{"id":231,"date":"2022-07-15T19:55:12","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T19:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/?page_id=231"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:05:11","slug":"find-primary-sources","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/instruction\/i-need-to-2\/find-primary-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"Find Primary Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What is a primary source?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Primary sources are original artifacts or documents. They offer contemporary accounts from participants or people directly involved in an event. To learn about secondary sources, see our <a title=\"Secondary Sources\" href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/instruction\/i-need-to-2\/secondary-sources\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Secondary Sources<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Diaries and literary memoirs<\/li>\n<li>Letters and correspondence<\/li>\n<li>Artistic works (musical and visual)<\/li>\n<li>News segments and transcripts<\/li>\n<li>Speeches<\/li>\n<li>Interviews<\/li>\n<li>Editorials<\/li>\n<li>Legal documents and statistics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why use primary sources?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Primary sources enable you to work with the raw material and draw your own conclusions.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How can I tell if something is a primary source?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The following questions can help you determine if you have a primary source:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Author<\/strong>: What is the author&#8217;s relationship to the material or event described?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Purpose:<\/strong> What is the purpose of the content?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Publication Date:<\/strong> Is the date of the publication close to the event described?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Where can I find primary sources?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><a title=\"Library Catalog \" href=\"https:\/\/i-share-uiu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/discovery\/search?vid=01CARLI_UIU:CARLI_UIU&amp;lang=en&amp;mode=advanced\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Library Catalog<\/a><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Enter the type of primary source you&#8217;re looking for in the first box (narratives, correspondence, music scores, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>Change the drop-down menu next to the first search box from &#8220;Keyword&#8221; to &#8220;Subject&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In the second box, type a related keyword (author, event, geographical location, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div>For example: You may type &#8220;narratives&#8221; in the first box and &#8220;Anne Frank&#8221; in the second box to look for Anne&#8217;s diary and related primary sources.<\/div>\n<h3>Library Databases<\/h3>\n<p>Articles and Newspapers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Newspaper Source\" href=\"https:\/\/proxy2.library.illinois.edu\/login?url=https:\/\/research.ebsco.com\/c\/2w5hhj\/search\/advanced\/filters?defaultdb=n5h\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Newspaper Source Plus<\/a>\u00a0(EBSCO) &#8211; Contains\u00a0U.S. newspapers, international newspapers, newswires, newspaper columns, and TV and radio news transcripts<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Historical newspapers\" href=\"http:\/\/guides.library.illinois.edu\/newspapers\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Historical Newspapers<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; Find Early-American Newspapers,\u00a0African American Newspapers, and much more<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Early American Imprints\" href=\"http:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/proxy\/go.php?url=http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/?db=SHAW\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Early American Imprints, 1801-1819<\/a> and <a title=\"Early American Imprints\" href=\"http:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/proxy\/go.php?url=http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/?db=EVAN\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Early American Imprints, 1639-1800<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; Find several types of primary source documents, browse by topic or search<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>News Transcripts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Lexis Nexis Academic\" href=\"http:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/proxy\/go.php?url=http:\/\/www.nexisuni.com\">Nexis Uni<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>In the &#8220;All Nexis Uni&#8221;\u00a0option\u00a0category select &#8220;News&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Under &#8220;Article Type&#8221; select &#8220;Broadcast Transcripts&#8221; and press &#8220;Search&#8221; to apply this filter<\/li>\n<li>Enter search terms in box and click &#8220;Search&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Use options on result page to focus your results<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Speeches and Interviews:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Academic Search Complete\" href=\"https:\/\/proxy2.library.illinois.edu\/login?url=https:\/\/research.ebsco.com\/c\/2w5hhj\/search\/advanced\/filters?defaultdb=asn\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Academic Search Ultimate<\/a>\u00a0(EBSCO)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li>Under &#8220;Search Options,&#8221; scroll down to the &#8220;Limit your results&#8221;\u00a0section<\/li>\n<li>Under &#8220;Document type,&#8221; \u00a0select &#8220;Speech&#8221;\u00a0or &#8220;Interview.&#8221; To search both simultaneously hold down the &#8220;Control&#8221; key when making your selection<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Local Archives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"University Archives\" href=\"http:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/archives\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University Archives<\/a>: Office records, publications, and personal papers from the University and the Urbana-Champaign campus<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Student Life and Culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/slc\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Student Life and Culture Archives<\/a>: Collections\u00a0related to student life and culture on the national level and at the University of Illinois<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"IDEALS\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ideals.illinois.edu\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IDEALS<\/a>: Research and scholarship by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Illinois History and Lincoln Collections\" href=\"http:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/ihx\/index.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Illinois History and Lincoln Collections<\/a>: Material on Illinois and local history, in addition to other collections<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Digital Collections for Historical Research\" href=\"http:\/\/guides.library.illinois.edu\/collections\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Digital Collections for Historical Research<\/a>:\u00a0A list of digital history collections. Great for finding historical primary source documents such as letters and diaries<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Public Libraries<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"New York Public Library Digital Collections\" href=\"http:\/\/digitalgallery.nypl.org\/nypldigital\/index.cfm\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Public Library Digital Collections<\/a>:\u00a0Provides free and open access to over 685,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library&#8217;s vast collection<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Government Websites<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"American Memory Project\" href=\"http:\/\/memory.loc.gov\/ammem\/index.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">American Memory Project<\/a> (a Library of Congress initiative):\u00a0Offers a diverse collection in a variety of formats (prints, photographs, letters, reports, sheet music, recordings, maps, etc.)<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"National Archives\" href=\"http:\/\/www.archives.gov\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Archives<\/a>:\u00a0A huge collection of photographs, documents, reports, and more<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Congress.gov\" href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Congress.gov<\/a>:\u00a0Find legislative information and more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a primary source? Primary sources are original artifacts or documents. They offer contemporary accounts from participants or people directly involved in an event. To learn about secondary sources, see our Secondary Sources page. Examples include: Diaries and literary memoirs Letters and correspondence Artistic works (musical and visual) News segments and transcripts Speeches Interviews [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"parent":284,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-231","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/231\/revisions\/1738"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/tlas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}