Government publications are a rich source of primary documents. Use this database to find congressional publications, bills, laws and regulations, hearings, and government reports.
Here's an example of the kind of documents you can find in the database:
Domestic Human Trafficking: Legislations in the 114th Congress
Use this database to find public policy research and analysis from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Provides links to full-text where available.
What Are Primary Sources:
Primary sources are the evidence of history, original records or objects created by participants or observers at the time historical events occurred or even well after events, as in memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include but are not limited to:
These sources serve as the raw materials historians use to interpret and analyze the past.
You can use the library online catalog, OSCAR, to find published primary sources or books including primary documents. If you are interesting in the writings of a specific individual, just do an author search. If you are looking for primary sources on a specific topic, enter your keywords and add one of the following words, depending on what you are looking for:
For example: Haitian revolution and documents
Abolitionis* and sources
Here are some collection of primary sources you can find in OSCAR:
Articles from the time period of the events you are researching are also primary sources. Consider these newspapers and archives for your topic.
Many primary sources have been digitized and made available on the web. You have to be careful, though, because often the source of the document is not provided. You need to evaluate each web site carefully to determine if it is reliable. In general, you can just add the words "primary sources" to your search to locate such documents on the web. The following sites are examples of what you can find on the web.
If you are researching a contemporary topic such as human trafficking or free speech or mass incarceration, you will be able to find reports and documents from various organizations and think thanks that can be considered primary sources. For example, several international organizations, like the United Nations or Human Rights Watch, publish reports on human trafficking. You can find them easily through a Google search. Below are some examples: