Reference sources may contain citations to repositories of papers or other primary material. The American National Biography and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography are good examples of such sources.
Bibliographies in scholarly books often arrange sources consulted by type. The language may vary but the arrangement is clear - primary and secondary, published and unpublished, manuscripts, letters, papers, archives, etc.
Footnotes in books and journal articles may refer to contemporary publications or other primary materials.
Search the library catalogs like CLICnet to find primary sources in books and other works. When searching the catalog, you will want to use specific subject headings in your searches to single out the primary source materials. These subject headings are specialized "tag" added to the records to books by catalog librarians to provide accurate descriptions of books. Using the following words in your search will help you find the source material you seek:
| correspondence | personal narratives |
| literary collections | pictorial works |
| diary or diaries | songs and music |
| sources | documents |
The following full-text newspapers and periodicals may provide you with source documents:
The following sites provide access to a variety of digitized primary sources:
© 2023 University of St. Thomas, Minnesota