History: Finding Primary Sources: Primary Sources
Book search options
- WorldCat via FirstSearch This link opens in a new windowSearch Worldcat for books, films and other materials in libraries worldwide.
- WorldCat.orgNo luck finding anything in our library's book collection, and want to expand your search? Try WorldCat, something akin to a universal library catalog.
Who might be interested in your topic?
Think about:
- Local libraries (public or academic)
- Historical societies
- National libraries
Visit their home pages. Have they digitized materials? If they haven't digitized, have they published Finding Aids (which give you a good sense of what materials are contained in their collections)?
Mine secondary sources
If you're striking out on finding primary sources, then look for secondary sources. Journal articles and books that discuss your topic will hopefully have bibliographies directing you to their primary sources (and then you can evaluate whether you can obtain/read those sources).
Collected/Published Works
When searching a database of books, whether the catalog or Google Books or WorldCat:
- Keywords to use in searches: diaries / journals / sources / personal narratives / correspondence / letters
- Also, look for these words in subject headings, and follow the subject links.
History of Women Collection, on microfilm
Sourcebooks in the General Collection: A sampling
- The history of sexuality in Europe : a sourcebook and readerCall Number: HQ18.E8 H57 2011
- The lesbian history sourcebook : love and sex between women in Britain from 1780 to 1970Call Number: HQ75.6.G7 L47 2001
- Love, sex and marriage in the Middle Ages : a sourcebookCall Number: HQ513 .L685 2004
- Same-sex desire in the English Renaissance [electronic resource] : a sourcebook of texts, 1470-1650Call Number: available online
Contemporary Publications: Newspapers
The International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) has an extensive list of digitization projects. A couple examples from Europe are listed below:
- Gallica - La presse quotidienne (yes, this is in French)Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothéque nationale de France, hosts numerous newspaper titles from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Notable titles currently include Le Figaro (1830-1942), Le Temps (1861-1935), La Croix (1883-1944), L'Humanité (1904-1944), La Presse (1836-1858), and Le Journal des débats (1814-1912), among others.
- Nineteenth Century Serials Edition (england)online edition of six nineteenth-century periodicals and newspapers, including Northern Star (1838-1852) and The Leader (1850-1859).
Contemporary Publications: Books
The Google Books digitization project makes pre-1923 books, which are in the public domain, available for download:
Subject Guide
MSIS, Information Science
The University of Texas at Austin
BA, History
Southwestern University