What Are Primary Sources?
What Are Primary Sources:
"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 historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research."
(American Library Association, Reference and User Services, History Section)
Finding Primary Sources in OSCAR
Primary Sources are often collected and published as a book(collection of letters for example). A book can also include primary sources in appendices. To locate primary sources on your topic, an easy way is to search OSCAR, the library catalog and to add to your search some keywords describing primary sources such as : letters or diairies, or documents, or sources. For example a search on Theodore Roosevelt and Letters would retrieve the following book: "Theodore Roosevelt and his Times Shown in his Own Letters."
The Environmental Debate: A Documentary History (e-book)
Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources (e-book)
Water Rights and the Environment in the United States: a Documentary and Reference Guide (e-book)
Historical Newspapers
New York Times Archives
Archive of the New York Times from 1851 to 2011
Washington Post
Archive of the Washington Post from 1877-1998
Los Angeles times Archives: Full text of the Los Angeles Times newspaper from 1881 to 1987.
San Francisco Chronicle Archives:
Archives of the SF Chronicle from 1869 to 1984
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Collection of U.S. newspapers from around the country.
Interested in Images as primary sources?
Government Documents
You can find a lot of historical information in government documents and they are often used as primary sources. You will need them especially if you are interested in environmental policy. You can visit the web site of government agencies such as the Environmtal Protection Agency or the Department of Energy.
You can also use the following database:
Proquest Congressional
Congressional Publications; bills, laws and reglations; legislative histories; hearings and more