What are Primary Sources?
A primary source is a document, object, or other evidence about the topic you are investigating that was created during the time period under study. It provides direct evidence and thus offers an inside view into events of the period. Primary sources come in many forms: documents (diaries, letters, speeches, government documents, books, periodicals, interviews); creative works (novels, music, poetry); and artifacts (photos, pottery, clothing).
Finding Primary Sources in Libraries Catalog
There are many primary sources available in the Latin American Library, including paper documents such as books, pamphlets, broadsides, and manuscripts from the period under study, as well as electronic, microform, and printed collections of these documents published at a later date. You can locate relevant items by searching in the Libraries' Catalog. There are several ways to search effectively for primary sources:
- Do a keyword search on your topic, thinking of synonyms for your search terms.
- Then, add these special terms (subject headings) to your keyword search:
sources (general)
Autobiography
correspondence
diaries
documents
early works
|
manuscripts
narratives
pamphlets
speeches
letters
love-letters |
- Try limiting the dates of publication by year, entering the dates bounding your time period. For this search, leave off any special subject terms identifying primary materials.
- Another approach is to do an author search for books written by key participants (people or organizations) in the events you are investigating.
- Once you have found a useful item on your topic, take note of the terms listed under "LC Subject(s)" in the item's record in the catalog. Click on the links to find related materials.
Finding Materials in the LAL Collections
The Latin American Library Collections hold many rare manuscripts, broadsides, rubbings and rare printed materials from and about Latin America. LAL staff can assist you in identifying and using these materials.
