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Hope Library Guides

HIST 120 Introduction to World History to 1500: Primary Sources

Fall 2023

Primary vs Secondary

Is this Primary?! Is this Secondary?!

Look through these two tutorials to help you figure it out!

 

Finding Primary Sources

Finding primary sources is sometimes very easy, and sometimes not so easy!  Read through the sections below to help you get ideas and understand research strategies that will help you locate primary sources in a variety of ways! (through Hope PRIMO, through searching on the internet, by looking through digital collections, and by looking through certain databases).

Primary Source keyword/type examples

Use these terms as keywords in your search to help you find primary sources related to your subject.  Try to think about in what format/genre the information might have been recorded in.

  • correspondence
  • pamphlets
  • sources
  • diaries
  • personal narratives
  • speeches
  • interviews
  • oral history / oral histories / oral narratives
  • documents
  • archives
  • microfilm

 

Searching using primary source types/genres

Another option is to search for your topic, then look at the refining options via "Genre," and then look for some primary source term, as mentioned above.

 

On the Web

There are many fantastic digitization projects that are going on right now that make primary source materials much more easily accessible to you.  Here are a couple of tips for looking for these as well as some portals to get you started on your research.

  • If your topic is geographically specific, do some browsing on the state library websites for in your area to see if they have any digitization projects from their collection.
  • If you discover that a particular library is strong in your subject area, check their website as well.
  • Browse the subject guides of major research libraries, they will often include helpful weblinks in subject specific guides.
  • When searching on the internet, try including words like "digital collection", "digitized", or "primary sources" along with your more general subject
  • If you are looking for a specific older published source, type in its specific title; it might come up in a digital collection or Google Books.

Potentially Useful Primary Source Collections