PRIMARY SOURCES  Carol Oshel   An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University P. O. Box Richardson, TX November 2004

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it?  A primary source is a first-hand account of an event, time period, or philosophical era.  A primary source MAY include:- 1. Diaries, journals, speeches, letters, interviews, office memos and other papers if the author was present at the event being written about. 2. Memoirs and autobiographies which are describing events that the author was present for. 3. Government documents, such as census records. 4. Reports and minutes of organizations that reflect events, conditions and ideas of the time. 5. Books, journals and newspapers written at the time of the event in question. 6. Photographs, audio tapes, and film that document an event. 7. Research data documenting scientific experiments at the time 8. Documentation of ideas or psychology of a time may be found in popular fiction, films, educational material etc. 9. Artifacts of all kinds, which may include buildings (architecture), household items, cave drawings, clothing, paintings, pottery.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? Why Should I use a Primary Source  They are used so that you can form your own opinion, based on the facts.  They allow you to understand how people feel, at the time, about an event or a person.  Primary sources are used to show your professor that you have done the research required to produce a quality paper.  Using primary sources shows your professor that you are able to take the facts, interpret them, and draw your own conclusion, rather than just regurgitate other people’s work.  You should produce a better quality paper if it has some primary sources to back up your thesis statement.  A mixture of sources produces a more substantial paper – use primary and secondary; scholarly and popular; paper and electronic; ideas and artifacts; fact and fiction, etc.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it?  Primary sources differ depending on the subject and time period being studied. If you are in doubt, ask your instructor.  Primary sources DO NOT include 1. Historical accounts of an event 2. Memoirs or autobiographies that reflect on an event in which the author was NOT a participant, unless it reflects a popular opinion of the time. 3. A critical analysis of a work of literature written years later. 4. A critical analysis of an historical event written after the event occurred.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it?  BEFORE you start to find primary sources, you need some background information on the subject that you are covering, such as: 1. Names of the principal participants 2. Names of any organizations, political groups, ideological movements etc. 3. Countries and political policies involved 4. Dates being covered You can find this information in a general or subject encyclopedia, history books, biographical dictionaries, and subject bibliographies. You can access Encyclopedia Britannica Online from the list of databases.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it in the Reference Section?  Several books, or sets of books are available in the library reference section. They include: 1. American Decades Primary Sources (Ref E A ) 10 volumes 2. English Historical Documents (Ref DA 26.E55 ) Key Documents in American Democracy (Ref E 173.A ) 4. Documents of American History (Ref E 173.C ) 5. The French Revolution : A Document Collection (Ref DC 141.M ) 6. Historic Documents of 2001 (Ref E H ) 7. Documents of Texas History (Ref F 386.D ) 8. Also, check the bibliography of any secondary source that you have found. The author will have included any primary sources that he/she used. And others. For help ask the Reference Librarian at the Reference Desk

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND MATERIALS THROUGH THE ONLINE CATALOG From the online catalog select Keyword/Subject search. Type your search term here. I used “letters” You may type a second subject here. I used “civil war” Limit here to search “civil war” as a phrase Keyword/Subject Search

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND MATERIALS THROUGH THE ONLINE CATALOG This is a partial list of the results of the search Click on the title to see a brief record for this book. To locate the book, you need the call number (E484.W ), the location (Main Stacks, 3 rd floor) and the availability (Available) In order to find the subject heading for this book click on “LONG VIEW” (see next slide) This is the brief record for this book If you are a distance student, you may call Interlibrary Loan At to have this book mailed to you

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND MATERIALS THROUGH THE ONLINE CATALOG These are the subject headings that found the title “Women of the Civil War South …” To find other materials within this subject click on one of the subject headings This is the Long View for this title

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND MATERIALS THROUGH THE ONLINE CATALOG This is a partial list of the results of the subject search To see a list of all of the books in the library under this subject heading click here. (See the next slide)

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND MATERIALS THROUGH THE ONLINE CATALOG This is a list of all of the materials in the library with this subject heading In order to read an electronic book click on the title of the book

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND MATERIALS THROUGH THE ONLINE CATALOG You may either view this book, or check out for 24 hours. To check the book out you will need to create a free account To Create a Free Account: Click on the link “checkout for 2 hrs”, and supply login and password information Net Library Search Screen

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? TO FIND ARTICLES FROM JOURNALS, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS (from Databases)  We have several databases that access primary source materials. They include: 1. America: History and Life (U.S. and Canada, prehistory-current) 2. American Periodical Series, Early English Books Online ( ) 4. Eighteenth Century Collections Online 5. Gerritsen Women’s History ( ) 6. Harper’s Weekly Historical Abstracts (World history, prehistory- current, excluding U.S. and Canada) 8. Periodical Contents ( ) Other databases MAY include primary source documents. If in doubt ask a librarian.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS/AMERICA : HISTORY AND LIFE Click here for a list of subjects. Type “civil war” in the text box and click FIND TERMS. Select “Civil War (pictorial works) and click the PASTE box. Click here for a list of languages. Check the box next to ENGLISH, then click on the PASTE box. Click here for a list of document types (article, media etc) Check the appropriate box and click on the PASTE box Click here to search for a particular author. Check the box next to the author’s name and click on the PASTE box Click here for a list of time periods. I have chosen the decades (D) Click on the appropriate boxes, then click on the PASTE box When you have filled in the appropriate fields (you do not have to use all of them) click SEARCH Click here for a list of journal titles Check the appropriate box (if wanted) and click on the PASTE box

What is a Primary Source? And How do I find it? HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS/AMERICA : HISTORY AND LIFE Result of Search: The search produced two results. To see if we have access to this article, check the title in the online catalog. If we do not have full text access you may use our Interlibrary Loan service to obtain this article. The abstract confirms that the article contains primary source sketches. Check the online catalog to see if we have access to CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN, and order through Interlibrary Loan if we do not. Click here (DISPLAY FULL ENTRY) for more information, including an abstract This record is the full entry display of the second article in the short entry list

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? American Periodicals Series Advanced Search For a list of periodicals indexed, click here Insert search terms in these boxes Click on the blue button for a list of source types, select article type. Then click on “browse article types” and select “illustration” from the list Select one of these formats for the dates to be searched

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? American Periodicals Series - Results of Search Click here for the full text This cartoon was done for Vanity Fair in October 1861, and could be used as a primary source to show public opinion of the war at that time.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? Gerritsen’s Collection : Women’s History Online Type your search term here – use quotes if you want to search for a phrase You may fill out these boxes if you have the information. Click on INDEX for a list of terms You can select a document type here, or search all types Select dates for searching Select language

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? Gerritsen’s Collection : Women’s History Online SEARCH RESULTS This may NOT be a primary source. You will need to evaluate it carefully. Check the full citation for more information Click on FULL CITATION for more information, or PAGE IMAGE for the full text Evaluation of this source shows that it is a primary source account of the civil war.

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? HarpWeek (full text and images of Harper’s Weekly, ) These time periods are included in HarpWeek The browse, search and finding aids features are explained here Click here to begin searching

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? HarpWeek Search Screen For a basic search, click here

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? HarpWeek Basic Search You may limit your search to: Advertisement Article series Biographical sketch /obituary Cartoon Editorial Fiction Government announcement Humor /satirical commentary Illustration Map News story/item Panoramic view Poetry Portrait Publisher’s notice Travel narrative

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? HarpWeek Partial List of Search Results Click on the title for the full text of the article

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? HarpWeek Full Text of Article Click on the page for an enlarged copy of the newspaper page Verbatim copy of the newspaper article REMEMBER! Evaluate the article to be sure it is a primary source

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? Periodical Contents Index (PCI) BASIC SEARCH You can select from the list, or the drop down boxes, or leave these areas blank

What is a Primary Source? And How do I Find it? Periodical Contents Index (PCI) Results of Basic Search Full text for this article is not available in this database. You will need to check UTD’s catalog, or order through Interlibrary Loan

Primary Sources: The Internet  The Internet has become a rich source of primary materials. As always, evaluate your internet source carefully before you include the material in your paper, and cite the source in your “works cited” page.  Here are a few recommended sites:  UNITED STATES HISTORY:  American Memory. The Library of Congress’s National Digital Library contains more than 40 collections, which feature historical photos, maps, documents, letters…  Documenting the American South. This electronic text archive from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contains slave narratives as well as a digitized library of southern literature …  A Hypertext on American History. This site contains over 100 historical documents relating to US history from the 1400s.  The Papers of Jefferson Davis.

Primary Sources  WORLD HISTORY:  World War II Resources. Primary source materials on all aspects of the war.  EuroDocs. Primary source documents from western Europe. ttp:// x.html  The Crimean War : primary sources overview. ex.html ex.html

Other Library Services  Telephone Reference Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Friday 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. Saturday 10:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.  Reference “Ask A Librarian” edu/library/reference /erefform.htm edu/library/reference /erefform.htm  By appointment with a reference librarian Contact Loreen Phillips  u u Stop by the reference desk and ask  Ask a UT System Librarian-Chat Monday-Thurs. 12:00-6:00 pm; Friday 12:00-4:00 pm CST udents/ask.html udents/ask.html An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University P. O. Box Richardson, TX September 2004