finding aids. Includes historical census, PERSI, Revolutionary War records, and more.
Looking for guidance on how to get started or in using the resource? How about a video walk-through? NCLIVE has created a Crash Course Video for this resource. Watch it on Youtube.
This resource is brought to you by NC Live, North Carolina’s statewide library cooperative, supporting 200+ public and academic libraries across North Carolina. Since its founding in 1997, NC LIVE has saved the state millions through innovation and collaborative efforts. Content includes an online collection of 1.6 billion full-text articles, eBooks, streaming videos, digitized newspapers, language learning tools, and more. This resource can be accessed outside of the libraries using your library card number and password.
Additional historical resources can be found on NC Live, North Carolina’s statewide library cooperative, supporting 200+ public and academic libraries across North Carolina. Since its founding in 1997, NC LIVE has saved the state millions through innovation and collaborative efforts. Content includes an online collection of 1.6 billion full-text articles, eBooks, streaming videos, digitized newspapers, language learning tools, and more. This resource can be accessed outside of the libraries using your library card number and password.
The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is a statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Digital Heritage Center works with cultural heritage institutions across North Carolina to digitize and publish historic materials online. The site includes local newspapers, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and more.
A series showcasing the weekly Picture Burke Photograph that is printed in The News Herald and The Paper. Picture Burke is a digital photograph preservation project of the NC Room of the Burke County Public Library. More information on the weekly post can be found by contacting the NC Room (see top of this webpage for contact information). Posts Mondays on our Facebook page.
Selected Historical Photographs of Burke County North Carolina from the Collection can be found on the Picture Burke Website. Additional access to images is in the works.
A series showcasing local history: people, places, and things! Photographs and information are from our North Carolina Room, and more information on the weekly post can be found by contacting the NC Room (see top of this webpage for contact information)! Posts Thursdays at 9am on our Facebook page.