1. Start with keyword searches in Tripod, and when you've found something that looks promising, follow the Library of Congress subject headings (the "Subject" links in the item record) to find more on your topic. You can use these subject headings to find both primary and secondary sources (and you can search for the same subject headings in other catalogs, including WorldCat).

2. Exploit good bibliographies.  If there's a great book or article related to your topic, check out what that author cited. Bibliographies can alert you to other secondary sources, as well as relevant archival collections and additional primary sources.

3. When it comes to finding primary sources, be a.) realistic and b.) creative.  If you can visit an appropriate archive--whether it's the Friends Historical Library or the Peace Collection at Swarthmore, the Urban Archives at Temple, a collection at the NYPL, etc.--do so! Keep in mind that items from archives rarely travel through Interlibrary Loan, and that while there are great digital primary source repositories (either accessible on the web or through the library's subscription databases), not everything is available online. 

4. Consider the reference collection. Print and online reference works can give you the basic historical context for your topic, and enable you to identify key participants, dates, events, and concepts. To find print and online reference materials, try an advanced search in Tripod using keywords and limiting to SC Reference Collections as the location, or browse the reference collection in the appropriate call number range--D for world history, E and F for U.S. and Latin American history. When you've found books on your topic in the general collection, you can also browse in the same, more specific call number range in the reference collection.

5. Start requesting materials from ILL now!

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of events or conditions during a particular time period, often recorded contemporaneously by participants or observers.

Some types of primary sources include:

• Diaries, journals, letters, speeches, manuscripts, notes and other written material describing experienced or observed events.
• Autobiographies and memoirs describing experienced or observed events in hindsight.  Although such hindsight can bias the record of events, at times such reminiscences may provide the only available data on certain occurrences.  Alternatively, autobiographies and memoirs can provide clues as to how the author and his contemporaries viewed a past event.
• Published items, such as articles in magazines, journals or newspapers, or books, which report on contemporary events.  In particular, research reports or surveys, frequently published in scholarly journals or as books or government reports, provide overviews of recent developments in the social sciences and sciences.
• Photographs, films, videos, news broadcasts and transcripts, audio recordings, etc. documenting contemporary events.
• Any physical artifact, such as art objects, costumes, buildings, maps, monuments, etc.
• Governmental and organizational information, such as statistics, reports, press releases, propaganda, records, surveys, correspondence, publications, etc.
• Materials which provide a sociological or psychological snapshot of a certain time period, such as public opinion polls or other expressions of popular culture such as television shows, movies, music, best-sellers, advertisements, etc.

A keyword search option can turn up published primary sources. Try entering terms like "correspondence," "diary" or "diaries," "records" and "documents."

 

There are also some words to look out for in LC subject headings that will alert you to possible primary sources.  These subheadings include:

 

• "--Sources"
• "--Personal Narratives"
• "--Description and Travel"
• "--Facsimiles"
• "--Charters, Grants, Privileges"
• "--early works to 1800"
• "--periodicals"
• "--Interviews"
• "--Correspondence"
• "--Pamphlets"

We also have newspapers in microfim, including:

North-China Herald (1850-present)
Le Monde (1944-2000)
Wall Street Journal (1958-2000)
London Magazine (1828-1825)
Gentlemen's Magazine (1746-1907)
Dial (1840-1844)

Although you can search Tripod to find out if we have particular scholarly journals, the catalog doesn't contain information about individual articles within those journals.  To locate articles, use one of our indexes or full-text databases, and click on the Find It! button to determine if we have access to the article you need either online or in print, or if you'll have to request it from another library. The resources below are recommended starting points for your research; you may also want to look at resources in other disciplines, or interdisciplinary tools, depending on your topic.