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Primary Sources - A Guide to Finding Primary Sources

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES

The primary literature is the raw material upon which critical, analytic, and historical studies are based. It also includes reports of the results of scientific experiments and observations of the natural world.

Examples of Primary Literature

Letters
Diaries
Ledgers, account books, bills
Songs
Oral history tapes
Home movies
Census data
Constitutions, Articles of Faith, manifestos
Photographs, posters, cartoons
Reports of original research
Websites and personal homepages
Social networking websites (MySpace, Facebook, etc)
Blogs
Newspaper Accounts
Autobiographies
Government Hearings
Speeches
Treaties, Laws


How do you find the Primary Literature?

1. Using ODYsseus, the online catalog:

A. Do a Subject (S) search for your topic

Look for the following subdivisions under your subject term:

[subject]--diaries
[subject]--exhibitions
[subject]--personal narratives
[subject]--anecdotes
[subject]--correspondence
[subject]--interviews
[subject]--case studies
[subject]--posters
[subject]--caricatures and cartoons
[subject]--photography
[subject]--pictorial works
[subject]--underground literature
[subject]--public opinion
[subject]--sources
[subject]--sermons
[subject]--treaties
[subject]--songs and music

B. If your topic is a person or if you are looking for documents published by a government or organization, do an Author (A) search under the name of the person or the official body.

If you find any items like autobiographies, laws, treaties, etc., these will be primary sources.

2. Finding newspaper and/or periodical articles newspaper that are part of the primary literature:

A. Newspaper Articles

  1. Proquest Historical Newspapers
    This database provides full-text access to 8 major American newspapers from 1849 to 2005.
  2. Northern New York Historical Newspapers
    This database is an online collection of over 25 newspapers from counties in northern New York

B. Journal Articles

Articles published in popular magazines that are written contemporaneously with an event are primary sources. The following indexes may be useful:

  1. Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature (1890- ) Online from 1983
    Lower Level Index Area AI 3 .R48
  2. Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1907)
    Lower level Index Area AI 3 .P7
  3. America: History and Life
  4. Historical Abstracts
  5. JSTOR

These are the main indexes to the scholarly literature in history. Most of the articles found through these indexes are not part of the primary literature. However, there are some items that are. By typing in the appropriate terms in the proper places, you can limit your search to primary sources.