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 (Databases and archives) Archives (Individual articles) Newspaper web sites |
| Films, images |
Libraries Film archives Web sites |
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. (There is a link to URI's Special Collections on the Home page of this guide, but many local public libraries contain their own archives.)
If you're using a catalog, play around with your search terms. Many tools use a standardized vocabulary to describe items. For example, academic library catalogs like ours use 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.
Select Government Publications
- Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council law no. 10, Nuremberg, October 1946-April, 1949Call Number: URI Govt Pub D 102.8: v.1-15
- Law reports of trials of war criminals byCall Number: Carothers Library Stacks JX6731 W3 U6 v.1-14Publication Date: 1947-1949
- The liberation of the Nazi concentration camps 1945 : eyewitness accounts of the liberators edited by Brewster Chamberlin, Marcia Feldman with an introduction by Robert H. Abzug byCall Number: URI Govt Pub Y 3.H 74:2 L 61Publication Date: 1987
Tools for Searching for Primary Sources
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Page image and full-text index to The New York Times. Additional year of content added annually.
- What dates are covered? 1851 - 2018.
- EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
This link opens in a new window
Links to primary source materials about Europe, coordinated by a librarian at Brigham Young University. - Europeana
- This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of over two million images, texts, sounds, and videos from libraries, museums, and archives across Europe.
- Times Digital Archive (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- 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.
Primary Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Primary Sources -- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- This link opens in a new window
Collected by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this page lists various primary source resources for Holocaust research.
Here are some of the resources on this list that we have available at the URI Libraries:
If we do not have one of these resources in the catalog that you would like to use in your research, you may request an item through InterLibrary Loan:
- Interlibrary Loan
- This link opens in a new window