Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. 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, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. 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.
University of Maryland Libraries own many primary materials in all kinds of formats, including books, microforms and electronic collections. We encourage you to look for them in the Catalog (see the box below on this page for some tips on how to search). But I also pulled together a list of primary source materials that might be of value to this class. To see it you can choose from the following:
In many cases, although it might be challenging for this particular course, it is possible to identify primary sources in the Catalog by adding to your search words such terms as archival resources, archives, sources, manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, personal narratives, etc. Another way is to find writings by important political, cultural, or religious leaders.
Examples:
Another strategy is to use the advanced search and specify particular years to limit a search to books and other materials contemporary with the event or phenomenon you are interested in. In more specific searches it often helps to combine the dates search with subject searching.
Example:
Finally University of Maryland Libraries own huge microform collections, many of which would be considered primary sources. Again in the advanced search specify your topic and limit it by format "microform." By the way this method could be used in finding periodicals, non-print materials, reference sources, and other types of formats.
Example:
