About NCPedia

NCpedia highlights North Carolina's unique resources, people, and culture to enrich, educate and inform.

It is coordinated and managed by the North Carolina Government & Heritage Library at the State Library of North Carolina, a part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The encyclopedia contains articles covering a broad spectrum of topics and resources about North Carolina, including: historical time periods, subjects, and events; biographies, including North Carolina's governors; counties and government; geography and environment; business and economy; historical places and monuments; natural resources and natural heritage; and many others. NCpedia also includes thousands of images.

NCpedia is considered a trusted resource for North Carolina information. Contributors include professional and independent historians, librarians and archivists, museum professionals and many subject specialists. Institutional partners include: North Carolina Museum of History; the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries; the Research Branch at the North Carolina Office of Archives and History and the State Archives of North Carolina; the University of North Carolina Press; the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation; NC (NC Wildlife Information Network Shares); the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program; North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission; North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; North Carolina Aquariums; North Carolina Arts Council; East Carolina University; Appalachian State University; North Carolina State University Libraries; and others.

NCpedia began with a collection of several hundred static HTML pages contributed by a number of partners and collaborators including North Carolina Government & Heritage Library staff; historians at the Research Branch at the North Carolina Office of Archives and History and archivists from the State Archives of North Carolina; curators at the North Carolina Museum of History and contributions from the Museum's publication Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine; and others. An expansion project began in early 2010's to integrate content from the University of North Carolina Press's Encyclopedia of North Carolina and Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. This project was funded through a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.

NCpedia now contains more than 8,400 articles and more than 9,200 images.

In some cases, two or more articles on the same topic are included in NCpedia. These articles may contain slightly different information or be targeted toward different audiences. For example, articles reprinted from the Tar Heel Junior Historian, have been written for students in grades 4-12 and may supplement other articles on the same subject. NCpedia also has a K-8 collection with entries written at the 5th-grade reading level.

Many articles are reprinted from other sources with permission, and many articles are under copyright from the authors and/or publishers. Please assume that entries are under copyright unless otherwise stated (for example, some authors have shared their content with a Creative Commons license allowing re-use with certain stated permissions; see the individual statements for individual articles with this designation). Requests to reprint or republish may be directed to individual contributors or NCpedia, and NCpedia will help viewers with content information as needed. NCpedia articles span several decades, so please note the publication and copyright date of individual articles.

References for article content are provided along with citations for additional resources. Additional resources often include web links for content available online and, in some cases, include additional and updated information on topics.

We strive to keep NCpedia as up-to-date and relevant as possible! If you find a suspected error, typographical or factual, in an NCpedia entry, please let us know. And if you can provide source and page citations, that will help us speed along the process of investigating and updating.

The resource is a project of many partnerships and contributors, and it contains content with a variety of copyright and re-use statements. Articles range from some written in the 1970s and 1980s to many written in the 21st century.

Because our knowledge of history and approaches to historical interpretation change over time, an encyclopedia is always a work in progress. We strive to ensure that the content remains accurate, relevant, and useful for viewers. When we find mistakes or errors in content or questions are raised about omissions, interpretations and presentation, we strive to evaluate these, conduct research, and include updates to the published record as needed. Because many articles come from external contributors and include different licensing restrictions, we work with the contributors to evaluate and update content.

Technical Partners
Hosting and support are provided by NC LIVE.

Content Partners
Significant content contributions have been provided by the institutions:

• North Carolina Atlas Revisited, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
• North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.
• North Carolina Museum of History and Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine
• NC WINS (NC Wildlife Information Network Shares), includes: North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina Aquariums, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, East Carolina University, Appalachian State University.
• Research Branch, North Carolina Office of Archives and History
• State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History
• University of North Carolina Press
• North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation
• Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries

• Jason Smith, "One Thing Leads to Another," Our State Magazine, June 2013, 126-141. Reviews the University of North Carolina Press's Encyclopedia of North Carolina and NCpedia.org.
• The April 2013 Choice Reviews Online (CRO3), a subscription-based publication from the American Library Association/Association of College and Research Libraries, lists NCpedia as a "highly recommended" Internet resource in a review written by C. D. Vidas from the University of South Carolina Upstate.