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 scholars, they provide the resources necessary for scholarly research.
University of Maryland Libraries own many primary materials in all kinds of formats, including books, microforms and electronic collections. You can find many primary sources in our general collections, i.e. in our open stacks. In addition, the University of Maryland houses rich Special Collections, which include archival and manuscript collections, government documents, digital collections, maps, and rare books. Many of these materials pertain to Jewish and Israel Studies. We encourage you to look for all of these resources in UMD Discover.
