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Primary sources are original accounts or records of historical events. These sources are from the time period involved, and they have not been filtered through interpretation. Primary sources include:

• Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters
• Memoirs and autobiographies
• Government records, such as birth, death and marriage certificates, census records, licenses, patents, trial transcripts, etc.
• Records of organizations, i.e., minutes, reports or correspondence
• Original Documents (e.g. family Bible records)
• Photographs, documentaries, sound recordings of actual events
• Survey Research such as market surveys and public opinion polls

Note: Newspaper, magazine and journal articles and books written at the time about a particular event are often considered primary sources. These accounts were usually written by journalists or other observers at the time of the event. Materials that are written later and/or provide historical analysis are considered secondary sources.

Contents 1 Finding Articles 2 Newspaper Accounts/Periodicals 3 Books Available at the Library 4 Other Useful Databases 5 Web Sites 6 References

[edit] Finding Articles

To find articles on a specific topic, author or book, use the DATABASES. You can access the LNDL databases from anywhere through the LNDL homepage at http://www.loyola.edu/library. You must have a current library barcode to access databases from off campus. Your barcode is on your ID. (It’s the number that begins with 22425. . . .)

[edit] Newspaper Accounts/Periodicals

• New York Times Historic (1851-1998)
  
• The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective (1860-1865)
  
• The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800)
  
• American Periodical Series (1740-1900)
• Times Digital Archives (1785-1985)Complete digital edition of The Times (London), with keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos

• Readers Guide Retrospective Abstracts from Magazines from 1890 to 1982 (note: not full text)

[edit] Books Available at the Library

Use the library catalog (SHARC) on the library's web site at http://www.loyola.edu/library. Terms to try in looking for primary sources (use a subject and/or keyword search):

• Personal narratives
• Diaries
• Journal
• Memoirs Autobiography
• Sources
• History sources
• History documents

Some sources that include United States Documents are:

• Annals of America

Reference Stacks First Floor - E173 .A793 v.1-21

• Public Papers of the Presidents

Circulating Collection Second Floor - J80 .A283

• Historic Documents of … Reference

Reference Stacks First Floor - E839.5H57

Maryland:

• Archives of Maryland

Second Floor Non-Circulating - F176.A67

[edit] Other Useful Databases

• Early English Books Online (1475-1700)
  

Digital library of books printed in English from 1475-1700. Eighteenth Century Collections Online Works published in Great Britain and its dependencies from 1701-1800.

• Digital National Security Archive (DSNA)
  

Declassified government documents from the National Security Archive on U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945

• In the First Person
  

In-depth index of more than 3,350 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world

[edit] Web Sites

The Internet has become a great source of primary materials.

Search Engines:
To search for web sites, select a search engine or directory such as Google (http://www.google.com) or Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) and type in your topic and primary sources or one of the other terms listed above.

Another great search directory is: Librarian's Index to the Internet.

Selected Web Sites for Primary Materials/Digital Collections

• American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library

• The Making of America: Primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Separate collections at Cornell and the University of Michigan.

• Documenting the American South

• Civil War Women

• World War II Primary Source Document Collection

• The Avalon Project

Primary source documents -- treaties, agreements, etc -- dating back to ancient Greece, with a focus on US and European history.

• Repositories of Primary Sources

A listing of over 5000 websites with manuscripts, archives, photographs and other primary source materials.

Note: You do need to be careful to check the reliability of Internet sources. For more information, refer to the library's guide at http://www.loyola.edu/library/ref/evalwebs.html.

[edit] References

"Library Research Using Primary Sources." University of California, Berkeley: Copyright 1998-2002. Accessed October 1, 2003. <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySources.html>

"Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources." University Libraries, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. Updated October 1, 2003. Accessed October 1, 2003. <http://www.lib.umd.edu/UES/primary-sources.html>

For help on a specific topic or research question, please call the Reference Desk (410-617-6802)

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