Published Primary Sources: CONSORT, OhioLINK, and WorldCat
Published primary sources, particularly those in English, will be the easiest to find. Use keywords and Library of Congress subject headings in the CONSORT catalog. Choose keywords (remember to use synonyms), and then add one of the following subheadings:
- correspondence
- diaries
- early works to 1800
- interviews
- pamphlets
- personal narratives
- best sellers (1950-current)
- national film registry (1989-current)
You can also ask for help at the Reference Desk. Experiment with your choice of keywords--try searching with a keyword in the "title" field, try some of the above-listed subject terms as keywords.
Once you've found one useful resource, scroll down to the hyperlinked subject headings to connect to other pertinent resources.
Some examples of subject headings that indicate primary sources in the Consort catalog:
Remember that CONSORT is the combined catalog of only four schools, so you will most likely need to search OhioLINK (available within CONSORT) and WorldCAT. Books from other CONSORT and OhioLINK libraries arrive in about a week and may be renewed up to four times unless recalled by the home library.
WorldCAT is a catalog of library holdings throughout the country and world. While not totally comprehensive, it contains records for any type of materials: books, sound recordings, video recordings, manuscripts, etc. You can use the same search strategy with all three catalogs. Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to request books outside CONSORT and OhioLINK. Please allow 2-5 weeks for the arrival of books requested through ILL.
World Newspapers
Listed in alphabetical order. Many more newspapers and peridical collections may be found in the Databases A-Z listing.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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British journals published from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, with a wide range of topics.
- Times (of London) Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
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Archive of the newspaper, The Times of London, from 1785-2019.
- Times of India This link opens in a new window
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Archive of Times of India newspaper from 1838-2010.
- World Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window
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Large collection of historical newspapers from across the United States and around the world from Readex.
Select American Newspapers
- African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Newspapers covering the African American experience from 1827-1998. Contains newspapers from more than 35 states.
Listed in alphabetical order. Many more newspapers may be found in the Databases A-Z listing.
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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U.S. newspapers published from 1690-1993, chronicling the evolution of American culture and daily life
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Newspapers across the U.S. from the 1800s with an emphasis on topics such as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life
- New York Times (Historical archive) This link opens in a new window
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Full text of the New York Times including article-level images. Coverage is from 1851-2017
Additional Sources for Primary Documents
- Afro-Americana Imprints This link opens in a new window
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Books, pamphlets, and broadsides that record African American history, literature, and culture. Created from the Library Company's Afro-Americana Collection and covers 1535-1922.
Listed in alphabetical order.
- Chicano Database This link opens in a new window
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Citations for articles, book chapters, and newspapers with coverage dating back to the 1960s. Includes materials that explore the Chicano and Latino U.S. experience.
- CQ Press Library This link opens in a new window
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Includes Historic Documents series
- World Heritage Sites - Africa This link opens in a new window
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The archaeology, history, and culture of Africa as studied through its heritage sites and landscapes.
- Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window
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Materials documenting the liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime, with a focus on colonial rule, the dispersion of exiles, and international intervention.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window
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Primary sources from the 1800s mainly from Western perspectives. It consists of monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other documents.
- ProQuest History Vault This link opens in a new window
Large collection of primary source materials related to American history, including wars, women's rights, slavery and the law, confederacy, and foreign policy.
- United States Census DataInformation about state and county topics for individual census years and over time with tables and maps.
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
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Collection of previously classified federal documents ranging from the years immediately following World War II through the 1970s. Materials include intelligence studies, policy papers, diplomatic correspondence, cabinet meeting minutes, briefing materials, and domestic surveillance and military reports.