What is a Primary Source?
In history, a primary source is usually a record made at the time of an event by participants or by firsthand observers. Examples include books and other materials from the time period, newspaper or magazine accounts from the time period, government materials from the time period. Because historians cite their primary sources, look at their bibliographies to locate sources for your own research.
For a more complete listing of primary sources available at OU see this guide.
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Finding Digital Sources Not Listed Here
Books
- African History and Culture (1540-1921; Readex/Newsbank)More than 1,300 books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera.
- Discover Local (Catalog)Many books and other materials in the catalog may be primary sources. Trying using these keywords with your topic to search for them: correspondence, diaries, interviews, papers, personal narratives. For example, click here to see results of a search on those keywords and the work Japan. (Please note that the catalog also contains secondary sources.)
- Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the EnvironmentFull text of letters, diaries, memoirs, and accounts of early encounters with Native Americans.
- Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926Includes books, pamphlets, serials, and more.
- Worldcat (Firstsearch/OCLC)Books and other materials held by libraries around the world. You may borrow (interlibrary loan) materials through the Worldcat database. Interlibrary loan is free! But give yourself time for a book to come through the mail.
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Government Documents
See this page for a more complete list.
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports (1941-1996)Full text of U.S. government translations of foreign broadcasts, publications, and government statements. FBIS was followed by the Open Source Center (OSC) in 2005 and was included in the database World News Connection, which the library does not have. The CIA discontinued public access to the OSC in 2013.
- Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports (1957-1995; Readex/Newsbank)U.S. government translations of foreign language materials from regions throughout the world. Includes monographs, reports, serials, journal and newspaper articles, and radio and television broadcasts.
- National Security Archive (George Washington University)Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive includes a library and archive of declassified U.S. documents.
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online (ca. 1905-present; Gale)Full text of previously classified U.S. government documents. The majority of the documents are presidential records.
Other Sources
- Apartheid: Global Perspectives (1946-1996; Readex/Newsbank)International survey of the effects of apartheid on South Africa and the world with a digitized collection of primary source documents related to apartheid. Built from Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and the Joint Publications Research Service Reports (JPRS).
- European History Primary Sources (EHPS)Searchable index of scholarly digital repositories that contain primary sources for the history of Europe.
- Latin America: Digital Resource GatewaysCollection of resources linking to freely available primary sources on Latin America.
- Latin American and Caribbean Digital Primary Resources (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials)Database of listings that provide links to open access digitized collections of primary sources that relate to Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Modern Latin America, 8th Edition Companion WebsiteIncludes a timeline, lists of heads of state, essays, and primary sources.
- Primary Source Sets (DPLA)From the Digital Public Library of America, primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators — complete with teaching guides for class use
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade DatabaseInformation on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries.
OU Microforms
There is a significant collection of primary source material reproduced on microfilm or microfiche. See this guide. Most microforms are in off-site storage, and must be requested via Sooner Xpress.