Using the Library Catalog to Find Primary Sources
To find book primary sources, use library catalogs like Barton and WorldCat.
- Do subject searches for topic + genre:
- Subheadings such as "correspondence," "sources," "personal narratives," "pictorial works," "biography," and "speeches" can point to primary sources.
- Pair these subheadings with keywords or topical subject headings in Barton to identify relevant sources in the MIT Libraries.
- See this table for other possible subheadings.
- For example, do this advanced search to get first-hand accounts by Russians or from Russia:
- Keyword = Russia* [This will search for "Russia," "Russian," "Russians"]
- Subject words = "Personal narratives"
- Do advanced searches in Barton for relevant subjects and keywords with publication date limits.
- For example, do this advanced search to find books about the Russian Revolution and Civil War that were published at that time:
- Subject keywords = "Soviet Union History Revolution, 1917-1921" [you can figure out that subject phrase for the Russian Revolution by first doing a keyword search]
- Year from = 1917
- Year to = 1921
- For example, do this advanced search to find books about the Russian Revolution and Civil War that were published at that time:
Digital Primary Sources at MIT
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Competing Voices from the Russian RevolutionPresents documents that cover public discussion about key events and issues during the 1917 Russian Revolution.
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Digital National Security Archive (1945-present)A collection of primary documents central to US foreign and military policy since 1945. More than 35,000 declassified documents - totalling more than 200,000 pages - have been gathered through use of the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
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Hein OnlineFull-text archive of historical legal and governmental information, including world constitutions, treaties, Congressional Record, Presidential papers, and Foreign Relations of the United States.
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JSTORA full-text scholarly journal archive, back to vol. 1, issue 1, in many fields.
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The Nation ArchiveBackfile of The Nation magazine back to volume 1, issue 1. Updated monthly 1865 - present.
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National Geographic Archive, 1884-presentEvery issue of the magazine in full color, browsable and searchable.
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New Yorker ArchiveComplete archive of The New Yorker, including full page images. V.1 (1925) - present.
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NewspaperArchive.comThousands of newspapers, available in full-page facsimile, with searchable full text. Most are U.S. titles, with some international coverage, and most are fairly small-circulation newspapers. 1759-present.
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Polling The NationsDatabase of questions from public opinion polls around the world. Search question text and get poll results. 1986 - present.
Please click on 'logout' when finished to release access to another user, as only one user is allowed access at a time. -
Proquest CongressionalIndexing and abstracts for U.S. congressional publications. Full text of reports, bills, public laws, & legislative histories and links to selected full-text documents, committee prints, & hearings testimony. Indexing: from 1789. Full text: from mid-1980s
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Readers' Guide to Periodical LiteratureIncludes indexing, abstracting and some links to full text for many general interest magazines, in both Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890 - 1982) and Readers' Guide Abstracts (1983 to present).
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Women and Social Movements InternationalContains the writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made. 1840 - present.
Free Primary Sources on the Internet
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Electronic Resources for U.S. Foreign RelationsA list provided by the State Department's Office of the Historian linking to freely available online primary source material in U.S. foreign relations, including declassified documents and presidents' papers.
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Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1861-1960The official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. This is an incomplete run from 1861-1960. Hosted by the University of Wisconsin.
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Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1945-1976The official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. From the Department of State's Office of the Historian web site.
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The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and TrainingTranscripts of interviews with U.S. diplomatic personnel from the American Memory web site of the Library of Congress. Try browsing by subject to find relevant interviews.
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Time Archive (1923-present)Back issues of the popular news magazine. (Hint: you can use the free online search to identify articles and then make a scan/copy from the print version in Hayden, or request through ILB if that issue is not in the library, to see the original article in context.)
Primary Sources at Nearby Libraries
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Harvard Libraries E-ResourcesHarvard has a trove of online databases of primary source material, including historical newspapers, government documents, letters and diaries, and much more. With your Harvard Special Borrower card, you can visit Harvard libraries and use these databases on the premises (sorry, you can't use them remotely). Take a look at the list of history databases for anything promising for your primary source research!
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Widener Collection of Newspapers on MicrofilmA database of the newspapers on microfilm at Harvard's Widener Library, searchable by geography and date span. The newspaper microfilm are accessible with a Harvard Special Borrowers Card.
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Smithsonian Global SoundMusical recordings in a diverse range of styles from around the world. Search or browse by country of origin, cultural group, instrument, artist, language and more.
Available online through the BPL. You'll need your BPL card, or else sign up for a free e-card.
Subject Guide
Ece Turnator
Contact:
Ece (pronounced AJ)
turnator@mit.edu
Hayden Library Consultation Suite 14S - 2nd floor
617.253.4979
Make an appointment with me
turnator@mit.edu
Hayden Library Consultation Suite 14S - 2nd floor
617.253.4979
Make an appointment with me
Tip: Follow the Footnotes!
It's not cheating to check the footnotes and bibliographies in your secondary and reference sources (books, journal articles, and encyclopedias) to identify primary sources for your own work. Following footnotes is an approach used by many scholars to identify not only relevant seconary literature, but also primary source bases.