Need Help?
What Primary Sources Do You Need?
First, consider what kinds of primary sources you might need.
| Personal journals, letters, memoirs |
Libraries (Books) Archives (Personal papers) |
| Newspapers, magazines |
Libraries (Indexes and archives) Archives (Individual articles) Newspaper web sites |
| Films |
Libraries Film archives Web sites |
| Census data |
Libraries Historical societies |
From there, plan your approach. Many library catalogs list archival materials, but others include archival materials in a separate area of their web sites. Browse library home pages for links to their "Archives" or "Special Collections" pages.
If you're using a catalog, play around with your search terms. Many tools use a standardized vocabulary to describe items. For example, the URI Libraries Search uses the Subject subheadings "Personal narratives," "Correspondence," and "Diaries" to classify certain types of information. Look at likely results to form further searches. WorldCat uses the same naming conventions, but other sources may use different terms.
Online Resources
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? HathiTrust is a digital library of more than 17.4 million volumes, digitized from member library collections. Authenticated users may download full-book PDF files of all Public Domain and Creative Commons-licensed volumes. All volumes, including copyrighted works, are searchable. Details at: this link..
- What else should I know? URI faculty, staff, and students can log in to HathiTrust to access enhanced features. To log in, select "University of Rhode Island" from the list of institutions and enter your URI SSO (Single Sign-On) Credentials. Include @uri.edu in your username.
- Archive.org
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Links to the text section of Archive.org. Search here for primary source books from the 19th Century. - EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
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Links to primary source materials about Europe. Maintained by the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. - Europeana
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Digital archive of over two million images, texts, sounds, and videos from libraries, museums, and archives across Europe.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Archival journal collections in many disciplines, scholarly e-books, and primary source materials from institutions worldwide.
- List of National and State Libraries (Wikipedia)
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Provides a directory of national libraries around the world. Some libraries may have digital collections available.
- Times Digital Archive (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? An online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times (of London). Includes every complete page of every issue.
- What dates are covered? 1785 - 2019.