Strategies for Finding Primary Sources

Other Library Information

WHAT ARE PRIMARY SOURCES?

Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what happened during an historical event or time period and how it was perceived by the participants and observers. Primary sources are the evidence, the raw materials that historians use to make new observations and interpretations of an event, place, era, or other historical phenomenon. The following are generally considered primary sources:

Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers in which individuals describe eventsin which they were participants or observers.

Memoirs and autobiographies. These are generally less reliable since they are usually written long after events occurredand may be distorted by bias, dimming memory or the revised perspective that may come with hindsight. On the otherhand, they are sometimes the only source for certain information.

Records of organizations and agencies of government. The minutes, reports, correspondence, etc. of an organization oragency serve as an ongoing record of the activity and thinking of that organization or agency. Many kinds of records(births, deaths, marriages; permits and licenses issued; census data; etc.) document conditions in the society.

Published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles) written at the time about a particular event. While these are sometimes accounts by participants, in most cases they are written by journalists or other observers. Theimportant thing is to distinguish between material written at the time of an event as a kind of report, and material writtenmuch later, as historical analysis.

Photographs, audio recordings and moving pictures drawings, paintings, political cartoons or video recordings,documenting what happened.

Artifacts of all kinds: physical objects, buildings, furniture, tools, appliances and household items, clothing, toys.

If you are attempting to find evidence documenting the mentality or psychology of a time, or of a group (evidence of a worldview, a set of attitudes, or the popular understanding of an event or condition), the most obvious source is public opinionpolls taken at the time. Since these are generally very limited in availability and in what they reveal, however, it is alsopossible to make use of ideas and images conveyed in the mass media, and even in literature, film, popular fiction,self-help literature, textbooks, etc. Again, the point is to use these sources, written or produced at the time, as evidenceof how people were thinking.

*The first section of this guide was adapted from "Library Research Using Primary Sources." University of California, Berkeley. <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySources.html

STRATEGIES FOR FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES

Before you start your search, make a list of the terms, places, people and specific events about which you want to find primary resources. Keep this list handy and add to it as you learn more about the topic.

Make another list of the kinds of primary sources you hope to find or think will be available for the topic. For instance, if you think newspapers are appropriate to your research, put them on the list, and consider which newspapers would be most useful. Randall Library's holdings of historical newspapers is limited, but you may wish to make a research trip to another library or request a microfilm copy of the newspaper through interlibrary loan.

The following strategies are particularly useful in using Randall Library resources.

1. USE ONLINE CATALOGS

• Randall Library Online Catalog: http://library.uncw.edu (Library Home Page)

For access to materials in Randall Library: includes sophisticated search capabilities like limiting by language and format or combining subject headings. Also allows users to send search results to their email addresses.

• WorldCat: From the Library Home Page, choose the "Database & Article Searching" link, then choose the "WorldCat" link.

WorldCat is the union catalog of books, web resources, and other material located worldwide cataloged by OCLC member libraries (over 45,000 libraries.) Books in the catalog are generally available via Interlibrary Loan (unless they are considered rare), and many of the websites are freely available. The database also includes references to manuscript and archival material that would require a visit to the repository that owns it -- but at least you know where it is.

Search Tips:
Case does not matter. Punctuation marks are not needed.
Keyword searches will likely retrieve something on your subject. This type of search looks in practically all parts of the catalog record, and is the only way to access the data in the Contents Notes field of records. However, if you are not using the terms catalogers use to identify a subject, keyword searches may actually retrieve fewer items than a subject search.
Subject searches use a controlled vocabulary, bring more consistency to searches, organizing records by subtopics. Library of Congress Subject Headings are used in both the local catalog and in WorldCat.
Primary Source Subheadings: There are several subject subheadings used to identify books or other resources that are compilations of primary source material. Look for:

*These subheadings are typically used under Subject Headings for individuals or terms describing groups of people, e.g., Soldiers.

How to Identify Primary Sources in the Online Catalog:
Step 1: Subject search for your topic, e.g., Women -- Employment or France -- History -- Revolution
Step 2: At the top of the results page click on Limit/Sort
Step 3: Click on arrow next to Words in the Author and change it to Words in the Subject
Step 4: Type in (choose one): Sources
Personal narratives
Pictorial works
Posters
Treaties
Literary collections
Songs and music

Step 5: Click on Limit/Sort items retrieved using above data, button

Search country names as subjects. Under country names with the subheading History, you will often find further chronological subheadings, e.g. China--History--1928-1937. Many of the collections of foreign or diplomatic relations documents cover periods of time, so search for these volumes by country name with the subheading "Foreign relations." For example:
Soviet Union--Foreign relations
Russia--Foreign relations
Great Britain--Foreign relations

Author searches for the key participants (individuals, organizations, agencies or other groups) will retrieve records for materials that were written or produced by them either at the time of the event or later will, in most cases, be primary sources.
Subject searches paired with the subheadings identified above with an asterisk (*) will also retrieve primary resources, e.g., Wilson Woodrow correspondence.

To determine other appropriate subject headings associated with your topic you can:

• Look in the five red volumes of the Library of Congress Subject Headings book located next to the reference desk. (The volumes do not list names of individuals or groups, even though they are used as subject headings.)
• Enter your search as a Keyword. Look for an appropriate record, and link to the subject headings attached to that
  record.

2. USE PERIODICAL AND NEWSPAPER INDEXES COVERING THE TIME PERIOD

Electronic Resources
New York Times Archive Full-image online access for the NYT back to 1851.

Newspapers on Microfilm (Index availability)
London Times (Palmer's Index to the Times Index Collection AI21.T458)
New York Times (New York Times Index IndexCollection AI21 .N45)
You may want to use this index to make sure you find articles you can retrieve through the online version.
United States Congressional Record (Index at beginning of the first reel for each session of Congress.
Filed with periodicals on microfilm)
Wilmington Morning Star (no index available)

Print Indexes to Periodical Literature
International Index to Periodicals (Index Collection AI3 .R5) Indexes selected scholarly periodicals, 1907-1965..
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (Index Collection AI3 .P7) Indexes popular magazines, 1802-1907.
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (Index Collection AI3 .R48) Indexes selected popular magazines beginning in 1890.

3. USE BIBLIOGRAPHIES & REFERENCE COLLECTION FINDING AIDS. For example:
American Diaries. Reference Collection CT214 .A7 1983
And So to Bed: A Bibliography of Diaries Published in English. Reference Collection CT25 .H38 1987
Civil War Eyewitnesses: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles, 1955-1986.
Reference Collection E601 .C64 1988
Guide and Index to Women's Diaries: A Readex Microfilm Collection from the Files of the American Antiquarian Society.
Reference Collection CT3260 .A434 (New England) and Reference Collection CT3260 .A436 (Western)
Notable Women in World History: A Guide to Recommended Biographies and Autobiographies.
Reference Collection CT3230 .A32 1998
Those Who Were There: Eyewitness Accounts of the War in Southeast Asia, 1956-1975 & Aftermath.
Reference Collection DS559.5 .T46 1984
Women's Diaries Journals and Letters: An Annotated Bibliography. Reference Collection CT3230 .C55 1989

The library also places guides to microfilm manuscript collections in the Reference Collection, using the same call number as the microform sets. Here is a very selective sampling of the microform sets available:
FBI File on Eleanor Roosevelt. Microfilm E807.1 .R48
Microfilm Edition of the Pre-Revolutionary Diaries, 1635-1774. Microfilm E187 .G85
Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century. Microfilm HQ1438 .A13 S64
U. S. Military Intelligence Reports: China, 1911-1941. Microfilm DS773 .U58 1982a

4. USE PRIMARY SOURCE REPOSITORIES ON THE WEB (Free or licensed by UNCW or NCLIVE)
An excellent guide to finding and using primary sources in the web environment can be found at: http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/

Be sure to visit these sites, if the subject scope of your search is appropriate:
Internet History Sourcebooks http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
A series of sourcebooks providing electronic access to documents in the public domain.

American Memory Project http://memory.loc.gov/
The Library of Congress digital contains text, photographs, audio and video on U.S. History. Be sure to try the American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/nfhome.html

North American Women's Letters and Diaries. (On Randall Library Database page.)

For a more complete list, use the library's Subject Research Guide for History.

5. USE BIBLIOGRAPHIES & FOOTNOTES IN SECONDARY SOURCES

Historical research is not a strictly linear process. You should make a research plan in the form of a list of tools to use, but as you delve into catalogs, indexes and other resources you may need to come back to those you thought you had exhausted. You may learn a new term to search or find a reference to a specific publication you did not know about earlier. Do not isolate your search for primary sources from your search for secondary ones, because the secondary sources also serve as a finding aid for more primary sources you didn't find through the catalogs or indexes.

Secondary sources may refer to sources (both primary and secondary) in these ways:

• Classified: This is the easiest way to find new primary sources, because they are categorized as such. They may be further categorized as published (meaning they may be in the library collection or obtainable through interlibrary loan) or unpublished (meaning they are one of a kind and you must travel to the repository that owns them).
• Alphabetical: You will need to sort the sources that seem to be primary (indicated by the title or publication date) from secondary resources.
• Endnotes: Both primary and secondary sources cited in the order used by the author of the work in hand, compiled in a list at the end of the chapter or book.
• Footnotes: Both primary and secondary sources cited in the order used at the bottom of the page where the usage occurred.

6. CONSIDER VISITING A MANUSCRIPT REPOSITORY
You may find records for manuscript material in WorldCat that is held by repositories nearby. These manuscript repositories also have online guides to finding aids.

UNCW Special Collections: http://library.uncw.edu/web/collections/index.html

UNC-Chapel Hill Manuscripts Department: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/finding.html
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/specoll/

Other Library Information:

Reference Desk – 962-3760
Circulation – 962-3272
Interlibrary Loan – 962-3273
Library Hours – 962-7306

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