UI Librarian Publishes Major Bibliography of Idaho History

 

UI associate professor and reference librarian Robert Perret recently published a new bibliography of the state of Idaho titled Here We Have 150 Years of Idaho History: A Bibliography. This project was supported by a grant from the J.C. Smith Memorial Fund and additional funding from the University of Idaho Library. The bibliography includes 220 pages and 5,000 entries, making it the most comprehensive bibliography of Idaho history ever produced and the first in nearly twenty-five years.

Here We Have 150 Years of Idaho History is also the first major Idaho history bibliography to be made available digitally. The two that were previously published, Idaho: Idaho Local History by Nelson & Webbert (1976) and Idaho History: A Bibliography by Domitz and Hitchcock (1991), are not available online.

Perret said the Idaho sesquicentennialand Idaho History Day prompted him to want to make it easier for citizens to find books on Idaho history – especially local history. “I felt like it is a rite of passage for a librarian to create a major bibliography and I am happy to have such diverse and interesting subject matter,” he added.

Focusing on non-fiction monographs that could be obtained from a library or historical society, Perret’s goal was to list every readily available non-fiction book on Idaho history. “Including fiction and articles would have easily doubled the size of the project. Unlike monographs, most journals and articles are pretty thoroughly cataloged and thus are easily findable through an online catalog like Worldcat,” he said.

In researching the bibliography, Perret travelled to museums, historical societies, and state and national parks all over Idaho to discover local history resources. “It was a lot of fun to visit every corner of the state and learn all sorts of interesting things,” said Perret. “It was a much bigger project than I originally anticipated. There is just so much Idaho history to learn.”

Here We Have 150 Years of Idaho History: A Bibliography is complete as a monograph, but Perret has also created an ongoing bibliography, The Idaho Bibliography Project, which he plans to update annually. Contact Robert Perret at rperret@uidaho.edu with questions or to suggest additions to The Idaho Bibliography Project.