Primary Sources
Primary sources are generally considered to be firsthand accounts of an event or the actual documents associated with an event. Firsthand accounts can be found in diaries, memoirs, letters, speeches, autobiographies, scholarly articles giving the results of research, etc. Documents might be laws, treaties, transcripts of hearings, court cases, etc.
Here's how to find them in the Library.
Firsthand accounts
Speeches, letters, journals, diaries, etc. of an individual may be found by looking in the Library Catalog for the name of that person as an author.
Napoleon I, Emperor Of The French, 1769-1821.
Books which are collections of personal stories or reminiscences of an event are listed with the subdivision PERSONAL NARRATIVES. Do a keyword search in the Library Catalog.
narratives and french revolution
Documents
Books that are collections of various documents from a particular
country will have the word SOURCES as part of the subject in the
Library Catalog. Use s:sources as part of your keyword search.
You can also search for a particular event in the same way.
s:sources and world war 1914
Microforms:
The Library also has a large microform collection containing primary source material.
Click to view the entire list of our Microform Collections by subject.
Web sites