A local history book[1][2][3] (also known as a (rural) farm book or local chronicle;[4] Norwegian: bygdebok), is a Norwegian publication genre describing the history and population of one or more rural settlements.
[5][6][7] Many local history books feature a short history of each farm and a chronology of its owners dating back several generations or centuries.
[8] Norwegian local history books have usually been published under the auspices of or in collaboration with the municipality.
[5] Such local history books began being published in Norway around 1910 starting with the work of Lorens Berg,[9][10] but one can trace the roots of the phenomenon back to the topographic literature of the Enlightenment.
Local history books can be divided into three main categories, and many local history books contain volumes of several types:[11]