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Finding Primary Sources
What is a primary source?"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. … These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research." [1] Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, movies or videos, statistics, and objects like works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. [Top] Finding primary sources in the library.Books and other library resources that are considered primary sources have been cataloged with one or more of the following terms:
To find primary sources related to a specific topic, go to the library’s homepage and use the online catalog. Try combining one or more keywords with a term from the above list. [Top] Government information as primary sources.Finding government information can be complex. There are millions of documents published by thousands of different government agencies and offices around the world. Some information is published only online and some is still only published in print. Not all government information is freely available: some may need to be requested through the Freedom of Information Act and some agencies charge for access to recover their publishing costs. Many documents are never cataloged separately and therefore cannot be found in the library's online catalog. To find government documents related to your topic, consult a librarian, who can help you navigate the complex world of government information. [Top] Using periodical indexes to find primary sources.Periodical indexes are tools designed to help you locate articles about specific topics. Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (Library location: Index Cases). Reader's Guide indexes a number of popular magazines (e.g., Life, Time, Scientific American), some journals and newspapers (e.g., American Historical Review), and a few government documents published in the United States. Concordia's coverage is 1900-2005. New York Times Index (Library location: Index Cases). One of the most well-known national newspapers is the New York Times. Use the New York Times Index to find articles from the original newspaper. Concordia owns the indexes covering 1913-1999 and the newspaper on microfilm covering 1939-2005. Alternatively, search the New York Times Historical online database. It offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. [Top] Finding primary sources on the Web.Librarians' Internet Index, Infomine, and Intute are three sites that reference Web pages that have been evaluated by librarians. To find collections of primary sources, enter one or more BROAD search terms related to a topic (e.g., Vietnam, Civil War, slavery, etc.) and one of the source types listed in the table above. Be sure to also check the Library of Congress’s American Memory and the New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery, two Web sites that provide access to primary sources in American history. [Top] The College ArchivesLocated in Library 468, Concordia’s College Archives collects and preserves materials that record and exhibit the history and life of the College. The collection consists of records in a variety of formats including photographs, artifacts, videocassettes, and handwritten documents. The Concordian, Concordia College's student newspaper, is now online, from 1920 to spring 2007. For help using the Archives and to find primary sources related to your topic, consult the College Archivist by visiting or calling (218) 299-3241. [Top] The Library of American CivilizationThe Library of American Civilization (LAC) is a collection of primary sources relating to American life up to World War I. This microfiche series contains roughly 6.5 million pages of material including books, pamphlets, periodicals, biographies and autobiographies, fiction, poetry, and selected federal, state, and local documents. Please ask a librarian to help you use a microfiche reader to view this collection. But note that many of these documents are now finding their way online, so be sure to first search for them using an Internet search engine. To search for LAC documents:
[Top] 1. Reference and User Services Association--History Section. Using Primary Sources on the Web. 2003. |
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