Collection Pathfinders series: the Local and Family History section staff regularly create short guides to specific states, ethnic groups, and record types. These include citations to specific sources as well as hints for searching the Library's catalogs. Explore these before your visit or pick up copies at the Library.
Simpson, Jack and Matt Rutherford. A Bibliography of African American Family History at the Newberry Library. This 2005 revised edition updates an earlier bibliography by David Thackery. This item can be purchased through the mail by using this form. Also available for purchase in person at the Newberry's A.C. McClurg Bookstore. A revised online version of the bibliography will be added to the Web site in the near future.
Although somewhat dated and no longer available for purchase, Peggy Tuck Sinko's book, Guide to Local and Family History at the Newberry Library (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1987) is available at many libraries. It will help you to develop a sense for the Newberry's holdings. The Collection Pathfinders series updates, in part, the information in this book.
A genealogy-related publication produced at the Newberry's Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture is the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries series. Text provides exact information about how and when every county's boundries changed. Maps can help you pinpoint what county a town was in at any date.