The following are links to resources that can help you find many different sorts of materials (or see the tabs, above): 

Databases:

• Books
• Newspapers & Magazines
• Government Documents
• Other Databases 
• Materials such as the papers of early Americans, diaries, maps, organizational records, government translations, and more.

Local Collections:

• Catalog
• Microform Research Collections
• Print Research Collections
• Special Collections and Archives on Campus
• Local Digital Collections
• Bibliographies of Secondary Sources

Other Resources

• Online Resources
• Other Institutions

A primary source is usually a record made at the time of an event by participants or by firsthand observers, but a primary source might also be created many years after the event in the form of an autobiography, memoir, etc.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• contemporary newspaper or magazine accounts
• diaries, memoirs, or autobiographies
• correspondence
• congressional hearings
• government reports
• government/organizational archives
• manuscripts (the papers of an individual or family)

Primary sources can be very different for different subjects. If you are writing a paper about an early female physician, for example, then her diary would be a primary source. If you are studying mid-twentieth century diplomatic history between the United States and Iraq, State Department records (such as Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files: Iraq, 1955-1959, available on Microfilm 498) would be a primary source.

For more information on what a primary source is see this site from Yale University.

If you are unsure what constitutes a primary source for your class, ask your instructor for some ideas.

In this guide, hyperlinks are in bold, so if you see something in bold font, it's probably a link. Click on it!